In his need to be clever and come up with new creative ways to achieve the goal of Palestinian statehood, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has now resorted to the threat that “Arabs won’t pay to rebuild Gaza without a path to Palestinian statehood” (The Jerusalem Post, January 17, 2024).
In short, Blinken is making it clear that unless we want to absorb the full cost of rebuilding Gaza, we are going to have to offer to make nice with the Palestinians by incentivizing their willingness to take on the massive restoration project. And under what framework would that incentive come? Being agreeable to the acceptance of a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish one.
While some might call that a fair exchange, I would call it financial blackmail, knowing full well that Israel cannot afford to take on such an expense when it has its own immense burden of rebuilding all of the southern communities that were destroyed by Hamas terrorists, necessitating the evacuation of those residents.
Since that time, Israel has had to pick up the tab for housing tens of thousands of kibbutz members as well as residents of northern and southern communities where it remains too risky for citizens to live.
Add to that are the staggering costs of war. Dubbed Israel’s most expensive war ever, billions of dollars have already been spent in the fight against Hamas.
Ynet has reported, “The war has already cost some NIS 217 billion ($60 billion) which includes both the cost of the military operations and the broad financial assistance to the economy, including compensation for businesses, paying for property damage, and supporting tens of thousands of evacuees from the Gaza and Lebanon frontiers” (thejc.com, January 8).
According to the report, just calling up 360,000 reserve soldiers “cost around NIS 1 billion,” ($264 million) so the financial burden of fighting terrorism doesn’t come cheap – an important detail which Blinken is dangling in front of Israel.
Of course, cool-hand Blinken tries to explain the rationale by stating that Arab countries would not be amenable to invest in rebuilding, only to end up taking the risk that, at some point, the IDF will return to level it again.
And while that makes sense, he never addresses the real “elephant in the room.”
Palestinian state is dangerous for Israel
Israeli Defense Forces will only come back to destroy a rebuilt state if its terrorist government, yet again, seeks to massacre our people. In other words, rather than focusing on the real problem – the genocidal aspirations of those who are trying to use our right to defense as a ridiculous claim for Palestinian genocide, Blinken is, instead, fixated on the possibility of a second flattening of Gaza, rendering Arab investments superfluous.
What is completely missed by him, however, is that Israel’s acquiescence to Palestinian statehood is tantamount to signing its death warrant, because, as in the well-known fable of the scorpion who asks a frog to help him cross a river because he can’t swim, the hesitant frog agrees, only to face death after being stung. When asked by the frog why he stung him, the scorpion’s response is: “I can’t help it. It’s my nature.”
In this case, even before October 7, we already had an inkling that it was in the nature of Palestinians to sting Israel, but, if we were ever doubtful, that tragic day made it painfully clear that Israel has no real partner when it comes to the concept of peaceful co-existence and living side-by-side with mutual respect.
All illusions are gone, and the proverbial cold water has been splashed on our faces, waking us up from the pipedream so many have tried to sell us – including the greatest advocates for Palestinian human rights who, themselves, were brutally and sadistically murdered by those in whom they believed.
Israel is now only in a position to take care of herself, which includes putting together the shattered pieces of the broken lives of those who have suffered the worst human tragedy possible, rebuilding burnt-down communities, which are nothing but rubble and the wreckage of lives that were incinerated by barbaric savages who haven’t yet understood what it means to live in the civilized world of 2023, unlike the Dark Ages.
In that respect, Arab nations would be quite right to pass on this “once in a lifetime” humanitarian endeavor to participate in a second shot for Gazans who took their own calculated risk by inviting another scorpion to represent them, not understanding that they, too, would be irreparably stung.
It is this kind of reality check that is so desperately needed by Blinken who has been sent out by those who absurdly believed that Israel would take the bait and do the unthinkable – agree to Palestinian statehood in exchange for being financially unburdened.
But what happens after we would agree to such a deal? We, undoubtedly, would then have to offer guarantees, by way of obligating ourselves to refrain from ever retaliating. What then?
In essence, we, too, will have allowed the scorpion to do what is in its nature. For the low price of a few hundred billion, we will have facilitated the perpetual goal of Hamas wherein they get to massacre, and we, in turn, get to bury our dead.
Why is that not crystal clear to Blinken who, if nothing else, at least needs to recognize the folly of such a preposterous suggestion? As someone who has made it as far as he has, he needs to go back to his higher-ups and convince them that Israel is just too smart to fall for this kind of obvious trap.
As secretary of state, it is Blinken’s job to offer sound and measured advice to those who fail to give us the most basic credit for seeing right through this type of financial blackmail, being floated as the deal of a lifetime.
In the meantime, Israel will continue the work that it began on October 8, as together we stand strong against the enemies who are committed to see our end. We will pay the cost of fighting, we will volunteer our services, we will rebuild our own communities, we will heal our wounded, and we will bind up the brokenhearted because that is what we have always done.
Oh yes, and here’s another thing – we won’t feel an obligation to restore the lives and homes of those who tried to destroy ours, because we don’t owe them that consideration, given that they didn’t think twice about celebrating our own devastating losses.
The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle school principal. She is also the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, available on Amazon, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs.