Israel and the Dilemma of the Day After the War

Since Israel declared war on the Gaza Strip, it has set its goals as eliminating the military capabilities of the Palestinian factions and the governing capabilities of Hamas's rule in the Strip, and talk began about the dilemma of the day after the war, especially amid the emergence of fundamental points of disagreement between the Netanyahu government and the Biden administration over the strategy for the day after the war. Israel, which declared through Netanyahu that it would not allow the return of the Palestinian Authority to the Strip in order to ensure the continued separation of Palestinian political geography, with the aim of continuing to evade the foundations of a settlement and the two-state principle, has not yet put forward any workable vision or plan of action for the dilemma of the day after the war.

The absence of a strategic plan for managing the Gaza Strip away from Hamas's rule — as Israel specified in its war goals — is a difficult matter, and places the political, security, and military levels before a major dilemma, opening the door to a set of questions about the nature of the security and humanitarian challenges arising from the absence of a realistic plan for managing the Gaza Strip after the military operations end. What, then, is the nature of the American-Israeli disagreements over the strategy for the day after the war?

It also opens the door to numerous scenarios regarding the future of governance in the Gaza Strip, especially amid the challenges of the Israeli army's military operations in the Strip, and the emergence of many differences in viewpoints between the United States and the Netanyahu government over the future of the Strip and efforts toward a political settlement.

Prepared by Dr. Mansour Abu Kareem