Back to the enlightened occupation

[occuserpens]

Zvi Bar'el. Back to the enlightened occupation
Israel faces two options: to return to the period of "enlightened occupation," when the military government directly handled the payment of salaries, the development of water and sewage networks and the paving of streets, or it can delegate these authorities to an elected body - Hamas, for example, which has demonstrated order, a capability to organize and a lack of corruption.

A return to the direct civil occupation is a tempting option until one recalls that several impossible conditions are attached to it: disarming Fatah, which is no longer the representative body; disarming Hamas, which is a terror organization; and canceling the period of relative calm and returning to war with the dusty slogan "Let the Israel Defense Forces win."

It may still be possible to wait a few weeks before it becomes clear that Israel does not even have the option of pressuring Hamas. This is because the economic hardship, the heavy debt to the Israel Electric Corporation, non-payment of salaries to the Palestinian security forces, the elimination of budgets for hospitals and thousands of other essential items for daily life that cannot be purchased, will start to direct the pressure in the opposite direction: from Hamas to Jerusalem. It would be best for Israel to quickly transfer responsibility for the daily management of the territories to anyone willing to do so - even if it is called Hamas.