Arab Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh believes that ”the reoccupation has not to be permanent.” ”I am not saying rebuild settlements in Gaza. I am saying you reestablish a military government and then tell the world: I am going to leave Gaza, I am not here to run the schools and the hospitals but before I leave I want guarantees and I want to know who is going to be in charge over here,” adds the expert on Palestinian affairs.
‘’There is only one way for Israel to get rid of Hamas: to reoccupy Gaza, your reestablish a military government over there and you announce you are the government now. That mere announcement means Hamas is finished, ‘’ says Khaled Abu Toameh, Khaled Abu Toameh, an award winning Arab Israeli journalist who leaves in East Jerusalem and has covered Palestinian affairs for the last 42 years.
He worked in Gaza for many years and had met the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO.
‘’In 2007, Hamas did the same with the Palestinian Authority when it launched a coup. They immediately annnounced that they were the new government in Gaza and many people accepted. Even the Palestinian Authority surrendered. That’s the only way to get rid of Hamas by creating an alternative to them. The only alternative now is Israel. No Arab will come to Gaza as long as Hamas is over there,’’ he told European and American journalists on a press tour in Israel this week organized by Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA) and its U.S. branch AMEPA.
He added, ‘’I don’t say that the occupation has to be permanent. I am not saying rebuild settlements in Gaza. I am saying you reestablish a military government and then you say to tell the world: I am going to leave Gaza, I am not here to run the schools and the hospitals but before I leave I want guarantees and I want to know who is going to be in charge over here.’’
‘’When you announce that ‘I am the government’, Palestinian will wake up to you and say where Hamas is and where the hostages are. Because they know that you are not there for five or six days but until you achieve your goals. Unfortunately Israel didn’t reoccupy Gaza after October 7. They were going in and out,’’ said Abu Toameh.
Asked his opinion about the recent Arab plan to rebuild Gaza proposed by Egypt, he replied : ‘’It’s a nice plan but don’t count on the Arabs to rebuild Gaza or help the Palestinians. They announced this plan not out of a genuine interest for the Palestinians. The Arabs don’t care about the Palestinians. They announced this plan because they are afraid that President Trump will send the Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt,’’ he said.
‘’Since 1992, the Palestinians are almost entirely dependent on American and European taxpayers’ money. The Arabs don’t gave them anything.’’
Surprised by October 7 attack ?
”Since October 7, many of my friends and colleagues around the world have been calling me and asking if what happened on October 7 surprised me. ” ‘My answer is yes and no. The timing of the attack came as a surprise to me. Not because it happened on a Shabbat and a Jewish holiday but because we were all convinced that Hamas is deterred, that it is not interested in another round of fighting. It came at a time when Israel started easing restrictions on the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented way. For the first time since 2007 when Hamas came into power in Gaza, on October 6, 18,500 Palestinians from Gaza had permits to come and work inside Israel. The plan was to increase that number to 30,000 at the end of 2023. So we were all convinced that Hamas would not launch an attack because Palestinians had a lot to lose. That’s why the timing came as a surprise to me. What also surprised me was the nature of the crimes and the scale of the attack on that day. I am not saying that Hamas was preiviously a peaceful non-violent movement. I covered many of their violence. But what we saw on October 7 was different. It was not the usual suicide bombings, stabbings and car ramming attacks. Thousands of Hamas terrorists participated in the attack and it is a fact that thousands of ”ordinary Palestinians’ participated in the attack. I didn’t see one Palestinian who condemned the attack. ”
Why was I not surprised ?
”Because Hamas did what it has always saying it would do: wage a jihad, holy war, against Israel. October 7 is just another face in this Islamist jihad. The goal is very clear: to elilinate Israel and replace it with an Islamist state. Since its establishment in 1988, Hamas has been very clerar and consistent about his message: this all land is Muslim-owned land. No Muslim is entitled to give up one inch of it to a non-Muslim. They have not changed one word of their ideology and charter. ”
”I was also not surprised because I see also it as the result of a massive campaign to deligitimize Israel and demonize Jews. It is a campaign that is taking place since years in the mosques, in the media, in the rhetrorics, on streets and campuses. ”
Arab Israelis fighting for integration in the State of Israel
He explained that ‘’we the Arabs living inside Israel have no politiical demands from our State of Israel. Our only demands are those of a minority. We want more jobs in the public sector, more public funding and investments.’’
‘’We Arabs are fighting for integration into our State of Israel while the Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza are figgting for the exact opposite. They want separation from Israel. Some of them want separation in the form of a Palestinian state next to Israel but many sadly want separation in the form of a Palestinian state instead of Israel.’’