Today’s hard-nosed yet optimistic analysis by Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin, of the road to a peaceful co-existence between Israel and Palestine, includes several specific actions that Washington needs to take.
First, he expressed a cautious optimism that humanitarian aid into Gaza, still below one-third the level to which Israel had agreed, will be taken over by the U.S. He wrote that the “U.S. Command Center in Kiryat Gat is getting more proactive and more nations from around the world are joining the ranks of those engaged in this work.” He cited Ynet’s report that the U.S. plans a major base near Gaza’s border “for international forces operating in Gaza to help maintain the cease-fire” and adds: “The United States is not going to let the ball drop here and allow the war to resume, nor will the U.S. allow Hamas to regroup and have control over Gaza. There is a United States ‘full court press’ on Israel and on Hamas. The constant flow of U.S. officials from President Trump down is on a Bibi-sitting mission to make sure that Israel does not do anything that would enable the war to restart. They are doing the same thing on the Hamas side with constant attention and pressure on Qatar, Egypt, and Türkiye to ensure Hamas compliance with the agreement.”
However, the most present danger is that Washington has allowed Netanyahu’s crew to escalate the violence in the West Bank. He explained: “It is essential now that the United States and the international community focus a lot more attention on what is happening in the West Bank. While Trump has said that ‘annexation is off the table’ there is in fact a process of de facto annexation taking place. Settler violence supported by the Israeli army and the Israeli police is unhinged and could easily lead to the explosion of Palestinian violence in the West Bank that no one in their right mind wants.”
Hence, Baskin cited four specific steps the U.S. has failed to take, but must do:
“The United States must force Israel to release to the Palestinian Authority more than $2 billion in tax and customs money that Israel collects for the PA according to the 1995 Paris Protocol. The United States must also force the Israeli government to stop the settler violence against Palestinians, and their land and property. The U.S. must force Israel to renew family and Red Cross visits to Palestinian prisoners who have been tortured by [Israeli National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir’s Prison Authority over the last two years. Israel must be held to the standard of international law with regards to Palestinian prisoners.”
Otherwise, his realistic assessment is that, with the present government of Israel, the rebuilding of Gaza and “a genuine peace process on the two states solution is not possible.” Hence, until a more cooperative government in Israel comes to power, the U.S. must be content to function under a ‘do no harm’ policy, to preserve a viable path toward what must be accomplished.
Otherwise, of special note is Gershon’s republication of his November 2023 “Plan for the Day After Tomorrow”, which includes a key role for the U.S., which doesn’t await a change in government in Israel. Under the fourth of the five key components of the plan, “International mobilization for the financing and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and accelerated economic development of the Palestinian state,” Gershon stated:
“Gaza reconstruction and economic development. The U.S. will lead a process of international recruitment for the construction and rehabilitation of Gaza and the economic development of the State of Palestine and regional cooperation. The ambition should be to mobilize all the countries of the world interested in stabilizing the Middle East region, including rival countries such as China, in order to ensure the existence of the Palestinian state in the shortest period of time. Chinese participation in Gaza is important because there is no country in the world that knows how to build infrastructure as quickly and efficiently as China.”
The sooner the U.S. begins that cooperation with China—and it could be anywhere in the world—the sooner more moderate forces in Israel, in Gaza, the Arab world, and Muslim countries may see the seeming miracle of a stable, prosperous region become eminently obtainable. It is this palpable step that can most efficiently undercut the present dynamic of desperation, rage, and revenge that is currently driving Netanyahu’s “”ethnic cleansers” and cultivating a generation of reactionary terrorists.
