Will Israel Succeed in Implementing Its Plan in Gaza? Tawfiq Abu Shomar

Writer: Tawfiq Abu Shumer

The researcher Professor Martin Sherman published an article in the Zionist newspaper JNS about the future of the Gaza Strip, and it seems that his ideas have become the official Israeli policy for the future of Gaza.

I chose the article because this writer is not an ordinary journalist, but one of the prominent policy planners in Israel, as he was a political advisor to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, and he is also a senior advisor in the Israeli army, as well as a professor of political science at Tel Aviv University. He is also one of the founders of the Herzliya Center for Studies and Research, has numerous articles and studies in international relations, and is also one of the prominent founders of the Strategic Institute for Studies and Research. He is a member of the Kohelet Forum, meaning he is a member of the deep Israeli government. I will try to summarize his most important ideas about the future of the Gaza Strip. The article was titled: (What is the way to solve the Gaza crisis?)

He said: "The most important solution to the Gaza crisis is only a large-scale relocation of Gazans, and any solution that excludes this rule and relies on previous failed experiences, represented by the Oslo Accords or self-rule, is a failed solution. Israel made a mistake when it withdrew from Gaza in 2005, because this withdrawal made the solution in the Gaza Strip impossible!

A misleading dream prevailed after the (ancient) Oslo Accords in 1993 that a Palestinian or Arab self-rule in Gaza could be a strong governance, and that this dream would achieve security and stability for this small coastal enclave!

Political leaders in Israel ignored the warning of this dream. In 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza, and the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority were excluded from Gaza after losing the parliamentary elections. This election was the last one witnessed in the Palestinian arena. I personally warned early on in 1992, years before this withdrawal, that the withdrawal from Gaza would lead to disasters and destruction for both Jews and Arabs alike, and the events have proven the accuracy of my previous prophecy.

Previous events have shown that the only solution to impose stability in Gaza is to deport the largest number of Gaza's residents to other countries. This deportation will free them from their tyrannical leaders who have oppressed and misled them for many years, and have embroiled them in disasters!

Despite this, supporters of political demagoguery continued to chant the slogan of the right to self-determination for an oppressed people, a people that is clearly unable to succeed!

Martin Sherman continued, saying: Gaza is a small coastal strip that lacks the most basic necessities of life. There is no drinking water, and there is no electricity. Gaza relies on external aid, suffers from an inflation of government employees, and is plagued by corruption and corrupt individuals. Hamas has seized most of the aid and used it to build tunnels and manufacture rockets!

U.S. President Donald Trump proposed a good suggestion when he adopted the idea of relocating Gaza's residents and transferring the management of the sector to competent and powerful entities! Unfortunately, Netanyahu did not invest in this opportunity, nor did he optimally utilize the U.S. President's proposal, and he made no effort to get the world's countries to adopt this proposal. Instead, he transferred Trump's idea to his small cabinet, which is not competent, and thus the idea of President Trump lost its impact and became marginal!

Professor Martin continued his plan for Gaza: "Any solution that does not involve the large-scale relocation of the population of Gaza will be a failure, similar to the Oslo Accords and self-governance!

Moreover, Israel's demand for the complete disarmament of Hamas, while not granting Palestinians full freedom, would justify accusations against Israel of being an apartheid state!

If Israel finds a Palestinian leader who can establish an authority that ensures peaceful coexistence with Israel, that leader cannot remain in power without protection from the Israeli army, which will force him to change his positions and retreat, and he may be replaced by a more extremist leader!

Any solution for Gaza, when it becomes disarmed, will be a failure and incapable of protecting Gaza's borders with Egypt, and based on that, it will be difficult for Israel to find a ruler for Gaza, unless Israel is the actual ruler of Gaza, which is hard to achieve.

Therefore, there is no escape from the displacement of most of Gaza's population!" (JNS newspaper, October 2, 2026)

I highlighted the most important lines of this article not only because its author is an influential figure in the decisions of senior politicians in Israel, but also because I did not find any Palestinian national strategies that enjoy a majority, which could indicate the fate of the Palestinian cause in the future. I found no ideas that point to the future of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as most of our prominent researchers with high titles, our esteemed politicians, our leading thinkers, and our ideologically biased experts are still revolving in political circles like a game of musical chairs. They are preoccupied with tracking, criticizing, and distorting each other's statements, and in reality, they are talking to themselves, because most of them, when their cultural resources ran dry, resorted to an easy means of criticizing their peers.

There is another group of political analysis scholars who have been busy directing harsh criticism towards the National Committee for the Management of the Gaza Strip. Some considered it a committee with more influence than that of major countries, while others deemed it as having played no national role worthy of praise. Others, remnants of the left, decided that it is an American-Israeli colonial product, aimed at erasing the Palestinian cause and getting rid of its attachments to fit the laws of the third millennium, devoid of the traditional principles of armed resistance, liberation, justice, and the restoration of legitimate rights, as if they are still living in the political Souk Okaz. It is worth noting that most of these critics rejoiced at the formation of the committee, believing it would be the end of the crises, knowing that this committee was established in January 2026 with the approval of the United Nations Security Council in its resolution No. 2803. They forgot that it is a technocratic committee or a temporary mini-government that was agreed upon by many countries, and that it is a non-political committee whose main task is to provide services to the afflicted in Gaza, with the goal of reconstruction until the Palestinian National Authority is reformed, enabling it to regain control over the Gaza Strip, as stated in its founding provisions. Many of our writers, analysts, and political scholars considered the technocratic committee as a new Palestinian entity or party whose main task is to assassinate the two-state solution and undermine the Palestine Liberation Organization. Thus, the criticism of the technocratic committee turned into a serious accusation, considering it responsible for rectifying all the consequences of the disaster of October 7!

Critics of the technocrat committee have forgotten Israel's hostile stance towards this committee. Israel has not allowed this committee to enter Gaza to carry out its duties, because Israel's plan does not align with the formation of this committee, even though Israel itself welcomed its establishment. This committee would expose a wound that Israel wishes to conceal, which is the two-state solution that is rejected by Israel. Additionally, granting the committee authority over Gaza deprives Israel of two things: the first is the file of assassinations and the continuation of destruction, and the file of displacement, which are among the main Israeli files that need to be fully implemented. It is worth noting that Israel has a file that cannot be folded, which is the file of disarming Hamas in Gaza, as Israel's concept of disarmament is considered difficult to interpret! The second file is the search for international forces to oversee and manage the security of the Gaza Strip, so that these forces come from countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel, and at the same time are capable of managing Gaza by force of arms!

Many have forgotten that Israel will not allow anyone, no matter how powerful, to obstruct its main project, even if it is a major country like the United States, because Israel works day and night with many countries to accept the displacement of Palestinians to them, as Israel's program in Gaza is to turn Gaza into labor camps, so those who remain there will be workers in the construction, economy, and trade sectors, after being subjected to daily inspections at humiliating checkpoints, so that the residents of Gaza live off what they receive from their wages, thus revealing the secret of its project.

Israel's previous plans have become more evident in the city of Rafah. In Rafah, a project is underway to build one hundred thousand small homes at a cost of five billion dollars, accommodating five hundred thousand Gaza residents whose homes have been destroyed. In the second phase, another five hundred thousand caravans will also be built at a cost of thirty billion dollars!

Unfortunately, news from Gaza has disappeared under the impact of the windmill battles between Palestinian leaders, especially from the leadership category, and from a leadership category of national size. These Don Quixote-like battles have become the popular dish prevalent on social media, and what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank—killing, starvation, and loss of hope, along with family conflicts—has become a normal occurrence! Until when will political analysis scholars continue to diagnose the tragic reality, enumerate the tragedies and disasters, and accuse some of their competitors not only of negligence but also of collaborating with the enemies?! Few are those who can answer this question: "Is there a well-structured plan for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in confronting the Israeli scheme?!"

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