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Economic Benefits Will Not Bring Stability to Gaza

(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Prof. Hillel Frisch - Is an easing of economic conditions in Gaza and granting permission to Gazans to work in Israel the way to achieve political stability in a Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas? Benjamin Netanyahu's liberal economic policy towards the residents of Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority (PA), primarily by allowing over 100,000 Palestinians to work in Israel, succeeded because of certain prior conditions. At the height of the second intifada in 2002, Israel reconquered major towns in the PA that had become sanctuary areas for PA-linked Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad terrorism. It has prevented the reemergence of sanctuary areas ever since through preventive arrests throughout the West Bank that run into the thousands annually. The PA was essentially defeated. Israel and the PA then became allied against joint enemies - Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007 made clear who was the greater threat to Abbas' rule. It was only after these events that economic prosperity could play its facilitating role. And even then, the economic effects were limited. Gaza under Hamas rule remains a sanctuary area where Hamas can freely build up its military capabilities with little interference. Moreover, there is no common enemy that would render Hamas conciliatory. Economic largesse at this point would only augment Hamas' resources. Only when Hamas envisions its territory as a future Singapore rather than a murderous labyrinth of fundamentalist terrorism should economic benefits accrue to Gaza. The writer is a professor of political and Middle East studies at Bar-Ilan University and a senior research associate at the BESA Center.
2018-06-07 00:00:00
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