A senior Israeli official reaffirmed on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority is not acceptable as an administrator in Gaza “the day after” the IDF eradicates the ruling Hamas terrorist organization from the enclave.
The statement signifies a rift between Israel and its closest ally, the United States.
Earlier this week, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a joint briefing with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Austin said, “The United States continues to believe, as we have under the administrations of both parties, that it is in the interest of both Israelis and Palestinians to move forward toward two states living side by side in mutual security.
“We know how hard that is, especially after October 7th, but ongoing stability and insecurity only plays into the hands of Hamas, so we must think together about what lies beyond this terrible season of terror and war.”
Of course, a “two-state solution” would include the administration of Gaza under the government of the Palestinian Authority — something which Israel has ruled out.
“We are aware of the fact that everybody really would like the PA to be part of any future solution in the Gaza Strip or the day after Hamas in Gaza,” the senior Israeli official told reporters during a background briefing.
“It’s not possible as long as the PA is what it is now. You can see that they lead their people to hate us, they educate their kids to kill Israelis and they don’t really participate in the vision of reconciliation in our region, and I mentioned specifically that they are not able unfortunately, to become a partner as long as the PA is the way it is now,” he said.
The statement follows publication of an article on the Saudi Arabian Elaph news site written by Israeli National Security Council head and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, reiterating that the Palestinian Authority is not an acceptable option for governing Gaza “the day after” Hamas, but that a “moderate Palestinian governing body that enjoys broad popular support and legitimacy” would be welcomed.
Some people believed that to be an oblique reference to the Ramallah government, but the official who spoke with journalists Thursday categorically ruled it out.
“The PA is paying the terrorists, with the “pay to slay.” The PA is educating kids to be murderers as we have witnessed on October 7th, and this is why we would need a new leadership, a local civil leadership in Gaza that will take things into hand, and hopefully this is what we will get eventually when the fighting are over,” he said.
“It’s a long way to go still, but we have this vision of a new Gaza headed by people who are sane.”
The official made it clear that the above-mentioned sanity does not refer to the current Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah.
“What we need is to achieve three goals: One is to demilitarize Gaza. The second is deradicalize and the third is to build a civil operational mechanism that will take care of the 2.2 million people there and make sure they have life.
As for demilitarization, the official dismissed the Ramallah government. “We know the PA cannot do it. They’re not ready to confront the terrorists. How do we know it? They haven’t done it since the beginning of the Oslo agreement,” he said pointedly. “They don’t do it today, when we give them information. We give them intelligence, we give them the names and places of terrorists in Jenin, in Shechem (Nablus), in Jericho and Tulkarem — they don’t do it. So our kids go in, our soldiers — boys and girls — have to go in and take responsibility with it.
“We can’t take people who aren’t doing anything in Jenin and ask them to do it in Gaza. It’s a non-starter,” he said.
As for deradicalization: “We can’t expect people who are now educating their kids for “pay to slay”, as an example, that the “martyrs” are heroes, they’re people that everybody should admire, and they educate them that this is what they have to be, this is the model for being a hero. So that is not going to deradicalize Gaza. Somebody else must do it.”
Israel may be looking to its Abraham Accords partners and other Arab states, as well as Western nations, to help with that.
“We believe that with the forces that have done it in their countries, like the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other moderate places, plus with the help of the UN and Europe, the United States, that all these forces might come together and make sure with local leadership that these goals will be achieved,” he said.
As for the civil administration after Hamas is eradicated, “That’s a dilemma that we will face soon or later, because once we will eradicate Hamas we would like someone else to go into this vacuum and make sure that the civil life of the people is handled, taken care of.”
Regarding the slowly escalating conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorists along the northern border, the official warned that if current diplomatic efforts bear no fruit, Israel will have “no choice but to use other means in order to make sure the north is safe, Hezbollah is taken away, further back from the border, and the Israeli civilians, the 100,000 people who left their homes, will be able to come back home safe.”
