A Palestine State by Another Name
CLAN DESTIN[ED]?
The clan plan, a rose by another name, but NOT as sweet
Israel must take sovereignty in Gaza and Judea/Samaria
Think big I was told when presented with this clan plan called the UPE (United Palestine Emirates). Thinking big brought me to an article in JNS written by Victor Rosenthal about Palestinianism:
Before the advent of Israel, the clan was the source of Palestinian Arab identity. Now, it is the fight to destroy Israel. To be Palestinian is to oppose Israel and “resist” the occupation of “Palestinian land,” from the river to the sea.
It is somewhat ironic that Jeff Halper of ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), the Jewish activist who opposes Israel as a Jewish state, accused Israel in London in 2013 of striving to form Bantustans across Gaza and Judea/Samaria in which they would be “warehousing” the Arabs in Apartheid conditions. He said:
…[the] plan is purportedly to enter Arab Palestinian areas, to “demolish houses” and to create “Bantustans”…
Whilst the world campaigned for the downfall of Apartheid in South Africa, a clan plan for Israel is being proposed as a solution for the age old Israel/Arab impasse. Why is this clan plan increasingly doing the rounds as a solution for Gaza after the war ends, given the stench of Apartheid accusations sniffing around the Jewish state?
The idea of the clan plan is to create autonomous areas of Arab towns and villages in Gaza and Judea/Samaria, each headed by the leader of a clan. Under this plan Israel would annex the rural areas with the UAE (United Arab Emirates) advising on how to create these clan entities into a loose federation called the UPE (United Palestine Emirates).
An entity that recognises anything Palestinian, be it a state or an emirate, concedes the idea that there is a place within Israel for a 53rd Islamic state called Palestine that no doubt will, like Gaza before it, become a terror state. It gives a sign that an Arab State from the river to the sea is feasible in the future. It gives credence to the entire Russian enterprise that created the idea of this ancient Palestinian people. It capitulates to the Red/Green Alliance of globalists in which there is no place for a Jewish national homeland, not anywhere. It is a rose by another name that doesn’t smell very sweet and it is indeed very prickly.
It is argued that in the Middle East, tribal and familial governance, like that of the UAE, provides more stability than a fragmented modern state model. In effect it is proposed that cities like Hebron, Nablus, Jenin, Ramallah, Jericho and Gaza would become self-governing entities within a loose federation forming the UPE. Israel would annex the rural areas to prevent the contiguity of these clan entities turning into “Hamastan”, a term created by those pushing this plan. It is claimed that the Gulf states of the UAE are stable and successful because of the clan system and not because of oil. Dubai is cited as a typical clan success built in the absence of oil wealth.
Even as the remnants of Hamas continue to target Jews and there remain Hamas cells with weapons factories in Judea and Samaria where it is reported that the majority would elect an Hamas government, this clan plan is nevertheless gaining some traction in certain quarters amongst Israeli political and military leaders. The question that arises is whether such a scheme will present a solution to the Israel/Arab impasse or lead to another Oslo and repeated 7 October 2023 pogroms going forward.
Who are these clans? How will this lead to peace? What can the UAE advise about anything Israel doesn’t already know? Why would Israel wish to contribute to the current false notion that it is an apartheid state? How will the desire to destroy Israel be eradicated? How does using the name Palestine in the title of this entity not reinforce the idea that a Palestine state is one step from being created by the very people it seeks to destroy?
The clans fall into three broad categories: Bedouin tribes, urbanite households and peasant Hamula, numbering in excess of 400. There are about 122 Arab towns and villages with some housing multiple conflicting clan families. Clearly there must be more than one clan per town/village causing a reason for concern. There is almost certain to be inter clan rivalry about who will be the dominant clan, no different to the competition between Abbas’s PA (Palestine Authority) and Hamas. One doesn’t have to look very far to come up with the name Barghouti: Marwan Barghouti, in prison for murder; Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS (Boycott Sanction Divest movement, now an international brand seeking the destruction of Israel). Then there is the Tamimi clan of Nabi Saleh: Ahlam Tamimi, convicted for the terrorist attack in Jerusalem; Ahed Tamimi, arrested for inciting violence and terrorist activity.
Any clan federation would naturally have to exclude these two influential families as well as any other belligerent clan leaders. That alone is a recipe for inter clan clashes. With their extremist vision for a Palestine from the river to the sea, this UPE would clearly be a holding station with tentacles seeping increasingly deeper into Israel until it no longer exists.
Why would Arabs now accept this ‘Palestan’ emulation of the failed Bantustan scheme of South Africa when the world is offering them a fully fledged Palestinian state? Bantustans, also called “homelands,” were the cornerstone of the South African Apartheid “separate development” policy intending to assign each black ethnic group its own self-governing status, or in some cases, nominally independent, territory. They were an abject failure being non-contiguous self-governing entities with few economic prospects.
Attempting to join these clan entities into a loose federation called the UPE presents a problem of connectivity and governance as did the Bantustans. Above all, it is doubtful that such a federation would eradicate the idea of a free Palestine from the river to the sea, that one state solution that will inevitably be Jew free, particularly since Israel will be seen to accommodate the notion of a Palestine entity.
Having experimented with unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 resulting in Hamas control by 2006, most Israelis know repeating that mistake would lead again to Hamas controlled terror entities of Gaza and Judea/Samaria. All previous attempts at a solution have been based on somehow uniting all the geographic areas claimed in the name of Palestine. Nobody can explain how a contiguous Palestine can be established alongside a contiguous Israel and why it would bring peace even if this contortion were possible.
Unlike the UAE in which the Arab emirates form a contiguous federation with overall Arab governance of the entire Emirate region, the UPE would not be contiguous, but separated by Israel annexing the rural areas, aka Jews, as the river between the Arab islands. The idea that such an arrangement is a recipe for peace, a solution to the age old Arab/Jewish conflict, is a nonsense. And I say Jewish as the Arab attacks on Jews in the region were growing decades before 1948 Israeli independence. If the greater world believes that Gaza is an apartheid concentration camp, what will they make of these ‘Palestans’, separated by a river of Jews?
The Arab clans will not have the oil wealth to kickstart any form of stable economy as did Dubai. This doesn’t bode well for financial security without which any plan involving autonomy or statehood will falter, regardless of how much aid is poured into the region. There needs to be a confidence of statehood that is totally lacking from those who go by the name of Palestinian, largely operating as desperados.
The UAE, including Dubai, has been able to join the Abraham Accords as it became financially stable because of the oil they nationalised from the big oil companies like Shell and Arco, using that wealth to diversify into other productive business areas. They were able, under President Trump’s guidance, to recognise Israel as sovereign, realising alignment with the Jewish state was economically the wise choice for their own prosperity.
The UAE is a state and an internationally recognised sovereign country. It occupies a seat at the United Nations with full voting rights. It has a foreign policy, is in charge of airspace and security, has a national airline and policies for education and social cohesion. However, although the UAE joined the Abraham Accords in September 2020, it continues to regularly vote in favour of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN. For example it supported the 2024 resolution calling to end Israeli “occupation” of “Palestinian Territories” and helped present a resolution backing full UN membership of a state called “Palestine”. The UAE has threatened to withdraw from the Abraham accords and to recognise a state of Palestine together with the UK, France, Australia and Canada.
It is suggested that the UAE be the guiding advisor in setting up the UPE. Can there be anything more dangerous than relying on a family member to advise on a feud resolution between you and their cousin? The UAE is a great example of clan cooperation and success for its people, but its relationship with and toward Israel needs to be carefully scrutinised before embracing it as the advisor in a plan to resolve the age old Arab/Israel problem. Pragmatically the UAE has recognised the benefits of cooperation with Israel, but emotionally it retains its allegiance to the clan ethnicity of its Arabian brotherhood and this clearly includes the ‘Palestinians’ even as there remains an antipathy toward them as interlopers.
When tried and tested plans don’t work, its time to reassess how the future of these regions can be successfully remodelled.
A realistic way forward is to unshackle the idea of unification and assess Gaza separately from Judea/Samaria, to rethink the notion that there has to be a solution signed sealed delivered on day one, rather than a process of deradicalisation and integration. If there is a solution to be found it should be understood it doesn’t lie in geography, but in theology joined at the hip with Palestinianism.
Palestinianism was born in 1964 by the KGB appointing Egyptian Arafat as leader of the newly created PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation). Thus was born the false idea that there is an ancient Arab Palestinian people with “Palestinian Liberation” the new weapon in Russia’s arsenal against the West. Ever since, Palestinianism, with its violent rhetoric and activities, has stifled any way forward for resolution of the Arab/Israel impasse. This Russian weapon has taken on a life of its own, embracing the fundamental ideology of global jihad led by Iran via entities like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other proxy organisation. The idea therefore that there is a solution to this conundrum is a pipe dream. Palestinianism upon which Hamas stakes its endeavours needs to be eradicated, not just Hamas. Even as there is a war currently being executed to overthrow the theological dominance emanating from Iran, the proverbial head of the terrorism octopus, it must be remembered that the idea of the global ummah dates back over 1400 years. It is why there are now some 52 Islam dominated states that started with a single idea in Medina.
In the meantime the continued cycle of wars and skirmishes cannot continue. A plan of management must be implemented to serve as a means toward a more peaceful future. That management must include some form of deradicalisation of the jihadi mindset. For example, schoolbooks supplied by UNWRA that teach hatred of Jews need to scrapped and radical preachers apprehended.
The hope is that a stable environment and a deradicalisation programme will enable some form of accommodation between these Arabs and the Western world that would obviate their desire for global theological dominance, however tenuous that hope might be.
In February 2024 I proposed a day after plan for Gaza that I presented to the Israeli Government. This plan proposed a means to rebuild the Gazan enclave hopefully eradicating Palestinianism and isolating jihadism to implement a deradicallisation programme. It allowed for civilians to exit from Gaza into Egypt where a safe haven would be established so that Hamas could be eradicated in weeks rather than years and to avoid the emergence of another tent city of refugees. It proposed that Gaza would be rebuilt by a corporation led by world business leaders who have creative skills and building expertise, so that the region could be cleared of tunnels, made safe and remodelled in the beauty of its Mediterranean position, a heritage site.
When this plan was published 9 months before President Trump’s election in November 2024, I never imagined he would be that builder. He has of course stated his plan of choice that is largely similar to my day after plan as the only logical way to manage the region. There will be no Palestinians in charge of Gaza under this plan. No Hamas and not the PA or any other terrorist or potential terrorist group.
With all good intentions President Trump’s Board of Peace, dominated by some old guard politicians and Middle East states could become the Board of Piece, with an element of Hamas left armed under the guise of Palestinian security officials trained by Israel’s old adversary, Egypt. Using Palestinians for security was tried before pursuant to the Oslo Accords. It didn’t work then and won’t work now. This is a dangerous plan possibly sentencing the region to a repeat of 7 October 2023, or similar.
A plan of management based on the day after plan for Gaza is the best way forward for short-term stabilisation creating a forum for possible longterm demise of Palestinianism and its globalist enterprise.
Most reasonable, informed people acknowledge there is no place for Hamas or the PA in leadership roles. But, is the creation of an autonomous non-contiguous entity called UPE any more of a solution than the creation of the Palestinian state? Why wouldn’t such an entity also be a breeding ground for terrorism? Jenin, Hebron etc are the same places they’ve been since before Oslo, packed with weapons factories and overseen by a PA that pays for slay.
In these times, with the excessive rise in Jew hatred panning out across the world, unprecedented since the times of Hitler’s Germany, it is essential for Israel to recognise that it is a successful fully fledged, independent, financially stable state finally free of the shackles locking it into American aid and will; that it is a fully formed equal partner with America in the current civilisational war between transnational progressives in partnership with theological Caliphaters, an alliance that is opposed to Western Judeo-Christian civilisation; that the Trump/Netanyahu Alliance is based on the principles and values of the Ten Commandments, independent nation states operating in freedom and cooperation, the gift given to the world by Moses.
It is essential that Israel and the US work in harmony to save western civilisation. There is a three year Overton window whilst President Trump is in the White House so there is no time to lose. With the war against the Iranian dictatorship, it is hoped it will not be stopped before complete success.
In recognising this powerful equal Western partnership, Israel must plan for a future in which Judea and Samaria are sovereign to the Jewish state. The Arabs who live in the region, many of whom arrived from Jordan during its 19 years of occupation, can choose to remain in the area as residents of Israel, but retaining their Jordanian citizenship. As such they can elect in their local areas their clan leaders, or some other popular persons, as mayors in their towns and villages, to take care of urban issues, but answerable to Israeli governance and law. This is clearly not a solution, but the only workable plan until such time as these Arabs, can hopefully recognise that peace with the Jews and a thriving Israel is the only way ahead for their prosperity. In the longterm, it is hoped that these radicalised Arabs will grow to understand, as do most of the 20% Arab citizens of Israel, that they too can live decent and fruitful lives devoid of terrorist masters, living in luxury elsewhere, who have kept them as Palestinianism’s weapons in the arsenal devoted to their theological immorality.
If Israel continues to appease the greater world, the flip flopping will continue with future generations subjected to the same invasions as happened on 7 October 2023. No Jewish Government can allow that to happen. It is therefore imperative that those MKs who are clasping this clan plan, jettison it immediately and opt instead for a more hopeful future.
Thinking big is a lot more complicated than enjoying a nana tea with a friendly clan leader who will flip when terrorism’s long arm reaches out.
Thinking big is to look further afield at the result of submission to terrorism; to Iran, the conductor in that unsavoury orchestra, the red/green alliance, players synchronising to destroy not only the Jewish state, but also western civilisation that brings freedom of nations working together in peace and harmony, but retaining their own distinct heritage and beauty in which to thrive.
Thinking big is to learn that appeasement comes with good intentions.
Thinking big is to understand that good intentions often result in more of the same.
Can Israel and indeed the West afford to chance their children’s future on a few clan leaders who brew the best nana tea?