Subject: Re: Qatar air force base on American soil
It is a deal. It's a deal that doesn't address or resolve the underlying Palestinian independence movement and basically results in Gaza being reoccupied. The Palestinians living there will have even less autonomy and self-determination than they did before October 7.

No, and no single deal ever was going to be able to do that.

As to the second point, come on. How free of a society do you think Hamas runs? Every dollar of aid went to work building rockets and tunnels to attack the Israelis with. Did they have freedom of expression? Did they even have elections after Hamas "won" the first time? Was economic rehabilitation even on their list of priorities?

Literally anything they get is better than that.


It's a legitimate question whether a re-occupation of Gaza by a different party will result in a stable outcome in even the near term, let alone over a longer time horizon. I think that the population has been so battered by two years of war that they may not have the resources or desire to worry about an independence movement; they're on a completely different level on the pyramid of needs right now. And that might be enough to let a new authoritarian Gazan government cement control and rule the strip the way other authoritarian regimes control their jurisdictions. But that might not be what happens - you might end up with an insurgency against the "Board of Peace."

Of course it's a legit question. Their population has been battered by not just 2 years of war but 70-somehting years of a bogus promise that will never be fulfilled ("From the river to the sea..."). They staked everything on that promise...and lost. Time and time again. They can either be adults and accept that and move on -or- they can periodically get curb-stomped by reality. Up until now they've chosen Option B.

All of it will come down to whether or not the new Board of Peace thing actually brings economic development to the Gazans. Were you aware there's a large pocket of natural gas just off their shore that's just sitting there waiting for somebody to do something with it? 1.1T+ cubic feet. What else could they actually build if they stopped their tunnel making and what not?

If the new board can rebuild the place and give the Palestinians something to do other than hate on Israel then it's 100% worth it.

The world has been serving up the Palestinians with low expectations for decades. They have a chance with this deal to do something worthwhile. I remain skeptical they can rise to the challenge.