The “Palestinian emirates” plan is a proposal by Orientalist Dr. Mordechai Kedar to establish city-state emirates, based on the structure of Arab society which is hyper-local and tribal.
The Wall Street Journal on Saturday reported that Israel is preparing to establish something reminiscent of Dr. Kedar’s plan in Gaza.
According to the report, some officials are proposing a strategy to establish designated zones or enclaves where Gazan civilians who are not affiliated with Hamas could find temporary refuge while Israeli forces continue operations against remaining terrorists.
Meanwhile, certain Likud party members, including those in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s circle, advocate for a different approach that involves dividing Gaza using two east-west corridors and creating a reinforced border area, allowing Israeli military forces to conduct incursions as needed.
According to Dr. Kedar, the harsh climate of the Middle East has created a cultural climate in which the only way to survive is by totally belonging to a local clan that takes care of all the needs of its children. This affiliation is even stronger than religious affiliation. According to Kedar, in countries with a robust tribal culture, it is a definite predictor of a country’s success. A legitimate government is usually a government accepted by the people, being from the tribal majority that exists in the country and works for it.
An illegitimate rule is the dictatorial rule of a minority over a different ethnic/tribal/cultural majority, or a crumbling democracy created as a result of European colonialist pressure, and adapted to the structure of the individualistic European society and not to the tribal Arab society from its foundation.
Kedar lists the successful and stable Arab regimes as Bahrein, Kuwait, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, whose common denominator is their being ruled by a majority tribal leadership.
Arab failed states are invariably those where the clans are being ignored by the political class: Algeria, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, and Egypt.
These proposed strategies, regardless of their full implementation, highlight often unspoken challenges likely to arise in the conflict’s aftermath. Two key issues emerge:
Palestinian civilians may face prolonged confinement to restricted areas within Gaza while combat operations persist elsewhere. Israeli military forces might need to maintain a significant presence in the region for an extended period, potentially years until Hamas’s influence is substantially reduced.
The WSJ report noted that “Netanyahu, in rare comments addressing the issue last week, said the government would soon begin a phased plan to establish a civil administration run by local Palestinians in areas of the north—ultimately, he said he hopes, with security help from Arab states.”
To get this done, Israel must develop a litmus test to help distinguish between pro-Hamas Gazans and innocent bystanders. So far, those few influential families who opted to cooperate with Israel in exchange for local rule have been slaughtered by Hamas.
The Entnazifizierung (Denazification) that was imposed by the victorious allies in Germany was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Party or SS members from positions of power and influence, disbanding organizations associated with Nazism, and trying prominent Nazis for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials of 1946. But even though a new Germany emerged from the ashes of the Nazi state, it wasn’t Denazification that did it.
About 8 million Germans, or 10% of the population, had been members of the Nazi Party. Nazi-related organizations also had huge memberships: the German Labor Front (25 million), the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organization (17 million), and the League of German Women. It was through the Party and these organizations that the Nazi state was run, involving as many as 45 million Germans in total.
In the end, Nazism succumbed to two factors: the complete collapse of Germany via a year of ruthless bombings that killed many millions; and the Marshall Plan that injected $13.3 billion (equivalent to today’s $227 billion) in economic recovery programs into Western European economies after the end of World War II.
To succeed, Kedar’s plan or any similar plan must include bot hard core component: the elimination of Hamas leaders, and a generous financial contribution to make relying on Hamas no longer viable. As long as the Nazis are still in the picture, there will not be a recovered or pacified Gaza Strip.
