«Israel’s» Concessions to Hamas Are Just the Prelude

By Staff, Agencies

Despite the rocket fire, the “Israeli” entity on Sunday morning opened the “Erez” Crossing (for Gaza residents with exit permits), as well as the “Kerem Shalom” crossing (for the movement of goods), and allowed fishing to resume off the Gaza coast.

The “Israeli” regime is prepared to go far to achieve quiet in the south until the April 9 election. Not a single official announcement – by the “Israel” Occupation Forces [IOF] spokesman or the “Israeli” Prime Minister’s Office – has been issued about easing conditions in the besieged Gaza Strip. The War Ministry wouldn’t even answer a question about how large the fishing limits off Gaza are.

“Israeli” voters will have to make do with the general statements made by “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, who said the entity is “prepared for any scenario” in the south, or the slightly more detailed remarks by the Likud campaign spokesman, who told Army Radio, “If there’s no choice, we may launch a military operation.”

The operation, one assumes, will be launched by the “Israeli” entity and the IOF, not Likud headquarters. But the trend is clear; chances of a military operation before the elections don’t seem great. Netanyahu seems to believe that a conflagration on the Gaza border could jeopardize his success in the elections. Plenty has been written in recent years about his lack of faith in a large-scale military operation in Gaza.

The “Israeli” easing of restrictions was a response to Hamas’ relative restraint in the demonstrations along the border fence on Saturday, during which three young men were nevertheless martyred by army fire, during incidents that included attempts to damage the fence and cross it. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar declared, however, that the March of Return would continue every Friday as planned.

But the main issue on the agenda relates to the package of economic steps that will be declared for Gaza after the election. Here the ideas will have to be combined with “the deal of the century” that the US administration is meant to propose for the “Israeli”-Palestinian track. It seems like one of the ideas being considered is to take the plan’s Gaza appendix and implement it first.

Many of the proposals being mentioned now to rehabilitate Gaza were raised more than two years ago, in what was dubbed the “Poly plan,” after former “Israeli” Coordinator of Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav (“Poly”) Mordechai.

At the time there was talk of injecting about $1.5 billion into Gaza, mostly from the Gulf States, but with American and European support. Among the proposals were: Establishing industrial zones for Palestinian labor in Egyptian Rafah; building solar farms along the Gaza border; the upgrading of the Gaza’s gas and electricity infrastructure with “Israeli” assistance; the construction of desalination plants; the construction of a short railway connecting the “Erez” checkpoint with northern Gaza, and possibly constructing a dock for the Palestinians at the El-Arish Port in Sinai.

Now these ideas are again on the agenda, since, after nearly two years of delays, it seems the Trump administration is close to actually submitting its “peace” plan. This, even though the Palestinian Authority has declared from every possible platform, including PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech to the Arab League conference in Morocco on Sunday, that the plan is dangerous, it favors “Israel”, and cannot be accepted.

However, if the administration is determined to try, it could influence the “Israeli” political arena. Netanyahu may now be labeling the “Kahol Lavan” party as “the weak left” and declared over the weekend that he wouldn’t appoint Benny Gantz as war minister in his regime. But the circumstances could change after the election.

Meanwhile, it’s becoming clearer why Egypt is so willing to go out on a limb to reach an agreement in Gaza that could help Netanyahu safely get through the elections. Trump announced that he has invited Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi to visit the United States soon. Their meeting will take place only a few days before the Egyptian parliament is meant to vote on controversial changes to the country’s constitution that would allow Sissi to remain president until 2034.

Sissi’s opponents were hoping for international pressure to foil this process but Trump, by inviting Sissi to Washington, is doing the opposite. And who is Egypt’s biggest advocate in the United States? Why Netanyahu, of course; just as the American media reported that the “Israeli” premier helped reduce the tensions between the Trump administration and the Saudi royal family after it was revealed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS] was involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

When we add to this the many reports in foreign media about “Israeli” air strikes in Sinai in the service of the Egyptian struggle with the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for “ISIS” / “ISIL”] there, one can only guess at the depth of the alliance between al-Quds [Jerusalem] and Cairo and understand why Egypt is investing so much in achieving a long-term truce between the “Israeli” entity and Hamas.