2023-11-08 12:02:29
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, who is part of the new national emergency government, during a meeting in Tel Aviv (Israel), October 18, 2023. MIRIAM ALSTER / POOL / EPA
Who will manage Gaza, its ruins, its bereaved and distressed population, when the guns fall silent? Thinking about the “day after” in times of war is an exercise both futile and essential. It is difficult to plan a reconstruction when the extent of the destruction is not definitive. To talk about governance of the post-Hamas territory, knowing that the annihilation of the Islamist movement, Israel’s objective, seems complicated, due to its protean nature. Nevertheless, this reflection is underway, mainly mobilizing the United States and the Arab countries. For the moment it looks like an impressionist exercise. Europeans play no significant role in this.
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The question of the “day after” was at the heart of the consultations led by the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in the Middle East, on November 4 and 5. His Arab interlocutors judged this reflection “premature”, like the head of Egyptian diplomacy, Sameh Choukri. For them, the priority remains a ceasefire in Gaza – where Israeli bombings have killed more than 10,000 people according to the assessment of the Ministry of Health administered by Hamas, “thousands” according to a Pentagon statement, Monday November 6 – and not a simple “humanitarian break” mentioned by Washington. They suspect the Americans are talking about the long term to gain time and let Israel complete its military operation. For seasoned diplomats in the region, the debate on the “after” also brings back bad memories: the dozens of formulas imagined for Syria, which have not produced any political, or even security, solution in twelve years of civil war.
For now, Israel remains focused on the military operation. Benjamin Netanyahu knows that his own fate hangs on this war. The Israeli Prime Minister refuses to plan for the future, and seeks to avoid alienating the extreme right arsonist to whom he has linked his destiny. “For the moment, we are unable to define either the contours of a military victory, or the aftermathrecognizes a senior Israeli official. This is what bothers the United States. »
Militarized buffer zones
Asked on November 7 by the American channel ABC to know who should govern the enclave, Mr. Netanyahu said: “Those who do not want to continue on the path of Hamas”he simply replied, before specifying: “I think that Israel will have global security responsibility for an indefinite period [à Gaza], because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. » The prime minister did not announce the recolonization of Gaza, which his allies on the religious extreme right have dreamed of since 2005. But he refused to put a time limit on the military campaign.
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