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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/21/inconvenient-truth-about-gazas-ability-to-govern/
The Inconvenient Truth about Gaza's Ability to Govern
(Telegraph-UK) David Harris - There never was a sovereign, independent Gaza in recorded history. Egypt governed Gaza for 19 years. There was no move towards Palestinian independence. The first country to offer Gaza the opportunity to chart its own destiny was Israel, which in 2005 unilaterally withdrew every last soldier and civilian. It also left behind scores of greenhouses intended to help kick-start Gaza's economy. Within days, those greenhouses were looted and destroyed. Over the strong objections of Egypt, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. pressed for Hamas to participate in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections. Within a year, Hamas had violently seized total control of Gaza, killing or expelling Palestinian Authority officials. No election has been held in the ensuing two decades. While some in the West romanticize Hamas as an "anti-colonial liberation" group, the truth is quite different. It is an outgrowth of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, whose stated objective is to replace existing nation-states in the Middle East with a Sharia-based caliphate. At its core, it is virulently antisemitic, misogynistic, homophobic, authoritarian, and intolerant of "infidels." In the past two decades, Gaza has been the recipient of billions of dollars earmarked to develop its economy and address humanitarian and social needs. Instead, the funds were largely syphoned off to build a vast terrorist infrastructure. Hamas's leaders opted to weaponize Gaza as a launching pad for Israel's destruction. What happened on Oct. 7, 2023, cannot simply be forgotten, dismissed, or minimized. In proportional terms, it would have been the equivalent of more than 8,000 British women, men, and children slaughtered in 24 hours, plus more than 1,750 people, including the elderly and babies, kidnapped. What would the British government's response have been? This was not an initiative from Gaza to advance a two-state solution. It was a genocidal effort to kill as many people as possible simply because they were Jews. In any war, innocent people are tragically killed and wounded. But one side, Hamas, cannot launch a war of aggression and then thunder to the world about its consequences. Exactly how many humanitarian corridors were created by Allied nations to provide aid to German or Japanese civilians during the Second World War? None. The writer is executive vice chair of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP).