Netanyahu Presents Plan for ‘The Day After Hamas’ in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his plan for “the day after” Hamas is defeated in Gaza to his Cabinet on Thursday, calling for local officials without links to terrorism to run the government, and Israel to exercise military control.

The plan does not explicitly rule out a role for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs Palestinian communities in the West Bank; nor does it include a Palestinian state, leaving that issue for future bilateral talks. It is deliberately vague on these points.

Netanyahu’s goal in leaving those contentious issues undefined appears to be to satisfy the demands of the Biden administration on the one hand, and his right-wing coalition partners on the other. But on several other issues, Netanyahu is absolutely clear.

One is that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) must control Gaza’s borders and must have complete freedom to operate within Gaza to stop terrorism. The Gaza Strip is to be entirely demilitarized, from a Palestinian point of view, except for a civilian police force.

Another is that Israel will establish a kilometer-wide buffer zone within Gaza, a no-man’s-land that will protect the Israeli border communities that Hamas attacked on October 7. (The Biden administration has insisted, in contrast, that Gaza not lose territory.)

Finally, the plan insists Gaza be “deradicalized.” Netanyahu envisions a possible role for the United Arab Emirates and for Saudi Arabia, but appears to sideline Qatar, which shelters Hamas; and also rules out the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The Times of Israel notes that Netanyahu’s plan stipulates that “Israel will only allow the reconstruction of Gaza to begin after the completion of the Strip’s de-militarization and the commencement of the ‘de-radicalization process'” to end terrorist influence.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.