From the Liveblog of
Monday, December 9, 2024
Golan says Israel must cooperate with PA on postwar Gaza, devise regional plan with West, Arab states
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Despite this weekend’s sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, which further weakens Hamas’s bargaining power regarding a hostage deal in Gaza, “the obstacle to ending the war and returning all the hostages home remains [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Yair Golan, the chairman of The Democrats left-wing party — a merger of Labor and Meretz — tells reporters.
Speaking ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Golan insists that the “key to building a regional alliance lies in Gaza” and that “without a clear commitment to ending the conflict, neither Saudi Arabia nor the Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Britain, Germany and France will agree to cooperate with us in stabilizing and shaping the Middle East.”
“Yesterday I flew to the Emirates for a quick visit, where I met with the foreign minister. He told me directly and unequivocally that without cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, there will be no regional partnership in rebuilding the Strip,” Golan continues, insisting that “it is in Israel’s supreme interest to create an alternative to Hamas.”
Israel “must move away from a policy of ‘conflict management,’ and a policy of dismantling the PA, occupying Gaza and annexing the territories — to a responsible policy of resolving the conflict through a regional arrangement,” he continues, arguing that this is the only way to create an American-backed alliance with moderate Sunni states and halt Iran’s nuclear program.
The current government is incapable of achieving this and the prime minister is “busy saving his own skin, not saving the hostages,” he claims, likely referring to Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial and his dependence on far-right coalition allies.
