Daniel Pipes, President of the Middle East Forum and author of "Israel Victory", spoke to Arutz Sheva – Israel National News on his recommendations for Israel's policy in Gaza after the war and the re-focus that Israel needs to undertake from fighting military threats to dealing with the major threat of delegitimization.
Pipes wrote his book "Israel Victory: How Zionists win acceptance and Palestinians get liberated," before October 7th, but then came the massacre, and he says that he had just submitted the manuscript, but had time to revise it before publication. "By early November it became clear that the Israeli security establishment is as hopelessly incompetent at the strategic level as ever, and as incredibly competent as it is at the tactical level, and that the mistakes will continue, and have continued, for almost another year."
 A conceptual map of Gaza and the West Bank. |
He thinks that "the Israelis completely blew it in 1967. They did not understand the problem at all. They now have a chance, 57 years later, to do it again and this time do it right. Have Gazans run Gaza under the watchful eyes of the Israeli forces. You don't want the Palestinian Authority there. You don't want all sorts of soldiers from a variety of states. You don't want the Israelis running it. You want decent Gazans running a decent Gaza, like you have a decent Egypt and a decent Jordan. If that happens, then over time the grip can loosen, and democratic elements can begin to emerge. There can be some kind of self-governing Gaza, whether it is a sovereign state or not, whether it's a Puerto Rico type situation, or not. Not today's worry."
Pipes continues to say that he "does not want to see Israel running Gaza. I do not want to see Israel running the West Bank. I don't want to see them annexing it. The last thing Israel needs is a far larger non-Jewish, and generally, hostile population. I am totally against a Palestinian state at present, but in the distant future, it's a perfectly acceptable possibility, should the Palestinians come to terms with Israel. I believe that Israeli policy should be to increase the number of West Bankers, Gazans and eastern Jerusalemites who accept the Jewish state from 20% to 70%. That should be the goal and Israeli policy should be focused on reaching that goal. That means first eliminating the foul Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and secondly focusing on winning over Palestinian hearts and minds."
Pipes still believes, "that despite all the horrible things that have happened, there is an increasing number of Palestinians who are willing to do business with Israel. Unfortunately Israeli foreign relations have been focused all around the world, but not on the 'Ultimate Enemy.' It's certainly worth the effort to convince Americans, Europeans, Japanese and so forth, but these are less important than convincing the Palestinians. Nearly all the venom against Israel, the anti-Zionism, has to do with the West Bank, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem. Those three populations represent not so much a military threat, but a delegitimization. Even though Hezbollah and Iran are militarily more powerful, they're not source of delegitimization; that delegitimization is an existential threat which must be dealt with. I think Israelis are too focused on the 'here and now,' on the violence and not enough on the delegitimization."
Pipes explains that "the delegitimization has passed, in large part, from Muslims to leftists. The leftists on the encampments in American universities or in the US Congress, are the key to the campaign against Israel. It's the Left which is paying attention to the West Bank, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem. So that's the key population for Israel to be focusing on in terms of ideas, sentiments and affiliation, not the Lebanese and not the Iranians. Those are just military threats, Palestinians are a minor military threat, but a major threat in terms of delegitimization."
