The Gazans Should Consider All the Benefits of Becoming Members of the UAE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that Israel has no desire to “occupy” Gaza, and will remain in the Strip after Hamas has been defeated only until others can take over running Gaza. However, Israel will continue to make sure that Gaza remains demilitarized; the IDF will be able to go in and out of the Strip to make sure there is no violation of that essential requirement.

Bur what country has the wherewithal to take on the task? It has to be an Arab country, of course. Egypt has declared that it does not want to take on the burden of running Gaza. It’s an expensive task; Egypt’s economy is floundering and it is in no position to engage in the reconstruction of Gaza. Israel knows that popular opinion in Egypt is ill-disposed to Israel, and might, were Egypt to run Gaza, constrain its own government from collaborating with the Israelis to make sure that no terror group — Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad or another as yet unnamed — manages to re-establish itself in the Strip.

But there is one Arab country that does fit the bill. That is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which from the sale of oil is fabulously rich, and would also be in a position to convince fellow Gulf states, including Kuwait, Qatar, and above all, Saudi Arabia, to help pay for the reconstruction of a pacified and permanently pacific Gaza. The UAE is the Arab country that has the closest ties with Israel, the Arab country Israel trusts the most.

The UAE has been involved, through its military and financial support, in many conflicts in the Middle East. It has opposed the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, with money and military support, including bombing of Houthi positions, provided to the Sunni-dominated national government. It has supplied arms and money to the Rapid Support Force (RSF) in Sudan, supported General Khalifa al-Haftar in the Libyan civil war, and backed Eritrea in its conflict with Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa.

Seeing all the benefits the UAE has received from being a member of the Abraham Accords, including being the only power Israel would accept to rule over Gaza, which could then become the eighth emirate, the Saudis may drop their current insistence that they will only agree to join the Accords after a Palestinian state has been established. That is not going to happen, and the Saudis will have to decide if they still want to sacrifice their wellbeing, by rejecting Israeli security help in countering the menace of Iran, for the sake of the Palestinians, or whether, like the UAE, they will put their national interests first, and join the Accords.

The Gazans should consider all the benefits of becoming members of an “Emirate of Palestine.” That emirate would receive massive infusions of cash from Abu Dhabi that could be used to rebuild the infrastructure in the Strip, to finance the production of natural gas in Gaza’s territorial waters, and to build factories to provide jobs for the locals. The generous cradle-to-grave benefits that residents of the UAE receive would now be the birthright of the Gazans, as citizens of the eighth emirate. The Gazans will lose interest in joining the Palestinians in the West Bank in a single state run by the corrupt and venal Palestinian Authority; they would have things much better as citizens of the UAE.

Israel would be relieved, knowing that the pressure for a “two-state solution” would end, as Gaza becomes part of the UAE, a country whose rulers are just as determined to suppress Hamas in Gaza as the Israelis themselves. And the world should be satisfied that in Gaza, the Arabs are being governed by other — generous and deep-pocketed — Arabs. The Gazans could not have imagined a better outcome for themselves.

As for the Palestinians in the West Bank, with that “two-state solution” now impossible to attain, they should be trying to persuade the Jordanians to take over their governance, extending Jordanian citizenship to them, while Israel would continue to exercise its control over security throughout Judea and Samaria. As Prime Minister Netanyahu has said, “the Palestinians will have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten our life.”

Having the UAE take over Gaza as the eighth emirate, with Abu Dhabi paying for the rebuilding of the Strip’s now-destroyed infrastructure, and providing well-paid (i.e. Emirati-level) employment to Gazans, should do much to allay any discontent among some Gazans about having to abandon their dream of “obliterating” the Jewish state.

Gaza transformed into the eighth emirate would provide the Emirates both with more land, and access to the Mediterranean, via a land bridge of vehicles extending from the Persian Gulf through Jordan and Israel to Gaza, or perhaps by a rail line still to be built that would take people and goods from the Gulf to a port in the eighth emirate.

It’s a win-win-win situation. Israel will have its security in Gaza assured by the UAE police and military. The Gazans will have their economic wellbeing assured by becoming citizens of the generous UAE, which has both the money — tens of billions of dollars — needed, and the willingness, to rebuild the Strip. The UAE will gain prestige as the nation that finally “solved” the Arab-Israeli conflict.