When World War I ended, territories and colonies previously controlled by the Germans and Turks were given to the Allies to run – temporarily. In the Middle East, Iraq and Palestine were placed under a British mandate from 1919 for roughly thirty years. Syria and Lebanon were ruled under a French mandate. The German colonies in Africa were controlled by Britain, Portugal, France, and Belgium. These mandates ended in the 1940s in the Middle East, and later in Africa.
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In a rational world – not the one we've ever lived in – these mandates in the Middle East should not have lasted twenty-five or thirty years. The rulers in place should have figured out a way to allow self-determination sooner. Why this happened the way it did is a complex subject of a long and depressing book.
The idea behind the mandate system was that these territories were not ready, in 1919, to govern themselves, so they needed the guiding hand of the Allies. Certainly, an element of patronizing, noblesse oblige was in play here, but such was our world a hundred years ago. And such may, or should be, our world today.
Does this hundred-year-old idea of a mandate have some usefulness today in the Middle East, yet again?
Hamas and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) have shown they're incapable of governing the land and people over which they rule. They've been at this for decades and entirely failed at it. This is another long and depressing book for which I have neither the qualifications nor the interest in writing. The PNA is run by corrupt incompetents and has been so for many decades. Hamas's multi-dimensional terrorism includes terrorizing and starving Gazans, in addition to murdering Jews. For example, Israel has (pre-massacre) permitted 1,200 trucks per month to transit into Gaza, but Hamas has only allowed 400 to enter. Why? Starving and depriving their comrades is part of its mission. Hamas also massively abuses the young children of Gaza by forcing, enticing, or coercing them to build tunnels into Israel. Many of these kids are either killed or maimed, as tunnel-building is a hazardous trade.
If there is the possibility of a solution to the Palestinian conflict, the Arab states in the region will need to jointly run and fund a mandate for this territory for a number of years. An Arab-run mandate in their own region – not some interloper from Europe claiming the right to run a mandate.
In this scenario, Israel will make available land on the West Bank, but the Arab states (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, et. al) will be charged with organizing and funding it. Remember, crucially, that these same Arab states created the Palestinian problem in the first place by rejecting the 1947 UN Partition Plan and declaring war on Israel. No one should ever forget this: the Arab states are primarily and originally responsible for the Palestinian refugee crisis. This is yet a third book I have neither the skill nor interest in writing.
Security will be tightly monitored in his Newly Mandated Palestine (NWP). It will have a police force, but no army. Its borders will be guaranteed by its Arab minders. If terrorist acts against Israel from the NWP, Israel will have full authority to eradicate it by any means. In legal terms, the NWP is not a sovereign state, at least not initially. It is trying out for, auditioning for sovereignty, and needs to prove it can function as such. Sovereign states who allow terrorists to operate on their soil lose their sovereignty.
As we sit here this Saturday night, October 14th, the thought of a mandated solution to the Middle East will not, quite naturally, be top of mind to many people. We are all still sifting through this massacre, anticipating the next phases of the war, and it's hard to see the future, any future, locked as we are into the present horror.
However, when the dust settles, as it always does after any war, the adults in the room need to be ready with a plausible plan.
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