The Offer that Turns the Gaza Strip into Singapore

[Valin]

Gatestone Institute:

Bassam Tawil

February 21, 2017

 

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Last week, Hamas received an offer that no sane entity would turn down. It is to be noted that the offer did not come from Hamas's friends and allies in Iran and the Arab and Islamic world. Rather, the offer, which promises to turn the Gaza Strip, where most residents live in the poverty of "refugee camps," into "the Singapore of the Middle East," came from Israel.

 

Specifically, the offer was made by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who proposed building a seaport and an airport, as well as industrial zones that would help create 40,000 jobs in the Gaza Strip, if Hamas agreed to demilitarization and to dismantling the tunnels and rocket systems it has built up.

 

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Why did Hamas reject an offer for a seaport, airport and tens of thousands of jobs for Palestinians? Because Hamas does not see its conflict with Israel as an economic issue. The dispute is not about improving the living conditions of Palestinians, as far as Hamas is concerned. Instead, it is about the very existence of Israel.

 

"The Israeli offer is a silly one," explained Palestinian political analyst Ibrahim Al-Madhoun. "Hamas rejected it because Hamas does not wish to turn the case of liberating the land and Palestinians into an economic issue."

 

To clarify further: Hamas does not want a new "Singapore" in the Middle East. Hamas wants Israel to disappear from the Middle East and ideally from the face of the earth. The welfare of Palestinians living under its rule is the last thing on the mind of Hamas.

 

Strikingly, Hamas leaders openly admit all of this. "If we wanted to turn the Gaza Strip into Singapore, we could have achieved that with our own hands," declared senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar. He went on to say that Hamas is continuing to prepare for war with Israel in order to "liberate all of Palestine."

 

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