Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a utopian plan for a rebuilt Gaza on Friday called “Gaza 2035.”
In a PowerPoint file apparently published by the Prime Minister’s Office, and available (in Hebrew) on the Ynet news website, the Israeli government envisions a future for Gaza as a thriving center of trade and innovation under a Palestinian administration that is de-radicalized and focused on economic growth rather than on terror and hate.
The “Gaza 2035” plan seeks to capitalize on Gaza’s historical role as a crossroads on the east-west route between Cairo and Baghdad on the one hand, and the north-south route between Europe and Yemen on the other hand.
It envisions a three-stage process of rebuilding: first, 12 months of humanitarian aid; second, a 5-10 year process of reconstruction supervised by Arab states; and third, Palestinian self-rule and participation in the Abraham Accords.
The Jerusalem Post elaborates:
Part of the rebuilding effort will involve “rebuilding from nothing” and designing new cities from scratch, which will feature modern designs and planning.
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The plan also calls for the creation of a massive free trade zone covering Sderot-Gaza-El Arish, which would allow Israel, Gaza, and Egypt to take advantage of the location, co-operatively.
Combining the new infrastructure investments and integration of the region, the newly discovered gas fields just north of Gaza would help support the burgeoning industry.
The plan envisions normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and eventual union between the West Bank and Gaza under Palestinian administration, but does not explicitly call for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.
It also draws upon emerging agreements between Israel and nearby Arab states under which Israel plans to provide desalination technology on the Mediterranean in return for solar energy from vast solar fields to be built in the desert.
It remains to be seen whether the plan draws support. Palestinians have rejected such forward-looking plans before.
The timing of the plan suggests that the Netanyahu government wishes to make the case that it does not seek the “genocide” of the Palestinian people in Gaza, but rather a peaceful and mutually prosperous postwar coexistence.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
