Saturday, November 18, 2023

Israel Should Administer Foreign Aid to Gaza

 ^This. 


Israel should tell the whole world that if they want to send any kind of aid to Gaza, they have to send it to Tel Aviv. Israel will distribute the aid into Gaza directly to the Gazans themselves. Israel can make a very strong case for being a much more reliable and honest distributor than Hamas or UNWRA. They can point to the grift and corruption that has been involved in aid distribution in addition to security concerns where aid has been used against Israel, like the water pipes Hamas turned into rockets. If anybody objects to this, Israel has the rejoinder that if they don't like it, than their other option is to accept Palestinian refugees. Israel should put hard power behind this and forcefully prevent non-authorized foreign aid from coming in. Authorized foreign aid is turned over to Israeli authorities at the border, including Gaza's border with Egypt, and becomes Israel's sole responsibility at that point. Again, if anyone doesn't like it, they don't get to send aid.

The real reason for this is to build trust and good will between the Israelis and the non-Hamas Palestinians. Palestinians will see the Israelis are not evil, and in fact are more responsible adminstrators than Hamas was. Israel will be able to ensure, at least to a greater degree, that no aid goes to bad actors. 

In general, Hamas did charity work in Gaza in order to remain in power there and keep the people behind them. They famously do not care about the well-being of Gazans, so why did they run schools, hospitals, mosques, etc.? Because Hamas understands that being the one who distributes goods to people gives you power. Israel needs to eliminate Hamas AND take their place as the power in Gaza. That means Israel needs to take control over the distribution of foreign aid there.