The Solution for Palestinian Refugees
Relocation out of area makes sense, but not to the usual places
As a result of the Hamas terror attack on innocent Israeli civilians on October 7th, the world’s attention has been focused once again on the everlasting Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With the Israeli Defense Force systematically rooting out Hamas from the Gaza Strip since the ground war began twenty days later, the question of what to do with the Palestinian residents has loomed large among diplomats, pundits, and others around the world.
Calls for the US and the West to permit the immigration of some 2,000,000 Palestinians have been made. What about another potential destination about which no one seems to be mentioning?
Let us examine the issue.
THE ATTACK
At 6:30 AM on October 7th (a Jewish holiday), Hamas attackers killed approximately 1,200 Israelis in an unprovoked surprise attack on over 20 communities in Israel while injuring over 5,400 people and capturing roughly 240 hostages. As reported here, the attack was conducted “[u]sing rockets, paragliders, boats, motorcycles, other vehicles, and whatever other means they could.”
Concurrent with the attack, Hamas and overseas allies conducted a massive information warfare campaign to sway world opinion in favor of Hamas by attempting to justify what amounted to war crimes. Those crimes included the rapes, the torture, the beheadings, the burning people alive, the continued holding of hostages, the use of hospitals and schools to shield Hamas terrorists, and the purposeful targeting of civilians.
A specific Hamas information warfare psychological operation was the claim that the Israelis “bombed a hospital” on October 17th and killed some 500 Palestinians. The false claim was used to set the narrative and ignite protests through sensational (but unverified) legacy media reports in the international press, as reported by NPR a week after the attack: “The news coverage was said to help inspire furious protests across the Middle East that scuttled some of President Biden's efforts at easing tensions through diplomacy.”
THE ISRAELI RESPONSE
In immediate retaliation on October 7th, Israel carried out airstrikes against Hamas rocket launch sites, known locations of Hamas leaders and their headquarters, and infrastructure (especially tunnels) used to stage and conduct the attack.
A ground assault was delayed while marshalling forces and selecting the optimum course of action based on tactical conditions in Gaza and the latest intelligence. The Israeli Defense Force ground attack commenced on October 27th after advance notifications were broadcast to civilians to evacuate from the northern Gaza Strip prior to the assault.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah (unreliable) as reported by CNN, over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israeli retaliation began on October 7th, including “70% of those killed were children, women and the elderly, while some 24,000 people have been injured.” Actual casualties are likely far lower, given the IDF’s long-demonstrated efforts to minimize civilian casualties.
THE WORLD’S REACTION
Particularly after the alleged Israeli attack on the hospital, pro-Palestinian demonstrations erupted around the world, including in London, Paris, and at many US universities as reported by Newsweek. NPR reported that “[a]t least tens of thousands of people” protested in Washington, DC, on November 4th to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to US support for “the ‘genocide’ of Palestinian people.”
On November 6th, eighteen heads of major UN bodies called for a “humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza,” including Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization; and Martin Griffiths, UN aid chief,” as reported by CBC.
On November 10th, French President Emmanuel Macron called for Israel to agree to a ceasefire, claiming that “there was no justification” for bombing civilians,” as reported by The Guardian.
Never mind that the Palestinians have broken all of the 15 previous ceasefires, as summarized here!
The latest escalating demand is that US and Europe accept massive numbers of Palestinian refugees from Gaza to “solve the problem” (see Reuters and The Wall Street Journal). Relocating 2.3 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip would gut Hamas’s logistics infrastructure and remove the long-term threat to Israel.
CHINA’S REACTION
China’s reaction is duplicitous and ingenuous, outwardly projecting impartiality and an even-handed approach to resolving the crisis while continuing to support Hamas’s principal backer – the Islamic Republic of Iran – through major trade deals (what aids Iran ultimately supports all the terror groups supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. Xi and his diplomatic corps have been calling for mediation and a ceasefire for weeks, including a China Daily editorial on October 16th, which would allow Hamas to regroup and rearm without paying a steep penalty for their war crimes.
The underlying truth is that Chinese leader Xi Jinping seeks to pin responsibility for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the US in order to endear China to Arab nations and ultimately displace the US presence in the Middle East. State-run Chinese media don’t even mention Hamas in their editorials demanding a ceasefire, claiming that the conflict is between Palestine (sic) and Israel.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Xi Jinping constantly regales us with soothing words such as “win-win cooperation,” “achieving whole-process people’s democracy,” “working together toward common development,” “advancing modernization featuring harmony between human and nature,” and “building a community with a shared future for mankind.” Underlying all of these communist slogans is the bedrock “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” as if that bit of information warfare is supposed to make students of history relax about the past transgressions of the Chinese Communist Party.
In the communists’ continuing calls for a ceasefire, no mention is made by Xi or state-run media about Palestinian refugees. Perhaps Xi should step up and do something truly altruistic about the Palestinians – to effectively put his money where his mouth is for a change, instead of attempting to make money or geopolitical gain off other people’s tragedies (the COVID-19 pandemic comes immediately to mind). If China wants to “lead the world,” then he can start by announcing a policy of “immigration with Chinese characteristics,” with emphasis on facilitating – and paying for – the immigration of a million or so Palestinians to communist China. Blending Palestinian refugees with fellow Muslim Uyghurs in East Turkmenistan makes logical sense, doesn’t it? That will surely help build a community with a shared future for mankind, won’t it? Now that would be some real Chinese leadership, not platitudes.
Xi can dispense with the smokescreen of pushing for an “immediate ceasefire” when everyone knows how the CCP would respond if a persecuted minority group in China was somehow able to perpetrate a similar terror attack on Chinese civilians. Chinese internal security forces and even the PLA would be used to brutally eradicate the perpetrators.
People should recognize the Chinese position on an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire for what it really is: geopolitical grandstanding. Only when the CCP puts some skin in the game by welcoming Palestinian refugees to China should the world pay attention to Xi Jinping et al regarding the Israeli response to Hamas’s terrorism.
The end.