Congress presented with plan linking aid in Mideast with resettlement of Gazans

Billions in handouts would be contingent on absorbing refugees

by Eliyahu Tulshinski, FRONTLINE      December 15, 2023

As momentum builds for the resettlement of the population of Gaza, activists from the NGO Boneh Israel (literally: “Building Israel”) have presented congressmen with a plan to make U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, and Turkey contingent on those countries accepting a quota of refugees from Gaza. Recently, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton and Dutch leader Geert Wilders called to resettle Gaza’s population.

The plan’s supporters say senior officials in both parties back the plan, though they are doing so quietly for now, as it would mark a reversal of 75 years of official U.S. policy. Till now, Arabs seeking to voluntarily resettle elsewhere are the only refugees not supported in their efforts. Both Hamas and Egypt are currently blocking Gazans from leaving physically, with the support of the U.N.

Support from Holland

Wilders, the victor in Holland’s election last month, supports relocation of Arabs not just from Gaza, but from Judea and Samaria as well. He believes Jordan, with its historical connection to the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, having once ruled that area, to be the most logical choice for their resettlement.

Gazans, formerly ruled by Egypt but now claiming to be connected to the Arab population of Judea and Samaria, would be resettled in Jordan as well according to Wilders’ plan.

Not necessarily Jordan

Jordan, however, is reluctant to accept any such refugees, having already fought a war against the PLO when the group attempted to overthrow King Hussein in 1970. The revolution was crushed and thousands of the group’s members and sympathizers were expelled. Jordanian King Abdullah is averse to risking his monarchy, should they return.

Regional beneficiaries

Israel Hayom reports that the initiative being circulated on Capitol Hill identifies regional recipients of U.S. taxpayer money as the most logical destinations for Gazans. Specifically, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Yemen are the target states to absorb some two million Gazans. These nations were selected due to their location as well the fact each receives significant American aid:

A new initiative submitted to the US Congress calls for conditioning American aid to Arab countries on their willingness to receive refugees from Gaza, Israel Hayom has learned.

The proposal was shown to key figures in the House and Senate from both parties. Some who were privy to the details of the text have so far kept a low profile, saying that publicly coming out in favor of the program could derail it.

Less than 1%

The proponents of the strategy implore Congress to condition foreign aid to those nations on their acceptance of the resettlement plan, saying that part of their grants should be used to absorb Gazans. They calculated the number of Gazans each of those nations should accept so as to represent less than 1% of their population.

“Israel is trying to keep civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip as low as possible, but Hamas is not allowing the refugees to leave and Egypt is unwilling to open its borders,”  the plan’s authors write in the opening paragraph. They later go on to explain that “the only moral solution is to ensure that Egypt opens its borders and allows for the refugees to flee from the tyrant control of Hamas. The US Government provides Egypt with approximately $1.3 billion in foreign aid, and these funds can be allocated to the refugees from Gaza who will be allowed into Egypt.”

They continue: “The neighboring borders have been closed for too long, but it is now clear that in order to free the Gazan population from the tyrannical oppression of Hamas and to allow them to live free of war and bloodshed, Israel must encourage the international community to find the correct, moral and humane avenues for the relocation of the Gazan population.”

For comparison, America now hosts a record 49.5 million foreign-born individuals, comprising 15% of the total population.

The advocates say that the proposal does not contradict that public statements of the Biden administration, since it encourages only voluntary migration:

It should be noted that the Biden administration opposes the forced removal of Gaza residents from the Strip but has not ruled out voluntary migration for those who choose to do so.

Arguing that Gazans should not be treated differently than refugees from other war zones, they conclude with a survey of recent resettlements:

This would not be the first time other countries accepted refugees. According to the UNHCR database, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for example, over 6 million Ukrainians have fled the country. Poland has accepted nearly 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees, Germany received almost 1 million and the Czech Republic close to half a million.

Likewise, since 2011 and the ongoing Syrian civil war, 6.7 million Syrians have fled Syria to be dispersed throughout the surrounding countries. 3.2 million Syrian refugees relocated to Turkey, 789,000 found refuge in Lebanon, 653,000 in Jordan, and 150,000 in Egypt while other Middle Eastern and European countries have accepted hundreds of thousands.

Check back for our coverage of past population transfers that led to peace and see our previous Middle East coverage:

  1. Dutch leader ‘would applaud massive voluntary relocation’ of Gazans
  2. Former US ambassador to UN calls to resettle Gaza’s population
  3. Israel jails massacre hero on gun charge as Muslims use automatic rifle in deadly Jerusalem shooting
  4. Caliphate slogans shouted at pro-Hamas demonstration
  5. Islamic State resurgence follows US foreign policy
  6. Arab kings, Egypt block Iran at summit on Israel
  7. ‘Our revolution is a phase of world revolution: it is not limited to reconquering Palestine’
  8. Globalists cremate care for Gaza refugees
  9. How one defector got it right
  10. 100 years of fake communist collapses
  11. Did the Soviet Union fake its own funeral?
  12. ‘Victory means total destruction, occupation, expulsion, and settlement’ – Former Knesset Deputy Speaker
  13. Israel: Pressure builds for total victory while leaders stall – analysis
  14. ‘Don’t starve; you can release kidnapped children and surrender anytime’ – former US Naval Officer
  15. 8 ways Bibi betrayed the Jewish nation – analysis
  16. State Department pressing allies to concede to Marxist revolutionaries
  17. Israel’s chief justice approves confession extracted under torture, denies appeal
  18. Friends of Israel concerned over ruling allowing confessions extracted under torture
  19. US refuses to support Iranian protestors
  20. ‘Everybody Knows: Corruption in America’ and around the world
  21. Israel vs Israelis
  22. Biden sides with socialists; pressures Israel to protect activist judges

 

December 18, 2023 | 4 Comments »

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4 Comments / 4 Comments

  1. @Bear

    … to be supervised by international forces that will include Israel.

    The supervision should not be by committee, and certainty not by Israel’s enemies, so unless this international supervision would be by Micronesia, it should be avoided at all costs. In fact, securing the border is Israel’s problem, and the consequences of the failure of securing Rafah would fall upon Israelis alone. Consequently, the supervision should be conducted by Israel alone. We don’t need to empower some foreign transnational body with such a sensitive undertaking, and we should not be deceived into believing that anyone else would be motivated to safeguard our interests so well as we might do ourselves.

    Israel has to come to terms with the question of whether it is a sovereign state or if it is an American protectorate. Many would like to pretend that the answer is the latter, but thankfully the answer is actually the former. Hence, sovereignty has costs, and part of those costs is shouldering responsibility for securing borders, something which is considered somewhat taboo by the the US, the UK, the EU and the rest of the Liberal World Order, no doubt the source of whom Danon would use to offshore the responsibility for administering and securing the Rafah crossing. For reference, how did that work out in Lebanon?

  2. @Davidowicz Seriously. Here’s my candidate:

    “People also ask
    What’s the most uninhabitable place on Earth?
    Danakil Depression
    Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression and its landscape, which consists of burning salt, volcanic rock, and sulfuric acid, is considered the most uninhabitable place on Earth. The Danakil Depression looks like it could be Mars. Its yellow and orange landscape is a cauldron of burning salt, volcanic rock, and sulfuric acid.Dec 1, 2019”

    “These Are 10 of the Most Extreme Locations on Earth – Insider”

  3. Danny Danon has a plan similar to Bibi’s for the Day After Hamas in Gaza.

    The plan proposed by Danon includes the following:
    1. Complete demilitarization of Gaza, including removal of all terror elements and full freedom of action for the IDF to respond to all security threats.
    2. Creation of a three-kilometer buffer zone in Gaza along the border with Israel, with no entry permitted to anyone.
    3. Improvement of the Rafah Crossing on the Gaza side to incorporate new technology and capabilities, to be supervised by international forces that will include Israel.
    4. Offering Gazans the option of voluntary emigration to countries willing to accept them, to alleviate economic strain and infuse foreign currency into the local economy via family members remaining in the enclave.
    5. Unequivocal renunciation of incitement and terrorism by Gaza residents, with an international framework overseeing management of all civilian aspects of life, including health, education and law enforcement.

    Danon’s plan is not dissimilar to the goals already announced by Likud chair and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly said Gaza will have to be demilitarized and the Israel Defense Forces retaining full freedom of movement to ensure security, once the Hamas terror organization has been eradicated and the hostages abducted by the group are rescued.

    Short of Kahne’s plan this maybe this might work. https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/palestinian-authority/mk-danny-danon-suggests-5-point-plan-for-day-after-in-gaza/2023/12/18/