Israeli slogans like "We got them" and "we have restored deterrence" might sound good, but they actually ring hollow. Operation Breaking Dawn again proved that – in the greater equation of peace and quiet, money, and maintaining life as we know it – Israel is the one that has more to lose.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
This renders the latest Gaza campaign yet another military operation – one that repeated old patterns and one whose patterns are doomed to be repeated. This makes the question of why there are no broad discussions on the strategic alternatives Israel has vis-à-vis Gaza very pertinent.
The assumption seems to be that this reality of having one military campaign chase another in the Strip is the lesser of all evils because the actual alternative would be toppling Hamas' regime in Gaza and seizing control of it.
Between the revolving door of military campaigns and retaking the coastal enclave, however, lies a third option, which isn't based on managing the conflict, but rather on the nothing of a wider agreement that would change the social-economic climate in Gaza, gradually lift the maritime blockade, develop the economy and improve the lives of Gaza's residents.
Such a change requires Israel to redefine the Gaza Strip not only as an Israeli problem but as a regional issue, so as to mobilize the Arab world and its considerable financial and political resources and create a new order in the Strip.
While such past discussions focused on the "internationalization" of the coastal enclave, this is the time to focus on its "regionalization." In doing that, one must remember that the unstable reality in the Strip, driven by ideological terrorist elements, undermines the interest of the new regional partnership created courtesy of the Abraham Accords, which are based on the desire to achieve stability and economic prosperity. Moreover, the benefits of the Abraham Accords can be leveraged into aiding Gaza's reconstruction and development by raising funds from the Gulf.
The Abraham Accords are nothing short of a "strategic diamond" for Israel in the form of normalization across the Middle East, but this boon mainly serves Israel's purposes in relation to Iran. Much less thought is put into how the new reality in the Middle East can be turned into a lever with which to deal with the chronic instability in the Palestinian arena.
This model, which combines an economic move with external Arab leverage, is not completely foreign to Israel and it many ways, it is what anchors Qatar's involvement in what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the payment system Israeli has allowed Doha to form there.
It seems like this would be a good time to build on the Qatari model and push the Gaza Strip into the "new Middle East" using a strategic, multi-actor regional plan. This would entail securing resources on a monumental scale while gradually lifting the maritime blockade on the Strip.
This reality will not change the nature of the terrorist groups Gaza harbors, nor will it change the political reality there, but it has the potential to gradually create the type of socio-economic change that would erode the terrorist groups' appeal, and douse their fervor to destabilize the situation. Who knows – this might also make them rethink their perception of resistance from a military one to one that strives to make the Strip into a semi-state in ways that are more effective.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
