FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – “You Israelis are a source of inspiration for me! Because you have God on your side! Shocked on the way to Tel Aviv, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi decided three years ago to renew relations with Israel. Reopening an embassy, signing agreements and above all – “as a Christian” – paying exaggerated compliments to Bibi Netanyahu: “You are a source of inspiration, you teach me what a people can do when they have divine favor with them.” . “. The Israeli Prime Minister never forgot this meeting. And at the worst moment he called back his new, best friend: According to the Times of Israel, it is precisely the Democratic Republic of Congo that recently asked Bibi to take in tens of thousands of Palestinians expelled from Gaza. Tshisekedi would have said yes.
The plan is called “The Day After.” And last night it was discussed in the Cabinet Council convened by Netanyahu after it was postponed for a day because the Lebanon emergency was on the agenda. Congo, but also Saudi Arabia. It's an old Israeli government idea: in October, it suggested that Egypt “temporarily” house Gaza residents in the Sinai Desert (and Al Sisi responded: Why don't you keep them in your Negev Desert?), Now the time has come, other countries are knocking. The hypothesis is officially denied. Bibi admits that “our problem is to find someone willing to accept the residents of Gaza,” and yet only speaks of “exiling” the leaders of Hamas who have not yet been eliminated, perhaps in Qatar. Two of his ultra-ministers have angered France and the US by proposing the “resettlement” of Palestinians and a new Israeli colonization in the Gaza Strip: it would be “a humanitarian solution,” Smotrich and Ben Gvir guarantee, “70% of Israelis are it.” for the voluntary emigration of Gazans, because it is no longer acceptable that two million people wake up every morning five minutes from our homes and dream of destroying us,” while “the post-war discussion would be completely different, “If only there were 100-200.” A thousand Palestinians remained in the Gaza Strip, not two million.”
And then? The forced emigration of Palestinians seems unthinkable. And the “Day After” is an imaginative scenario at this point. But Netanyahu and his men are discussing it. The Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have different ideas: the only common ground is that Hamas disappears and that the Israeli army controls a possible post-war period. In early December, the Egyptians, Jordanians, Emiratis and Saudis were informed of the intention to create a buffer zone that would isolate Gaza from north to south. Thereafter, the moderate Arab countries would only be involved in humanitarian administration and Palestinian disarmament, with the possibility for the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to where they were and with a special no-man's land status, that of the Philadelphi Road (the tunnel area) and the Rafah crossing (towards Egypt) is granted. The US is pushing for an administrative overhaul of the Gaza Strip, with governorships given to trusted Palestinian leaders and clans. Salam Fayyad, a Princeton economist who was Palestinian prime minister in the West Bank from 2005 to 2013, has already been elected as the future governor: He has moderate opinions and good relations with the Israelis.
Netanyahu believes the money will arrive. And we need someone to manage them. The latest poll says he probably won't be: only 15% of Israelis would want him back in his job after the war ends. But the (poor) reconstruction of Gaza after 2014, when the war was much shorter and much less severe, cost the international community over $6 billion. And “this time we are in year zero, the photocopy of Germany after the Second World War,” says Mikhaimar Abu Sada, sociologist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City: “We need a Marshall Plan like back then.” The Saudis and Qataris are ready to finance a reconstruction. But without political guarantees for two peoples and two states, who would invest money in a country that could be destroyed again three months later?” For now, only the Congo remains.