A Dictator Can’t Bring Peace to Gaza

Western and Arab nations need to take control and develop civil society before elections can take place.

By Natan Sharansky and Bassem Eid - WSJ

After Hamas's murderous ascent to power in Gaza 15 years ago, we warned in these pages that Israel's strategy for dealing with the Palestinian leadership-one of strengthening dictatorship instead of building civil society-would undermine the prospects for peace.

We each issued similar warnings 30 years ago, after the Oslo Accords, when the free world chose to install Yasser Arafat as dictator over the Palestinian people. At the time, Arafat's absolute power and corruption were considered advantages: The absence of a judiciary and civil society as a check would allow him to stamp out Hamas with an iron fist. That Israel, in concert with Western countries, would deposit tens of millions of dollars into his personal bank account each month would ensure that he would do as his patrons wanted. Or so the theory went.

We both have intimate knowledge of dictatorships. We knew Arafat would never promote peace with Israel because all dictators need an external enemy. Only by mobilizing his people against the Jewish state could Arafat deflect their dissatisfaction with him and retain control.

In the years after Oslo, Arafat destroyed the beginnings of civil society, seized control over the economy, preserved refugee camps as a source of mobilization against Israel, and created an education system geared almost exclusively to promoting hatred of the Jewish state. Nevertheless, Israel remained under permanent pressure to give him and later his successor, Mahmoud Abbas-more territory, money and weapons in the hope that at some point he could serve as Jerusalem's partner in peace.

When Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, its victory resulted as much from Palestinians' hatred of Fatah as from the resurgence of Islamism. But if Palestinians were for Arafat a source of personal power and wealth, for Hamas they were a living shield to protect its subterranean cities of terror. Hospitals and schools became military sites. Hamas used aid from abroad to build its army of shaheeds and the tunnels for them to hide in. While Israelis never hoped Hamas would be "our" dictator, Israel's leaders retained the illusion that with the right combination of carrots and sticks, the radical group would abandon its efforts to destroy the Jewish state.

All such illusions instantly vanished on Oct. 7. And while Israel continues its existential battle to destroy the terrorist regime, discussions have turned to the day after: How can the peace process continue moving forward, and with whom as Israel's partner ?

The answer is that the peace process won't continue moving forward, because it never began in the first place. As for partners, we must stop looking for "our" dictator and abandon the view that it isn't Israel's business what kind of society emerges on the Palestinian side. Some might think it outlandish to speak about democracy now, with Israeli hostages still held captive and Gaza thoroughly ravaged. But Germany and Japan both built democracies on the wreckage of dictatorships. To be sure, everyone in Israel remembers the crowds of Gazans who cheered the Oct. 7 terrorists as they paraded their victims. But one need only compare pictures of Germans demonstrating their loyalty to Hitler in 1943 with pictures from 1945 and 1955 to see that such enthusiasm is fleeting. Expressions of disillusionment with Hamas will increase as soon as Gazans are less fearful of their leaders-and there are signs this is already happening.

What does the "day after" look like for Gaza? There must be elections. But elections in a society that isn't free will have no significance. Arafat, Mr. Abbas and Hamas all had elections after which they killed or removed ev eryone standing in their way.

Instead there must first be a transitional period during which security remains in Israel's hands. Administrative control should pass to a coordinating body of representatives from the West and Arab countries that recognize Israel. Such a body sounded preposterous 20 years ago, when it was first proposed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and only Egypt and Jordan recognized the Jewish state. But today, after the Abraham Accords, more Arab states may be willing to join in the pursuit of a lasting peace.

The mission of this coordinating body should be fourfold. First, it must wholly rebuild the Palestinian education system, purging it of jihadism just as German libraries and schoolbooks were purged of Nazism. Second, it must free the Palestinian economy, respecting the property rights and autonomy of the people. Third, it must destroy the refugee camps, giving their residents normal housing and the chance of a decent life. Finally, it must respect civil-society organizations, granting them the freedom to promote human rights and the rule of law.

Only after this should elections be held. At that point, it would be reasonable to expect that Palestinians, having benefited from the aforementioned reforms, would elect leaders whose priority is their well-being rather than the destruction of Israel.

Some may say this process will take too long-that we need a solution that brings peace now. Consider that shortly after Oslo, one of the accord's main architects objected to Mr. Sharansky's proposal to promote Palestinian civil society on the ground that it would take 30 years to bear fruit, whereas under the government's plan there would be a new Middle East in only a few years. Thirty years have now passed. Palestinian society is less free and democratic than it was then, and we are still nowhere near peace.

We can't say how long the real peace process will take, but it must begin now. If, instead, Israel adopts another short-term solution, 30 years hence it will still be fighting wars and hanging false hopes on another dictator.

Mr. Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician, is chairman of the advisory boards of the Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. Mr. Eid founded the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in 1996.