Israeli Minister and War Council member Gideon Sa’ar said that he does not see the Palestinian Authority as a suitable partner for the post-war period, and would like for Egypt or Saudi Arabia to have a role in managing Gaza, RT Arabic reported.
This came during an interview with the “i24NEWS” channel, in which he talked about his vision for the post-war phase in Gaza, and what security intervention should be carried out by Israel.
He also expressed his opinion on a proposal for the Palestinian Authority to take over the intervention.
Gideon Sa’ar said, “We are thinking about this issue, but it is still too early to talk about the post-war stage. We are now in the midst of the war that will continue, we are determined to implement our goals, and this is the most important matter at this stage.”
“Regarding the role of the Palestinian Authority, we have realistic questions here. The question is: How can the Palestinian Authority, which is unable to control the areas under its control in the West Bank such as Jenin, control the Gaza Strip? Does this seem realistic?”
He added, “The second thing is that we have a moral issue with the Palestinian Authority, as it pays salaries and money to murderers and the families of terrorists as a reward for their crimes. The Authority is leading widespread incitement in its schools and in its textbooks. This is a dangerous matter because it poisons the ideas of new generations,” he said.
“It must be that we are thinking in the future about how to build the edifice of a new generation free of this hatred and free of these ideas that call for killing Jews and destroying the Jewish state, and I am not sure that the Palestinian Authority is the right partner to do this based on our experience with it during the last thirty years.”
Saar pointed to the Egyptian, Saudi and international role in managing Gaza in the post-war phase, saying: “This is not an easy issue that we must think about… Of course we have Arab neighbors that we want to be partners in the solution, like the Egyptians, or perhaps the Saudis and other countries that might want to be partners.”
“In crystallizing the phase of building the Gaza Strip and crystallizing a different future in the Gaza Strip, we must certainly think about our regional partners and also think about the internal partners in the Gaza Strip, but I must say that they must be partners who have not engaged in incitement and terrorism in the past,” he added.
The Israeli minister commented on the possibility of returning to the Gush Katif settlements that Israel evacuated after the unilateral disengagement from Gaza, saying: “This is an amazing thing to think that our enemies in the Gaza Strip did everything they did after we completely withdrew 18 years ago from the Strip and evacuated our towns, our gatherings and military bases, and we even took our graves with us from Gaza.”
He added that he has “opposed the timely unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”
Sa’ar continued, “Today we realized that the unilateral withdrawal decision was a mistake, but I am not sure that it is realistic today to talk about returning and rebuilding our settlements in Gush Katif. I think we have other goals and this is not part of the goals set by the mini-ministerial council.”
