[ZERO] Israeli media news site Ynet has reported that the Israeli army is preparing to occupy and control the Gaza Strip for years to come, and this is increasingly the default assumption of Israeli military officers in the absence of a clearly defined long-term mission by top leadership.
The outlet wrote that this comes "in the absence of clear strategic goals for the future of the Gaza Strip."
| The clear strategic goal is to remain until a peaceful, de-jihadicized Arab government can be found and become capable of defending the territory against internal and external jihadi impulses, so that it never again is a threat to Israel. But that can’t be said while there’s a Democrat in the White House. |
The report continued, "The Israeli army began yesterday through this appointment to accept the fact that its responsibility for the Strip will continue for years and will expand, and about two million Palestinians will remain under its responsibility."
The military's Lt. Col. Elad Goren has been appointed Head of Humanitarian-Civilian Effort in Gaza to oversee these longer term efforts. "This new position is not for show ... It will have an important role for years to come ... Anyone who believes that Israeli control and intervention in the Gaza Strip will end soon, whether by stopping or not stopping the fighting and its decline, or even with or without a deal, is mistaken," a high-ranking security official told Ynet. |