The slick sales pitch that Gazans can really change

Who knew that squatters have rights! It’s unthinkable, but once they gain access to a property, known as “tenant status,” the rightful owner is forbidden from changing the locks or shutting off the utilities. At that point, a formal legal procedure must be enacted to regain personal use of one’s own property.

Why is this important? Because it illustrates just how complicated things can get when someone moves in and attempts to bypass laws and moral ethics. What should be a clearcut issue, becomes one of great entanglement, adversely impacting the individual who must then go through a painful and costly process of extracting a person who lacked good-will and didn’t belong there.

Although somewhat different, the case made by Palestinian activist Samer Sinijlawi bears a few similarities to the squatters’ rights’ example.

In his recent Jerusalem Post article entitled, “Trump’s Gaza plan can still work,” Sinijlawi suggests that Washington change course by correcting its mistake in demanding the precondition to “disarm before any meaningful political process begins.” 

Calling it less of a strategy and more of a formula for diplomatic paralysis,” Sinijlawi would have us believe that all will be well once Gazans are permitted to rebuild, without having to prove anything.

But why should anyone believe Gazans will change and suddenly morph into good neighbors? And if they don’t, won’t it be like the situation of squatters, impossible to move them out, after they’ve taken possession? 

The Biblical injunction of “line upon line, precept upon precept,” found in Isaiah 28:10, describes a proper sequence of operation, which, when followed, will yield order, a trustworthy foundation and protection from the ensuing complications of a rushed and ill-conceived process.

Conversely, stop and think what the predictable results would be by allowing Gazan residents, among whom are Hamas terrorists, to be given financial assistance to rebuild, govern and return to the days that preceded October 7.  

Does anyone have a doubt that the money wouldn’t be used to rebuild the tunnels, secure new weapons and regroup? Who thinks that hospitals, schools and new housing would be the first priority of people whose ideology is so deeply entrenched in the singular goal of destroying the Jewish homeland? 

Only a disengenuous activist, such as Samer Sinijlawi, would push a so-called diplomatic solution, bypassing all of the safeguards that ensure no more massacres or attacks.  

But Sinijlawi, who claims that “wars rarely end because armed groups simply disappear through declarations,” forgets that once the Nazi regime was defeated and reviled, they did, in fact, disappear.  

Former operatives were tried and executed while others escaped to avoid imprisonment or death. It’s actually that simple when people are determined to excise the evil in their midst!

Sinijlawi believes that “disarmament must be a gradual outcome, led through a political transformation tied to legitimacy, institutions, incentives and alternative centers of authority.”

Clearly this is a man desperate to forget the devastation and abomination of that fated October morning, when demons were unleashed in the form of ordinary Gazan people who embraced the worst human impulses, by becoming the savages who slaughtered innocent children, babies, women and the elderly. 

For him, three years is just about enough time for those horrors to have become faded memories, barely remembered. Apparently, he’s also banking on the short recall of Washington, who, when being presented with the enticing dangling carrot of a peaceful and orderly Gaza, will hop on board.

What wouldn’t they do to achieve that coveted feather in the cap of diplomacy, able to boast about having done the impossible? 

But, let’s not forget. Western political figures are not the ones who have to live side by side with a potentially exploding powder keg that would, once again, seek the demise of the Jewish state, this time having the advantage of learning from their previous mistakes.

Sinijlawi, will stop at nothing in his pitch for second chances. Using the words of the Israeli military, he reiterates Israel’s biggest worries – the danger of escalation in Palestinian areas, including the territories of Judea and Samaria, if a solution is not found.

By playing on their fears, he says that such a potentially volatile situation, which could erupt at any moment, makes it all the more pressing to resolve the so-called Palestinian conundrum. Further embellishing the danger, he throws Jordan into the mix, worried how this might destabilize their country. For him, moving quickly is the winning formula, to avoid an endless regional chain of events.

So typical of a slick salesman who doesn’t just push his product, but plants the seeds of fear and foreboding of what life could look like without that magic pill.

Hope springs eternal in the mind of Samer Sinijlawi, who believes that old systems and factions stand to be defeated when replaced with a new and improved Gaza, headed by young reformists, who will do a 180-degree turn around and govern with accountability and “practical leadership.”

He sounds so convincing that you’re almost tempted to say, “where do we sign?” But even giving him the benefit of the doubt, too many questions remain unanswered.  

What happens to Hamas members, whose weapons are a permanent appendage to their bodies? How does their inculcated ideology dissipate, turning them into peace-loving and law-abiding citizens?

What about the upcoming generation, already indoctrinated into the system that patiently waits for the next onslaught against their neighbors? Can anyone remove the aspirational desire of achieving martyrdom as being the highest form of heroism and spiritual reward?

None of those concerns are ever expressed by the floaters of diplomatic solutions.  But without first exploring the problematic ideology, which undermines all efforts to live peaceably, there is no line upon line, precept upon precept.

Instead, we are left with a disorderly pie in the sky, quick fix that has not been well-thought through and adequately judged in order to predict its probable outcome.

Sinijlawi’s cleverly worded synopsis offers a look-good approach, without addressing the underlying rot that will end up subverting even the best of plans. 

His ultimate goal of pushing through a destructive and dangerous population, disguising them as being ready to take on the responsibility of proper living is a pipedream. Once deeply rooted in Gaza, dealing with them will be no different than the squatters who are impossible to remove!

It’s all the stuff of a slick sales pitch which some of us are simply not buying!