RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17466/gaza-reconstruction-funds

The Palestinian Authority says that it should be the only party in charge of the reconstruction and that all funds must be channeled through its government. Hamas, on the other hand, insists that the funds from the international community be sent directly to its coffers.

“The Palestinians must remove this Iranian occupation in Palestine so that they can live in peace.” — Nora Shanar, Saudi author, Elaph, May 10, 2021.

The message the Arabs and Muslims are sending to the Biden administration and other Western donors: Stop showering money on corrupt and failed Palestinian leaders whose stock-in-trade is purloining international funds. The Palestinians do not need money as much as they need new leaders whose commitment to the welfare of their people outweighs their interest in their own pockets.

Last month, Egypt succeeded in its effort to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Since then, however, Egypt has been unable to secure an agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority over the reconstruction of buildings and homes that were destroyed during the 11-day Israel-Hamas conflict.

Egypt has gone out of its way to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after the recent round of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

First, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi pledged $500 million to contribute to the reconstruction effort. (Qatar has promised a similar sum to help rebuild the Gaza Strip).

Second, Egypt dispatched the head of its General Intelligence Service, Abbas Kamel, to the Gaza Strip and West Bank for talks with leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority about the reconstruction plan.

Third, Egypt sent dozens of bulldozers, cranes and engineers to the Gaza Strip as part of its effort to assist with the reconstruction.

Fourth, Egypt invited representatives of various Palestinian factions, including the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, to Cairo for talks on ways of helping the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who had lost their homes during the fighting with Israel. Egypt was also doubtless hoping that the faction leaders would finally reach agreement on ending the dispute between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

https://www.jns.org/prime-minister-designate-naftali-bennetts-address-at-the-swear

I want to begin my words by saying, on my own behalf, and in the name of the members of the designated government, in the name of this House and in the name of all the citizens of Israel—thank you. Thank you to the outgoing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for your many years of service, replete with achievements, for the sake of the State of Israel. As prime minister you acted throughout many years to embolden Israel’s political, security and economic strength. I saw you from up-close, in extensive security deliberations, late into the night, investigating, making inquiries and considerations out of a sense of grave responsibility.

Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu, over the years, we have not always agreed, but we have both sacrificed much on a personal level in order to serve our people, the people of Israel. Expressing gratitude is a fundamental principle in Judaism. This is the time for the people to say to you: thank you.

I also want to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to the tenth president of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, for his years as president, as Speaker of the Knesset, and as a public servant. And to congratulate President-elect Isaac Herzog and wish him much success. God willing, we will work together very well.

Honored ladies and gentlemen, this is a special moment. The moment in which the baton of leading the people and the country passes—as in a relay race—to the next generation. It is a sacred endowment.

The State of Israel is not “just another country.” It is the dream of generations of Jews—from Marrakech to Budapest, from Baghdad to San Francisco—a dream we merited to see realized every day before our very eyes. Each generation has its own challenges, and out of each generation comes the leaders that can overcome them.

The external challenges we face are great: the Iranian nuclear project, which is moving towards a crucial point; the ongoing war on terror; Israel’s image in the world and the unfair treatment it receives in international institutions—these are all sizable and complex tasks.

At this time, we are also facing an internal challenge. The ongoing rift in the nation, as we see in these very moments, which continues to rip apart the seams that hold us together, and has thrown us—one election after another—into a maelstrom of hatred and infighting.

Such quarrels, between the people who are supposed to be running the country, led to paralysis. One who quarrels cannot function.

When the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed in 1979, the 14 km (8.7 mile) security and buffer zone known as the Philadelphi Corridor was under Israel’s control. Its purpose was to prevent the illegal importation into the Gaza Strip from Egypt of weapons and terrorists to be used against the Jewish state. The Oslo Accords, signed in 1995, allowed Israel to retain the security corridor, but it soon became apparent that Sinai Bedouin and the Palestinian Arabs were digging ever more sophisticated smuggling tunnels under it.

Then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israel to vacate the vital security strip separating Egyptian Sinai from the Gaza Strip as a “peaceful gesture” to the Palestinian Arabs. This proved to be another land for peace disaster in which the Arabs receive the land but the Israelis don’t receive peace.

Following the infamous and tragic disengagement from Gaza in 2005, forced upon the residents of Gush Katif by Ariel Sharon, Israel ceded control of the Philadelphi Corridor to the Palestinian Authority in September of that year. Meanwhile, extensive smuggling continued. It was only a matter of time before Hamas evicted their Fatah rivals in a bloody coup—which they did in 2007. Hamas, with its charter calling for Israel’s extermination, has ruled the Gaza Strip since then, including the Philadelphi Corridor.

Ahmed Qurei, the former P.A. prime minister, once asked Tzipi Livni, Israel’s erstwhile and left-wing foreign minister, if Israel would repossess the Corridor to seal the border and cut off supplies to Hamas, the P.A.’s deadly rival. Apparently, Livni did nothing, and Hamas has been greatly strengthened militarily ever since. It is, nevertheless, crystal clear that failure to repossess this vitally strategic area now, or very soon, will spell dire security problems for Israel.

What if Egypt should fall again under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, as it did when Hosni Mubarak was president? There would then be no more need for smuggling tunnels beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border. Instead, endless fleets of trucks would bring military supplies into the Strip from Egypt. Only by fully controlling the Philadelphi Corridor can Israel stem such a lethal tide.

Despite President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s control of Egypt, Egyptian state media, like that of Hamas and the P.A., openly proclaims its adherence to Islam’s eternal requirement that all lands once conquered in the name of Allah must, if lost, be warred on until regained for Allah. This is not extreme or radical Islam. This is authentic Islam, and the non-Muslim world ignores it at its peril. Accordingly, there can never be a lasting peace between Israel and the Muslim world; “peace now” and the “two-state solution” are simply dreams.

Therefore, Israel should repossess the Philadelphi Corridor for its own security and survival. Doing so will no doubt evoke screams of rage from the morally compromised world—but these voices will condemn Israel whatever it does. So it is surely better to be hanged in the media and the international corridors of power as a lion than as a sheep.