Musa Abu Marzouk thinks this is just as stupid an idea as I do, although for different reasons.
"Top Hamas official rejects deployment of Arab forces in Gaza alone," from the Jerusalem Post, September 8 (thanks to Dionysios):
Musa Abu Marzouk, the Damascus-based deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, rejected the deployment of Arab forces in the Gaza Strip alone, calling for such forces to be deployed in the West Bank as well, Israel Radio reported Monday.On Saturday, political bureau member Muhammad Naser said that sending Arab or international forces to the Gaza Strip was not an option. Fatah spokesman Ahmad Abd a-Rahman insisted that an agreement between the Palestinian factions must be made in order to deploy Arab forces, adding that it was premature to raise the matter.
But...but I thought this whole thing was about Arab nationalism, Arab solidarity. Isn't it?
The problem with the idea is not in the introduction of foreign forces to impose a semblance of sanity on Gaza...it is only that those forces should not be Arab/Muslim. A robust multi-national force - not along the lines of MNIFL, but rather like what exists today in Afghanistan - could impose a re-ordering of Palestinian society and divest Israel of the responsibility for it.
The alternative is continued attacks upon an Israel that is losing the will to defend itself, the long-term institutionalizing of Hamas' control over Gaza (and soon, the West Bank), and the increasing international support for the Palestinians and their diabolical narrative of victimhood.
Then again, I have to remind myself that some folks here at JW have an aversion to the word "solutions".
The last people these people trust is...each other...