Increasingly, the U.S. is pressuring Jerusalem to formulate a postwar plan for the Gaza Strip. From Washington or Brussels, the most obvious solution would be to return the territory to the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), ruled by the aging Mahmoud Abbas. Hussain Abdul-Hussain explains why this would be impossible:
Extremists are likely to pose a persistent threat in postwar Gaza; Abbas’s PA has shown that is something it cannot handle. It has allowed large pockets of the West Bank to become strongholds of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other groups. In July, Abbas visited Jenin for the first time in twenty years, after Israel had operated against militants’ strongholds. Abbas’s senior officials were booed and chased out. In the West Bank, Nablus too has become notoriously lawless, allowing for the rise of a new radical militia, the Lion’s Den.
But if not Abbas, then who? Every possibility seems either far-fetched or likely to be disastrous. Abdul-Hussain makes a proposal that could be one of the least-bad options, namely allowing an Arab League force to police the Strip:
Should the Arab League try [to maintain order] in Gaza, the command should be put in the hands of the United Arab Emirates, whose military is among the most capable in the region. The Arab force can help develop and stand up a local security force that can win Israeli trust. The UAE has been the most trustworthy peace partner of Israel among all six Arab nations that have normalized relations with the Jewish state since 1979.What the UAE needs for such an endeavor in Gaza is global and regional cover. Enter Washington and Riyadh, two capitals that can impress on the PA to bestow whatever legitimacy it still has on the new Gazan local government and security force.
Read more on Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-palestinian-authority-cant-govern-gaza-after-the-war