I can think of no good solution. Here’s a mediocre solution, laden with violations of human rights and prone to failure and going back to square one:
1. Israel retakes Gaza, eliminates Hamas and installs a puppet regime of Israeli Arabs. With cues from China, Orwell and post-WW2 Germany, Gaza is made into a complete panopticon—cameras, internet monitoring, a network of spies, you name it. This is very problematic, but it’s preferable to collective punishment. This is meant to be temporary.
2. Using American and European money, The homes, schools, hospitals and stores are rebuilt. Massive famine relief is performed. A UBI plan is initiated to allow the Gazan economy to get back on its feet. It is important that Gazans will feel that the post-defeat period has been a big step upwards in terms of life quality.
3. Using Saudi/Emirati money, the mosques are rebuilt. They are made to be the fanciest, most beautiful mosques in the region. Streets and institutions are named after Palestinian poets and artists (not terrorists). It is important that Gazans won’t feel like their culture is being erased.
3. A new education curriculum is developed which fuses western education, progressive values and Muslim tradition while discouraging political violence. There are lots of art, music and sports scholarships.
4. Safe spaces for LGBTQ people are established. These will cultivate a local progressive movement that will be in touch with Israeli leftist organizations, and will serve as an additional front against Islamic fundamentalist violence.
5. Using Saudi/Emirati investments, an artificial island is built in front of Gaza, and on it—hotels and gaudy tourist attractions. This is for developing the economy.
6. Gaza’s tax system is made to attract international companies and billionaires. They will have an interest in a peaceful Gaza and will pull the strings to keep it so.
7. As Gazans become deradicalized, they get more and more permits to enter Israel and visit the West Bank. This improves their economic prospects.
8. Once Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel, pressure is enacted on Israel to give Gaza independence.
Sun Tzu says that the keys to victory lie in knowing yourself and your enemy. When I got to #4, it became obvious that you know very little about Islam. There are no LGBTQ+ safe spaces in Islam. A relevant wikipedia page says “Homosexual acts were forbidden (haram) in traditional Islamic jurisprudence and therefore were subject to punishment. The types of punishment prescribed for non-heterosexual activities include flogging, stoning, and the death penalty, depending on the particular situation and the school of thought.” The major Muslim countries are signatories to a UN counter-statement opposing gay rights. See here for a consensus statement of the Australian National Imam’s Council, whom I would expect to be much more liberal than the average Palestinian, saying, “From the time of the Prophet until now, all scholars of every time and era, have agreed that the practice of homosexuality is a forbidden act and a sin in Islam.” It’s just a complete non-starter.
This hasn’t historically always been the case—there was widespread public acceptance of homosexuality in the first 500 years of Islam’s existence, with homoerotic poetry being a staple of their culture—see e.g. here.
Judaism also unequivocally rejects homosexuality, yet many modern orthodox synagogues happily have openly gay members of their congregation. So this doesn’t seem quite as impossible as you make out.
In 14 centuries of Islamic history from Spain to Indonesia, with limited travel and much regional variation for most of it, there will be many opportunities to find examples that match our own culture’s Current Thing. Some Muslims are hypocrites; some Westerners look for homosexual subtext where none was intended. Many Muslim empires have risen in vigor and fallen in decadence. Still, the orthodox position is clear—homosexuality is both sinful and illegal. I’ve seen a Jew eat pork and laugh it off; it would be a mistake to make pork a key component of an appeal to militant Jews.
More to the point, in this era gay rights are associated with the West at its most liberal, which is exactly what Islamists oppose. Activity that might have been tolerated a thousand years ago is now perceived as a Western obsession and its practitioners as enemy sympathizers.
I guess it would make more sense to try to emulate a more secular country, such as Turkey. A country where individual people can be religious, but the state as a whole is not. A priest can tell you that something is a sin, but cannot organize your murder.
I think these ideas are well meaning, and parts are good, but it is maybe a little bit paternalistic towards the palestinians, none of your steps seem to involve asking (although part of that is in the nature of ‘suggest a solution’ type questions). Maybe they can vote on the tax haven and gaudy tourist attractions.
I think you have pattern matched Hamas to religious fundamentalism, and are imagining them a bit like the Taliban. I dont know if this characterisation is correct. I feel like they are primarily a nationalist thing, not a religious one. Like, most people fighting for american independence were presumably christian, but that wasnt the point. And my guess is that is how Hamas see and bill themselves.
And my guess is that is how Hamas see and bill themselves.
And your guess would be completely, hopelessly wrong. There is an actual document called “The Covenant of Hamas” written in 1988 and updated in 2017, which you can read here, it starts with
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all worlds. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Muhammad, the Master of Messengers and the Leader of the mujahidin, and upon his household and all his companions.
… so, uh, not a good start for the “not religious” thing. It continues:
1. The Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” is a Palestinian Islamic national liberation and resistance movement. Its goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project. Its frame of reference is Islam, which determines its principles, objectives and means.
In the document they really seem to want to clarify at every opportunity that yes, indeed they are religious at the most basic level, and that religion impacts every single aspect of their decision-making. I strongly recommend that everyone here read the whole thing, just to see what it really means to take your religion seriously.
The 2017 version has been cleaned up, but in the 1988 covenant you also had this gem:
> The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’ (Article 7)
>The HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism… Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews.′
Yes, it is paternalistic. Part of my point was that the situation in Gaza is so dire in terms of life quality and radicalization that a dystopian colonial social engineering project would be almost humane in comparison. This is where the great challenge lies—how to ascertain that after Hamas is eliminated (and it must be; after October 7th Israel will not rest until it’s gone), Gazans won’t promptly create its sequel.
But yeah, everything past the deradicalization stage is just a suggestion, and if it’s successful, Gazans get to choose the direction of their economy.
It is important that Gazans won’t feel like their culture is being erased.
A new education curriculum is developed which fuses western education, progressive values and Muslim tradition while discouraging political violence.
These two things are incompatible. Their culture is the entire problem. To get a sense of the sheer vastness of the gap, consider the fact that Arabs read on average 6 pages per year. It would take a superintelligence to somehow convince the palestinians to embrace western thought and values while not feeling like their culture is being erased.
From your link: “A general lack of educational opportunities in poor Arab countries can also add to these facts. Research for the Arab League region estimates that about 100 million people ? almost one in three—struggle to read and write.”
I’m at best unsure how much cultute is the Problem. Even if “not reading” was a cutural pillar for arabs, that can be changed without subverting everything else.
Which peaceful(-ish) branch of Islam would be most compatible with the current beliefs of the majority of Palestinians? Perhaps it would make sense to ask them to send their priests to convert people and to explain why Hamas were a bunch of heretics that are now rightfully punished by Allah. (The idea is to find priests who genuinely believe that.)
Trying to replace enemy leadership with more congenial leadership never works. You reliably get a corrupt puppet government and an insurgency. The only exception is after a comprehensive defeat of the enemy (i.e. post-WWII Germany and Japan), which begs the question (in the sense that this tactic would allow us to win only in cases where we’ve already won).
I can think of no good solution. Here’s a mediocre solution, laden with violations of human rights and prone to failure and going back to square one:
1. Israel retakes Gaza, eliminates Hamas and installs a puppet regime of Israeli Arabs. With cues from China, Orwell and post-WW2 Germany, Gaza is made into a complete panopticon—cameras, internet monitoring, a network of spies, you name it. This is very problematic, but it’s preferable to collective punishment. This is meant to be temporary.
2. Using American and European money, The homes, schools, hospitals and stores are rebuilt. Massive famine relief is performed. A UBI plan is initiated to allow the Gazan economy to get back on its feet. It is important that Gazans will feel that the post-defeat period has been a big step upwards in terms of life quality.
3. Using Saudi/Emirati money, the mosques are rebuilt. They are made to be the fanciest, most beautiful mosques in the region. Streets and institutions are named after Palestinian poets and artists (not terrorists). It is important that Gazans won’t feel like their culture is being erased.
3. A new education curriculum is developed which fuses western education, progressive values and Muslim tradition while discouraging political violence. There are lots of art, music and sports scholarships.
4. Safe spaces for LGBTQ people are established. These will cultivate a local progressive movement that will be in touch with Israeli leftist organizations, and will serve as an additional front against Islamic fundamentalist violence.
5. Using Saudi/Emirati investments, an artificial island is built in front of Gaza, and on it—hotels and gaudy tourist attractions. This is for developing the economy.
6. Gaza’s tax system is made to attract international companies and billionaires. They will have an interest in a peaceful Gaza and will pull the strings to keep it so.
7. As Gazans become deradicalized, they get more and more permits to enter Israel and visit the West Bank. This improves their economic prospects.
8. Once Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel, pressure is enacted on Israel to give Gaza independence.
Sun Tzu says that the keys to victory lie in knowing yourself and your enemy. When I got to #4, it became obvious that you know very little about Islam. There are no LGBTQ+ safe spaces in Islam. A relevant wikipedia page says “Homosexual acts were forbidden (haram) in traditional Islamic jurisprudence and therefore were subject to punishment. The types of punishment prescribed for non-heterosexual activities include flogging, stoning, and the death penalty, depending on the particular situation and the school of thought.” The major Muslim countries are signatories to a UN counter-statement opposing gay rights. See here for a consensus statement of the Australian National Imam’s Council, whom I would expect to be much more liberal than the average Palestinian, saying, “From the time of the Prophet until now, all scholars of every time and era, have agreed that the practice of homosexuality is a forbidden act and a sin in Islam.” It’s just a complete non-starter.
This hasn’t historically always been the case—there was widespread public acceptance of homosexuality in the first 500 years of Islam’s existence, with homoerotic poetry being a staple of their culture—see e.g. here.
Judaism also unequivocally rejects homosexuality, yet many modern orthodox synagogues happily have openly gay members of their congregation. So this doesn’t seem quite as impossible as you make out.
In 14 centuries of Islamic history from Spain to Indonesia, with limited travel and much regional variation for most of it, there will be many opportunities to find examples that match our own culture’s Current Thing. Some Muslims are hypocrites; some Westerners look for homosexual subtext where none was intended. Many Muslim empires have risen in vigor and fallen in decadence. Still, the orthodox position is clear—homosexuality is both sinful and illegal. I’ve seen a Jew eat pork and laugh it off; it would be a mistake to make pork a key component of an appeal to militant Jews.
More to the point, in this era gay rights are associated with the West at its most liberal, which is exactly what Islamists oppose. Activity that might have been tolerated a thousand years ago is now perceived as a Western obsession and its practitioners as enemy sympathizers.
I guess it would make more sense to try to emulate a more secular country, such as Turkey. A country where individual people can be religious, but the state as a whole is not. A priest can tell you that something is a sin, but cannot organize your murder.
I think these ideas are well meaning, and parts are good, but it is maybe a little bit paternalistic towards the palestinians, none of your steps seem to involve asking (although part of that is in the nature of ‘suggest a solution’ type questions). Maybe they can vote on the tax haven and gaudy tourist attractions.
I think you have pattern matched Hamas to religious fundamentalism, and are imagining them a bit like the Taliban. I dont know if this characterisation is correct. I feel like they are primarily a nationalist thing, not a religious one. Like, most people fighting for american independence were presumably christian, but that wasnt the point. And my guess is that is how Hamas see and bill themselves.
And your guess would be completely, hopelessly wrong. There is an actual document called “The Covenant of Hamas” written in 1988 and updated in 2017, which you can read here, it starts with
… so, uh, not a good start for the “not religious” thing. It continues:
In the document they really seem to want to clarify at every opportunity that yes, indeed they are religious at the most basic level, and that religion impacts every single aspect of their decision-making. I strongly recommend that everyone here read the whole thing, just to see what it really means to take your religion seriously.
The 2017 version has been cleaned up, but in the 1988 covenant you also had this gem:
> The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’ (Article 7)
>The HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism… Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews.′
Yes, it is paternalistic. Part of my point was that the situation in Gaza is so dire in terms of life quality and radicalization that a dystopian colonial social engineering project would be almost humane in comparison. This is where the great challenge lies—how to ascertain that after Hamas is eliminated (and it must be; after October 7th Israel will not rest until it’s gone), Gazans won’t promptly create its sequel.
But yeah, everything past the deradicalization stage is just a suggestion, and if it’s successful, Gazans get to choose the direction of their economy.
These two things are incompatible. Their culture is the entire problem. To get a sense of the sheer vastness of the gap, consider the fact that Arabs read on average 6 pages per year. It would take a superintelligence to somehow convince the palestinians to embrace western thought and values while not feeling like their culture is being erased.
From your link: “A general lack of educational opportunities in poor Arab countries can also add to these facts. Research for the Arab League region estimates that about 100 million people ? almost one in three—struggle to read and write.” I’m at best unsure how much cultute is the Problem. Even if “not reading” was a cutural pillar for arabs, that can be changed without subverting everything else.
Which peaceful(-ish) branch of Islam would be most compatible with the current beliefs of the majority of Palestinians? Perhaps it would make sense to ask them to send their priests to convert people and to explain why Hamas were a bunch of heretics that are now rightfully punished by Allah. (The idea is to find priests who genuinely believe that.)
Trying to replace enemy leadership with more congenial leadership never works. You reliably get a corrupt puppet government and an insurgency. The only exception is after a comprehensive defeat of the enemy (i.e. post-WWII Germany and Japan), which begs the question (in the sense that this tactic would allow us to win only in cases where we’ve already won).