How to Fix the Gaza Strip

Last updated on: July 18, 2014 at 11:03 pm by Jane the Actuary

How to Fix the Gaza Strip 2014-07-18T23:03:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

OK, before you get all upset and say, “the Isareli-Palestinian Conflict is intractable and if experts in the field haven’t fixed it, you, Jane the Actuary, an armchair foreign policy analyst at best, have no clue”:

I know that.

But of the three major international issues brewing right now (by three, I mean Ukraine, Gaza, and the mass influx of immigrants from Central America), Gaza seems, at least, the more tractable of these.

I mean, let’s face it, to a certain degree, the “solution” is for Israel to just occupy them again, with a tight enough lockdown to eliminate the tunnels and rockets and all the nefarious thing Gaza and Hamas are up to. But that’s not a long-term solution.

And then there are the Swiftian solutions such as the one proposed at theothermccain.com this morning, in which, thumbing his nose at the open-immigrationists, he proposes simply relocating all the Gazans here to the U.S.

But I’ve been thinking about this, in light of the book I read the other day which proposes that Israel keep the West Bank and dump Gaza. And I pulled up the Wikipedia entry for “history of Gaza” which sure makes it sound as if Gaza has a long history as a city, located on a strategic trade route, trading hands with successive rulers, controlled by Egypt on more than one occasion — but that it stands alone culturally and historically, rather than being part of a historical/cultural/ethnic entity of “Palestine.”

So I really think we ought to give Gaza to the Egyptians. Well, OK, some might dispute that “we” can “give” Gaza to anyone. But the Allies assigned Eastern Europe to the Soviets at the Potsdam Conference, and agreed to the massive population transfers/ethnic cleansing that uprooted the ethnic Germans from their homes, so there’s precedent, right?

The “catch” of course, is that right now Egypt is ruled by a military government (well, basically) who’s fairly anti-Muslim Brotherhood and would likely be more than happy to smash Hamas, but there are no guarantees that this stays that way. But if Gaza was Egyptian, then the firing of rockets from a country that wants to claim to be civilized would be a bit awkward, and the Egyptians do need their foreign aid (and the foreign aid flows through more “normal” channels that mean that it could be suspended, as opposed to the fact that aid to Gaza doesn’t seem to be contingent on any sort of good behavior on the part of Hamas).

If Egypt doesn’t want Gaza, then perhaps we can pay them off, anyway. How much would Egypt want in additional foreign aid to take on the city/region? They’d have to confer Egyptian citizenship, and dismantle the “refugee camps” – or at any rate, convert them into ordinary municipalities.

And once Egypt has a firm hand on Gaza, then Israel could lift the naval blockade and — well, maybe there are enough civilized people there who want to make a decent life for themselves and maybe there aren’t. Of course, the other half of my solution is for the West Bank to be incorporated into Israel as an autonomous, but not independent region, so I suppose there could be some one-time population transfers, with, say, the extremist West Bankians moving to Gaza and the moderate Gazans moving to the West Bank (which would need some other place name — Palestine, and Judea-and-Samaria are both too loaded but the name West Bank sucks as a place name).

And that’s all I have for you, without further reading — but is it really so crazy to think that Gaza and the West Bank might have different futures?

(Update: I’ve gotten push-back, in comments on other blogs, along the lines of: but Egypt doesn’t want Gaza. See above: Egypt wants foreign aid money, right?)

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 17, 2014

We should get employers out of the [fill in the blank] business

Next Post

July 19, 2014 Parking a link: USDA report on promoting healthy eating for food stamp recipients (now with summary and analysis)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Give us this day our daily bread"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Jesus David Paul