The Gaza Strip is run by an Islamist, genocidal terrorist organization that, weeks ago, launched a pogrom against Israel.
Israel once bet on an entirely different future.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, allowing the Palestinians to have self-determination. Every single Israeli left Gaza, including dead ones exhumed from cemeteries.
Israel left 3,000 greenhouses in the strip, which were to be a key part of the future Gazan economy. Palestinians proceeded immediately to loot and destroy the greenhouses. Jeffrey Goldberg, now editor of The Atlantic, called this “a perfect metaphor for Gaza’s wasted opportunity.”
Two years later, after a power struggle with Fatah (the leading party within the Palestinian Authority, of whom President Mahmoud Abbas is leader), Hamas took power in Gaza.
Hamas did not waste any time in terrorizing Israel. “Between their [Israel’s] withdrawal and the Gaza war of December 2008 … Israeli citizens absorbed 3,335 rockets aimed at their homes. Their border towns became uninhabitable,” wrote David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The United Nations Security Council, naturally, was utterly indifferent, never calling a session about the attacks. Makovsky continued, “That’s why Israel insisted on a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip: It was the only way to curb the Palestinian rocket attacks on its people.”
This was before Iron Dome became operational, so Israel had no way of shielding its people from the rockets.
Many critics, and outright haters, of Israel, have it exactly backwards. They argue that Israel’s (and, don’t forget, as many of the critics and haters do, Egypt’s) blockade of Gaza has radicalized the residents of Gaza and strengthened Hamas. In fact, the blockade was implemented in response to Hamas’ firing of unguided rockets into civilian areas, which is a war crime.
Over the years, Gaza has received billions of dollars in humanitarian aid. Between 2014 and 2020, United Nations agencies spent $4.5 billion in Gaza — $600 million in 2020 alone. Of this money, 80% flowed through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a body that instills antisemitic hatred and glorifies terrorism in its school curriculum.
Qatar, which hosts Hamas’ current leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and his predecessor, Khaled Meshaal, among other Hamas officials, donated a cumulative total of more than $2.1 billion to Gaza as of earlier this year. According to Hussain Abdul-Hussain of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “Without Qatari money, Hamas’ governorship of Gaza would have become untenable and its popularity among Palestinians would have collapsed.”
The European Commission has provided €700 million of humanitarian aid to both Gaza and the West Bank since 2000. As of 2021, the U.S. had spent more than $6.3 billion since 1993 to aid Palestinians in both territories.
Israel has allowed food, water, medicine and fuel into Gaza and facilitated exports. Thousands of Gazans were allowed permits to work in Israel before this month’s pogrom. Israel has also provided electricity to Gaza, even though it is governed by a genocidal group sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Hamas did not use this money to build up a vibrant economy. The group’s own leaders live in luxury in the Persian Gulf and care not one whit for Gaza, whose residents are used as one big human shield and propaganda tool.
Instead of building up actual infrastructure, Hamas built up terrorist infrastructure, with hundreds of miles of tunnels running under Gaza’s streets. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza, boasted in 2019 that Hamas used irrigation pipes left in Gaza after the 2005 withdrawal to manufacture rockets.
Hamas uses cement meant for the reconstruction of homes and buildings to rebuild destroyed tunnels and build new ones.
Hamas hates Israel more than it cares for Palestinians; it would, literally, rather kill Israelis than build a future for Palestinians.
Three months ago, frustrated Gazans took to the streets to protest their poor living conditions. Hamas flags were even burned before Hamas broke it up.
After Israel withdrew from Gaza, the Palestinians had an opportunity to create something great. There were no Israelis to blame. It was an experimental two-state solution in microcosm.
Gaza lies right on the Mediterranean Sea, like Jaffa, Haifa and Akko. And there was no shortage of money.
Instead, under Hamas, Gaza became a massive military base and labyrinth of terror tunnels. Hamas began firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel, causing Israel (and Egypt) to blockade Gaza.
It is profoundly sad to contemplate the Gaza that might have been. The fault lies with Hamas alone.
Evan Nierman is founder and CEO of the crisis communications firm Red Banyan and author of “Crisis Averted” and “The Cancel Culture Curse: From Rage to Redemption in a World Gone Mad.”
