Egypt can assist in Gaza peacekeeping if Israel agrees to PA management, says ex-Israeli ambassador
Egypt can assist in Gaza peacekeeping if Israel agrees to Palestinian Authority civilian management, former Israeli ambassador to Egypt Amira Oron has told the Jerusalem Post in an interview.
Speaking to the Post shortly after she was one of the key speakers at a conference held by the Coalition for Regional Security, she added that Jordan could also assist in training the PA to better fend off Hamas, all as part of a wider vision for the region.
A poll taken by the Coalition in early January showed that 72.5% of Israelis support a US-led initiative encompassing the return of Israeli hostages, Israeli-Saudi normalization, Israeli-Palestinian separation, and an Israeli-Sunni Arab regional security alliance against Iran.
With US President Donald Trump tossing out his desire for the Gaza population to leave the country while it is being rebuilt and the Palestinians and regional partners rejecting this idea, the playing field for the future of Gaza post-war is far from clear.
But if the Coalition’s broader vision is enacted, Oron said, “Egypt has a peacekeeper’s tradition. They have lots of peacekeepers in Africa, many of their officers have served in Mali. If this [Egyptian peacekeeping in Gaza] happens under a UN framework, it will be even easier, but this will not all be so that Israel will say ‘you are doing a great job.'”
Jordan and Egypt involvement
Questioned about reports that some Israeli officials may prefer UAE peacekeepers versus Egyptian peacekeepers, Oron was not against this per se but explained that “Egypt has a better military. The UAE is really more of an economic power. Egypt has a serious army.”
She also noted a role for Jordan.
From 2005-2010, US Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton trained PA forces in Jordan which then went on to combat Hamas in the West Bank during one of the more successful periods of the PA fighting terror in coordination with Israel.
The experiment was mainly successful until sometime in the 2013-2014 period when PA President Mahmoud Abbas fired his reformer Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, negotiations between Israel and the PA broke down, and Hamas initiated the 50-day 2014 conflict with Israel.
Referring to this experiment, which was largely viewed as successful for the years that it ran, Oron said, “The Dayton battalion was trained in Jordan. We are not inventing anything new.”
“Jordan and Egypt will train the PA forces for Gaza. They do capacity building. They are geographically in the right place, so you don’t need to get help from someone far away like Pakistan,” said the former Israeli ambassador to Egypt.
She said it would be similar to the “capacity building in Erbil, Syria, which Turkey does.”
Regarding Turkey, another advantage of deepening Egyptian involvement in Gaza is trying to shift outside influence of Palestinians there away from Qatar and Turkey to Cairo – or from Muslim Brotherhood religious ideology to a more pragmatic and modern view of the world.
“The Egyptians don’t’ love Qatar. There are also big tensions with Turkey. They have different ideologies than what Egypt believes. They confront them,” she said.
All of this would be part of a transition phase, and an eventual move in the direction of the PA having a monopoly on weapons in Gaza, “We have no interest in Hamas being strong. We need to connect with the PA. The PA should have control over all weapons. There can be no militias. The idea of armed militias is a very hard idea for the Egyptians. It contradicts the idea of a state which is being managed and functions,” she said.
Further, the former Israeli ambassador to Egypt said, “the alternative to Hamas is the PA. I don’t understand why Israel is weakening the PA. It’s a national movement, and not a religious movement. It is impossible to conduct negotiations with Sinwar and people like him. They believe in Dar al Islam, so there is nothing to discuss.”
Further, she stated, “We are lost without PA cooperation in the West Bank. So why are we so against the PA in Gaza? When there is a new administration in Gaza, there are and will be Palestinians connected to the PA.”
Oron does not claim there are no issues with the PA, nor that there will not be a price to working with them, but she said that, “if the PA shows it can improve and be efficient, and if the Palestinian public sees them building schools, and delivering food and water,” maybe they will be able to eventually oust Hamas from Gaza not only military, but also politically – something Israel has failed to do to date.
Rafah Crossing
In fact, the PA is already involved behind the scenes in opening the Rafah Crossing.
The mechanism that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to as part of the current Phase I hostage deal is for a mix of the PA and a European force called EUBAM to administer the crossing.
“EUBAM and the PA at the Rafah Crossing were happening even before this war. They monitored and inspected people, and now everyone is bringing this back” she said.
However, she added, “Now all commercial goods being brought in are checked. Now it’s properly run, and this should continue,” whereas at some earlier pre-war periods, inspections were negligent and allowed Hamas to mass smuggle in weapons and war materials.
How long will it take for the PA to be ready to handle Hamas in Gaza if this entire vision moves forward? Oron would never want to sign on to an exact timeline, given the dynamic issues in play, but she would likely bet on close to four to five years – meaning it would not take decades or some indefinable period of time.
Rebuilding Gaza
Part of that question is connected to how long it will take to rebuild Gaza’s physical living spaces so that people can return from tents to permanent living quarters.
Neither Oron nor anyone else is sure about the answer to this. Some think progress can be made over five years. Some think 10-15 years is more realistic and someday it all depends on the amount and speed of outside donors like the Saudis and the UAE.
Acknowledging the physical destruction as a uniquely difficult issue on its own, Oron said that however this is worked out it makes sense to involve the PA given that, “It’s already part of the PA’s territory according to the Oslo Accords, specifically the Paris deal dealing with customs issues.”
“The PA is like a state and runs many things. Most of the world recognizes it as a state and sends ambassadors to reside in Ramallah. If Israel moves in this direction, it will be much easier with the Saudis, Jordan, and Egypt,” she said.
She added, “This physical problem in Gaza is very hard…Gaza is not at zero. It is at -1000!…We need to think about how to move them in order to put in new buildings. They were moved a huge number of times during the war. There are old plans – one of which was to dry out some small parts of the sea around Gaza to grow its land area some more. [Then transportation minister and now defense minister] Yisrael Katz spoke about an artificial island. But here you would need the political will.”
“Putting together inter-regional connections for the region. How does this come together if the PA is not a player? I don’t see how it comes together,” Oron asserted.
Moreover, she noted that “the PA in the West Bank is the biggest piece of the picture. It is not destroyed. If you look at the West Bank, there is hope. We are talking about gradual moves.”
“Starting a pattern of Gazafication of Jenin is not good,” she said, warning about the possibility of endless IDF operations in the West Bank without a diplomatic horizon.
She stated, “We need a gradual branching out of the PA. They won’t jump into being a state.”
Concluding, Oron said, “This is about security. Becoming more regional is good. Israel cannot be alone. We will have a better economy working with the region. There are so many projects to frame the region, and they will also help us to overcome these obstacles.”
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