The plan to demilitarize Gaza together with Egypt, Syria, Saudis (2014)
This was considered at the highest levels in Israel in 2014. Netanyahu spoke explicitly about the goal of partial demilitarization. “We agreed to the Egyptian proposal in order to give an opportunity for the demilitarization of the [Gaza] Strip — from missiles, from rockets and from tunnels — through diplomatic means,” he said in a statement.<p>What happened? Why does Israel always go it alone? All the collateral damage and civilian deaths build up until they squander any sympathy support they have.<p>This is Israel’s 9&#x2F;11. After 9&#x2F;11 the US had a lot of international sympathy and even invoked Article 5 of NATO and formed a coalition before invading Afghanistan to get Bin Laden. (They ended up squandering all the good will they had, occupying afghanistan for 20 years, invading Iraq and causing 1 million excess deaths… but for a while there the coalition-building effort paid off.)<p>Why not speak at the UN and build a coalition to engage Hamas together? Urban warfare is not easy and civilian casualties have a way of shifting public opinion. Take a look at how Azov went from being branded terrorists to national heroes after Mariupol.<p>By sharing responsibility as a coalition, it would be harder for Syria, Hezbollah, Iran and others to justify attacking Israel. Israel’s government could avoid escalation and safeguard Israeli civilians. Why do they somehow always go it alone, and get all the blame alone?