He and his family fled the Israeli rockets falling from the sky—
but were unable to escape the missiles fired from the many Israeli
tanks on the ground.
His younger brother was the first to be injured, by shrapnel to
his head. Moments later, Al Namlah recalled, there were “flashes
of white light. Then all I saw was dust and black smoke. I looked
down and my legs were far away. I was carrying my son and he
lost his leg, too. My wife, sister and brother all lost body parts while
running away.”
This past August, Israeli warplanes destroyed Al-Meshal Cultural
Center, a hub long considered one of Gaza’s premier cultural in-
stitutions, home to cutting-edge music, plays and art. Gaza’s artists
came together to remember what used to be their creative home
that now lies in ruins. [See “Other Voices” supplement, p. 2.]
U.N. officials also warned that the UNRWA schools that educate
hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children may not be able to
operate for the full school year because of the funding shortfall
caused by Washington freezing tens of millions of dollars in dues
to the relief agency and pressing for changes to its mandate.
In mid-August, the agency said it will reopen schools on time for
the new academic year, but has only enough funds to keep them
open until the end of September.
“We need a further $217 million to ensure that our schools not
only open, but can be run until the end of the year,” said Pierre
Krähenbühl, commissioner-general of UNRWA’s advisory commis-
sion.
That does not bring much comfort to Al Namlah and his young
children, however. The ones who were only babies in 2014 may
not remember the details of the war, but their parents remember it
all—as if it were yesterday. Regional Players Maneuver to
Reengineer the Israeli-Palestinian
LandscapeBy James Dorsey
A POSSIBLE CEASE-FIREbetween Israel and Hamas, the Is-
lamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, is proving to be much
more than an effort to end escalating violence that threatens to
spark yet another Middle Eastern war.
United Arab Emirates-backed Egyptian and United Nations ef-
forts to mediate an agreement, with the two countries’ nemesis,
Qatar, in the background, are about not only preventing months-
long weekly protests along the line that divides Gaza and Israel,
and repeated rocket and kite-mounted incendiary device attacks
on Israel that provoke Israeli military strikes in response, from spin-
ning out of control.
They constitute yet another round in an Israeli-supported effortto politically, economically and militarily weaken Hamas and pave
the road for a possible return to Palestine of Abu Dhabi-based for-
mer Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan as a future suc-
cessor to ailing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Ironically, Israeli discussions with representatives of Qatar, which
has long supported Gaza, constitute recognition of the utility of
Qatar’s long-standing relations with Islamists and militants that the
UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain cited as the reason for their
15-month-old diplomatic and economic boycott of the Gulf state.
Israel and Egypt have agreed that Qatar would pay the salaries
of tens of thousands of government employees in Gaza. Abbas
has refused to pay the salaries as part of an Israeli-UAE-Saudi-
backed effort to undermine Hamas’ control of Gaza and give the
Palestinian Authority a key role in its administration. In response
to a request by Abbas, Israel, moreover, reduced electricity sup-
plies, leaving Gazans with only 3-4 hours of power a day.
Qatar has also been negotiating the return by Hamas of two Is-
raeli nationals held captive as well as the remains of two Israeli sol-
diers killed in 2014 in Gaza.
Abbas’ economic warfare was the latest tightening of the noose
in more than a decade-long Israeli-Egyptian effort to strangle Gaza
economically. Included in the moves to negotiate a long-term Is-
raeli-Hamas cease-fire are proposals for significant steps to ease
the blockade.
In a statement on Facebook, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor
Lieberman said Israel’s goal was to “remove the Hamas terror
group from power, or force it to change its approach, i.e., recognize
Israel’s right to exist and accept the principle of rebuilding in ex-
change for demilitarization.”
Lieberman said he wanted to achieve that by “creating condi-
tions in which the average resident of Gaza will take steps to re-
place the Hamas regime with a more pragmatic government”
rather than through military force.
Ironically, involving Qatar in the efforts to prevent Gaza from es-
calating out of hand gives it a foot in the door as the UAE seeks to
put a Palestinian leader in place more attuned to Emirati and Saudi
willingness to accommodate the Trump administration’s controver-
sial efforts to negotiate an overall Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Speaking in a series of interviews, Qatari Ambassador to the
Palestinian territories Mohammed al-Emadi, insisted that “it is very
difficult to fund the reconstruction of Gaza in an event of yet an-
other destructive war.” He said he had “discussed a maximum of
5- to 10-year cease-fire with Hamas.”
Abbas, like Hamas, has rejected U.S. mediation following Pres-
ident Donald J. Trump’s recognition earlier this year of Jerusalem
as Israel’s capital.
Trump startled Israelis and Palestinians on Aug. 21 by saying
that Israel would pay a “higher price” for his recognition of
Jerusalem and that Palestinians would “get something very good”
in return “because it’s their turn next.” Trump gave no indication of
what he meant.
The effort to negotiate a lasting cease-fire is the latest round in
a so far failed UAE-Egyptian effort to return Dahlan to Palestine as58 WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS OCTOBER 2018James Dorsey is an award-winning foreign correspondent and the au-
thor of the book and blog The Turbulent World of Middle East Soc-
cer. Posted Aug. 24, 2018 on Lobe Log.Reprinted with permission.views_57-59.qxp_Two Views 8/29/18 4:01 PM Page 58