Palestinians

No one is going to invest in massive Gaza reconstruction unless there is a credible mechanism for ensuring that Hamas does not divert the bulk of this material for military purposes.

In this episode of the Middle East PolicyCast podcast, Grant Rumley & Neri Zilber share their assessments of the factors that sparked and escalated the May 2021 Gaza conflict and share advice for policymakers who seek to prevent the renewal of major violence between Hamas and Israel.

Even if the consensus-based coalition is sworn in, the big question mark hanging over Bennett and Lapid is whether Palestinian developments or Netanyahu’s relentless opposition will produce irreconcilable internal differences.

The administration should take a three-track approach: provide a formula of reconstruction with no rearmament, bolster the PA through assistance conditioned on reform, and broker Arab outreach to open the horizon.

Fatah and Hamas have tried every conceivable power-sharing mechanism to no avail, and many Palestinians now feel alienated from both brands of authoritarianism.

The Biden administration cannot solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem today, but it can shrink the conflict by helping both sides take small steps toward a two-state solution.

Hamas may not have realized it when firing its first salvo against Jerusalem, but the challenge of its rockets didn’t end with a ceasefire—the administration now faces complex and urgent decisions that could affect the direction of its overall foreign policy.

From calling out Qatar and Turkey to encouraging direct Israeli aid, Washington should pursue bolder initiatives that boost the chances of avoiding bloodshed.

Boosting aid and addressing provocative policies will need to be discussed soon, but doing so prematurely would only further the terrorist group’s power struggle against the nonviolent Palestinian Authority.