Israel has a new government! Or at least it is going to as soon as parliament ratifies the coalition. This is going to have an immeasurable impact on not only Gaza but the two-state solution overall. The coalition that has been agreed upon would feature not only an Arab Islmaist party named Raam but also contain member of groups considered even more to the Right then current Prime Minister Netanyahu is.
This coalition would feature Naftali Bennett a former settler leader who opposes a Palestinian state to become the next Prime Minister for two years before the centralist Yair Lapid would take over. The coalition only works because all sides agreed to focus on the big ticket issues like healthcare and infrastructure avoiding any thing that could cause issues. Already though this could be in jeopardy and not from anything the current government says or does but due to Hamas and other outside forces.
Even with the US, Egypt and Qatar teaming up to provide $1 billion to the Palestinians largely via UN entities Hamas political wing leader Yahya Sinwar is practically begging Israel to continue its fight. The heart of this issue goes back to something I highlighted in an earlier post about this. The US and Israel is not going to allow Hama itself to gain any money from this and will do everything they can to make sure it goes to Gaza and the people. Hamas has now come out and said they will not take any money earmarked for humanitarian needs and called for Israel and Egypt to end their restrictions against Gaza.
Some of the money is already on its way and Israel is naturally wanting guarantees about where it is going to be spent. Qatar wants to send $30 million a month but has to have Israel approval something it currently does not have for this upcoming batch of money. However, it is not like nothing is being done as Egypt has sent in construction equipment and a team of engineers to begin rebuilding and has allocated $500 million in rebuild efforts alone. Funds, equipment and man power are and have been moving into the enclave so the statements released by Hamas are extremely disturbing to see.
The UN has also had to withdraw the director of Palestinian refugees because he faced threats for comments that he had made in an interview. In the interview he stated that while he was not a military expert he was told by collogues how precise the Israeli strikes had been. How the strikes were very sophisticated and again something he was told by his colleges were much more vicious in their impact then they were during the 2014 war in Gaza. Now looking at this from the outside I struggle to find what this individual do wrong as he relayed what had been told to him and was not making something up. The agency he works for is the one that provides food and medical care to the Gaza Strip so it is a huge set back to see someone of such importance in such a vital role get recalled over safety concerns.
The biggest issue facing this peace is the Flag March this week that will go through Jerusalem's Damascus Gate. This has been a flashpoint for years and Hamas has promised it will resume border protests if the march is held. These border protests have almost always led to further violence something I would feel both sides would want to avoid. Especially with Egypt having citizens and assets in the strip it could cause more of a headache for everyone involved. While the Israeli government has been rather quite on the issues at hand Hamas issuing threats could cause them to have to react and then a spiral will begin again.
