MAY 19, 2024 JLM 69°F 03:33 AM 08:33 PM EST
ANALYSIS: Israel opens talks with clans in the Gaza Strip - YONI BEN-MENACHEM

According to sources in the Gaza Strip, Israel has opened intensive contacts with clans and tribes in the Strip, in an attempt to give them security and administrative control over certain residential areas. 

This is with the aim of establishing an alternative government to the Hamas movement. The Israeli experience is in accordance with one of the goals of the war - to topple the rule of Hamas, and in accordance with the plan for the day after the war, which Prime Minister Netanyahu submitted for the approval of the Defense Cabinet.

Israel is trying to establish a local government in the Gaza Strip after its occupation and disarmament, despite a previous attempt in which it failed. 

After 1977, the Israeli military government established Palestinian political organizations in Judea and Samaria that opposed the PLO, and supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that would exist alongside the State of Israel. They were called "village associations". 

The purpose of these associations was to weaken the power of the PLO, but exactly the opposite happened: The PLO began to assassinate the heads of these associations, and they were the ones who weakened them. Corruption also spread in them quite quickly after they received power and weapons from Israel. In the end, they disbanded, with a large stain of cooperation with Israel to this very day.

The new Israeli move in the Gaza Strip is also reminiscent of the US's failed attempt in Iraq and Afghanistan to establish an alternative civilian government through an alliance with local tribes and elements.

Sources in the Gaza Strip said that the move on behalf of Israel is being led by the coordinator of operations in the territories, Major General Rasan Aliyan, who contacted several clans in the Gaza Strip that were in conflict with Hamas. According to them, most of the contacts so far have failed. The clans opposed the Israeli proposal to establish armed groups to protect certain geographical areas in order to maintain security.

According to the reports, there is a willingness of some clans to go along with the Israeli plan only after Israel topples the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Some clans are ready to provide services to residents in their area of control in everything related to day-to-day life. These are armed clans that control the neighborhoods of Sabra, Tel Alhava and Zeitoun in the south and west of Gaza City, which are in conflict with Hamas.

Israel is ready to try them in the first stage, so that they protect the humanitarian aid shipments that enter the Strip following their confiscation by Hamas militants. Israel is examining the possibility of equipping these armed clans with additional weapons, to protect humanitarian aid shipments from Hamas, but this is conditional on the US's consent.

Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip say that the movement is aware of all of Israel's contacts with the armed clans, and that Israel is operating in a "divide and rule" method in an attempt to damage the social fabric in the Gaza Strip, create conflict between Hamas and several clans, and create security chaos. 

According to them, the Hamas leadership has decided to settle accounts with these clans in the future at the appropriate time, especially with members of clans that cooperated with Israel and killed Hamas members.

These clans have a long account with Hamas, after it forcibly took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 and expelled the Palestinian Authority from it. It forcibly confiscated their weapons and killed several members of the clans on the grounds of "controlling public order in the Gaza Strip."

Senior security officials in Israel say that all the options for a Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip, which will replace the Hamas government after its overthrow by the IDF, are bad options. Israel should choose the least bad option for it. Any new Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip will be hostile to Israel. Israel You will have to make do with the least hostile government.

It seems that history is about to repeat itself, and Israel has learned nothing from its rule in the territories since 1967. Rule by the major clans in the Gaza Strip, with the backing of the IDF who will remain in the Gaza Strip, will also lead to phenomena of corruption in a sensitive period of war, while the IDF continues to fight terrorists Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The clans will take care of their own needs first and foremost.

Hamas is a much more murderous organization than the PLO of the 1970s. Even after the IDF destroys most of the organization's military infrastructure and eliminates its leaders, it will still have a presence in the Gaza Strip. It is not going to disappear, and it will operate as a guerrilla organization.

Despite the power struggles in the Strip between the various groups, which are expected to increase after the collapse of the Hamas regime, it should be remembered that hatred of Israel is the common denominator that outweighs any other consideration, especially after the large number of victims as a result of the war - more than 30 thousand Palestinian deaths and more than 60 thousand wounded.

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Yoni Ben Menachem, NEWSRAEL contributor, is an expert in the field who has covered significant events in Israeli history, such as the first and second intifadas, military operations and more. He speaks the Arabic language in several different dialects, and has connections with senior figures in the Arab world, as well as in the political and military leadership in Israel. Ben Menachem served as editor-in-chief and CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

Photo: Reuters

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Comments
Asher Gelibter 13:34 05.03.2024
There are no reliable leaders in the Arb community that can rule Gaza.In the long run Israel well have no choice but to govern the strip
Francis Lammawin 22:23 04.03.2024
The only solution for assured security is total mass relocation to East Palestine as originally planned in 1927 by the British mandate.
Francis Lammawin 22:21 04.03.2024
All Palestinians shall be rehabilitated and re-programmed most especially the childrenbut but, this may take 3-4 generations. If thid is not acceptable, The only solution for lasting Israel oeace is m
[Anonymous] 21:13 04.03.2024
What a conundrum!!!🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏. G d bless you all.
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