People packed the room at a private reception with Bassam Eid, Palestinian peace activist, human rights expert, political analyst, and journalist on November 26th, an outspoken critic of Hamas, and realist on options for Israel. In his presentation, Eid notes that aid going into Gaza will end up with Hamas, the UN is out of touch, creating conflicts not solving them. He asserted that Iran has outsized influence on Gaza and that there is no pressure being put on Hamas to cease the war, but the international community is pressuring Israel.
Arab Muslim countries met recently in Saudi Arabia and agreed to increase aid to Gaza but said nothing about stopping the war or solving the crisis. Possibly a good outcome as that means they are not pressuring Israel. In addressing the question of what might be a reasonable outcome after the war, Eid suggested adopting some of what President Trump proposed, noting that Palestinian Arabs are not ready to self-govern a new state. He suggested that a solution for Gaza is to annex several kilometers of Sinai, to extend the land mass and that Egypt could well afford to release land and that Trump was prepared to pay for it. He hoped Israel is now speaking to Egypt. Similar to the “emirates” solution proposed by Dr. Mordechai Kedar for Arabs in Judea and Samaria,
Eid noted that there could be self-governing enclaves of 5 major districts in Gaza, each run by the local tribal chief, so there would be no single police, no single parliament, no government for at least 5or more years. He emphasized that Palestinians do not expect there to be a new Arab state. Israel must control security.
Bassam Eid noted that no one actually knows how many Arabs have been killed; Hamas controls all information and will have told the doctors and any local media what to say. There has been no proof provided but one saw how Hamas control operated after the false reporting of Israel having hit a hospital and killed 500 people. Eventually it was confirmed that PIJ has a failed rocket that hit the hospital parking lot and fewer than 50 people were killed or injured. Further, propaganda from Hamas is effectively telling the world on Al Jezeera that is is winning the war. Despite some published reports that claim surveys show tremendous support for Hamas among Arabs in Judea and Samaria (as many as 75%) he stated that Arabs are actually fearful of the IDF and hurt by the limitations on movement, cancelling access to jobs in Israel for over 200,000 Arabs since October 7th. He said the PA can do noting and President Abbas contributes daily to misinformation, even claiming that Hamas did not carry out the Oct 7th massacre. He suggested this and other outrageous lies serve a foreign agenda. He challenged all the foreign speakers, including local so-called pro-Palestine organizations, who claim to speak for Palestinian Arabs. They have no idea of what they speak but do absolutely no good for Palestinians or Gazans who are subject to terrible tyrannies.
Eid called for the defeat of Hamas, noting that the outpouring of Jew hatred really began with the Oslo Accords. European governments, as well as Canada and the US, fund education that pushes hatred which is the built in basis for all UNRWA education. He noted that antisemitism was born in Europe, so no surprise it continues, and European nations are using the Palestinian people against Israel. That things can be changes has been proven by the UAE that in just a few months after signing the Abraham Accords, they changed all text books and eliminated antisemitism.
According to Eid, the King of Jordan is worried as Jordanians are increasingly anti-Israel, an fanatically so. The king supports two states but it should be noted that during the 19 years that Jordan held the “west bank” and Egypt held Gaza and Sinai, they made no effort to create such a state or to unite the two parts of the Arab community. It wasn’t until Israel won in 1967, that there was an attempt to unite the Arab populations on east and west side of the country. Essentially, both President El-Sisi and King Abdullah II are against the Palestinians and do not what them to migrate to their countries; but they are “stabbing Israel under the table.”
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