Listen to the Gazans who are seeking a path away from Hamas
By David Ignatius
Columnist|Follow
October 20, 2023 at 5:24 p.m. EDT
As Israeli commanders plan the next stages of their campaign in Gaza, I hope they realize that some Palestinians there hate Hamas nearly as much as they do — and that it’s those Gazans who must eventually build a different political structure that will bring stability and security to that tormented enclave.
If you doubt there are Palestinians who oppose the terrorist regime that Hamas has created, visit a project called “Whispered in Gaza” online. You’ll hear 25 powerful narratives that were recorded over the past 18 months. The Gazans’ names are changed and their faces drawn by animators, but their message has the unmistakable power of truth.
Here are some of those Gaza whispers: A pharmacist called “Basma” explains how she had to close her shop because of harassment by Hamas officials. A journalist called “Maha” says she was “muzzled” and threatened by Hamas and gave up her work. “Layla” describes how Hamas operatives forced her to close a counseling center because they were afraid it might encourage unhappy Gazans to protest the regime. “Othman” says bluntly: “The so-called ‘resistance’ has become a business.”
Listen to “Zainab,” her voice barely audible, expressing what sounds like a plea to the world: “There is a false stereotype that Palestinians in Gaza love rockets and wars. Gazans don’t love wars. The wars that happen are waged by the Hamas government for political aims that serve them alone. … We don’t want war. We want a decent life.”
I wouldn’t pretend that these dissident voices represent a majority, or that they aren’t angered by Israeli bombardment of civilian areas. But Joseph Braude, who heads the Center for Peace Communications, the New York-based group that organized “Whispered in Gaza,” has been talking to Palestinians there every day since this war began Oct. 7. He says he has heard a consistent theme: “There are trained, skilled, professional people who would step up and participate in an effort to reconstruct Gaza. Israel should show them it understands that many Gazans do not want to be ruled by Hamas.”
As this war progresses, the political and economic reconstruction of Gaza can’t be an afterthought for Israel; it’s a strategic necessity. Hamas laid a trap, betting that Israeli retaliation would entrench extremism all the more. If Israel treats all Gazans as enemies, it will fall into that trap and guarantee the ultimate failure of its mission. Fighting Hamas is a just war, but it must be accompanied by a clear plan, framed by the United States and friendly Arab countries working with a new generation of Palestinian leaders, to rebuild Gaza and invest in the West Bank. Otherwise, the war will create nothing but more rage in a barren land.
President Biden has tempered his deep empathy for Israel with a blunt warning. “Shock, pain, rage — an all-consuming rage. I understand and many Americans understand,” he said during a televised address during his visit to Israel this week. “But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
The biggest mistake Israel could make in this conflict is not thinking carefully about “the day after.” That starts with governance. If Israel means to break Hamas’s control, what power will fill the vacuum? Israel doesn’t want to run Gaza, and its proxies will be rejected as collaborators. The best hope — the only hope, really — is that moderate Arab nations will work to create a new, post-Hamas structure that will represent a new Palestinian Authority that could govern the West Bank, as well.
Polls suggest that Palestinians are ready for a different order. In a July 2023 survey by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, half of those polled in Gaza agreed that “Hamas should stop calling for Israel’s destruction, and instead accept a permanent two-state solution.” And 70 percent of Gazans favored the Palestinian Authority sending “officials and security officers to Gaza to take over the administration there.”
Gazans have even protested publicly against Hamas. A 2019 movement called “We Want to Live” drew a crowd estimated at about 1,000, according to Braude. A similar protest on July 30 brought crowds, too. The Associated Press estimated “thousands”; the New York Times said “several hundred.” But either way, a lot of brave people were ready to challenge Hamas in public, just as protesters have challenged the Iranian regime and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The United States and its friends need to learn from the past. Gaza has seen a half-dozen wars over two decades, usually followed by plans for reconstruction. These good intentions have all failed. The reason is that Hamas has maintained its oppressive political power and run the enclave as a garrison state to prepare for the next assault. Even when it pretended to be cooperating with Israel, as was the case the past several years, Hamas was preparing for war.
I have a stack of reconstruction plans for Gaza that went nowhere. After the 2014 war, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations agreed on a “Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism” to allow shipment of construction materials for rebuilding. But Israel balked at giving Hamas tools that could be used for tunnels and fortifications, and the effort “ended up creating a cumbersome bureaucracy,” according to a 2017 Brookings study aptly titled “Still in Ruins.” The Persian Gulf countries delivered only 22 percent of the reconstruction money they had pledged, the report says.
The World Bank issued its own reconstruction plan in 2021, after that year’s war. It estimated necessary reconstruction costs at between $345 million and $485 million in the first two years. The bank made detailed proposals for “building back better,” including new power projects, fishing zones and commercial activities. Israel tried in the following two years to expand work permits and economic opportunities for Gaza, thinking that Hamas wanted economic growth. Tragically, that proved wrong.
Biden this week announced a $100 million U.S. humanitarian assistance package for Gaza and the West Bank, but given the scale of destruction over the past two weeks, it’s just a drop in the bucket of what’s needed.
“How this war is prosecuted — and what’s left behind when it’s over — will shape the future,” says Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who has lived in Gaza. He says that Israel, the United States and its Arab allies have to help the Palestinians find an “alternative political path.”
The worst days of this war are ahead. Talking about reconstruction might seem delusional when Israeli bombs are falling and their tanks are rolling forward. But if Israel’s leaders aren’t careful, they could once again win the war but lose the peace.
