The Hidden Forces Keeping Palestinians Trapped
Israel constantly gets blamed for the so-called "Palestinian plight" — but, in reality, it has little to do with the Jewish state.
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There is nothing controversial about U.S. President Donald Trump repeating his suggestion in the last few days that large numbers of Gazans should take refuge in Egypt and Jordan — after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas had reduced Gaza to what he called a “demolition site.”
The thing is, many Palestinians (both in Gaza and the West Bank) would leave in a heartbeat if they could. But, they are not allowed to, and this lack of permission has nothing to do with Israel, even though the Jewish state is baselessly blamed over and over again for things like a “blockade” and a “siege” and an “open-air prison.”
Given the option to relocate, some Palestinians are extremely poor and might not have the financial resources to make such a move, yet many would figure it out like other immigrants and asylum seekers do. Palestinians are proud of their “Palestinian” identity, but not all of them are jihadist terrorists and sympathizers who take pleasure in Islamic doctrines that mandate waging genocidal war after war against the Jews and other “infidels.”
As one Gazan said this week, while Palestinians in Gaza were making their way back to their places of residence as part of the ceasefire-for-hostages deal, few Gazans want to hear the word “resistance” from Hamas operatives who have been taking the streets in desperate attempts to regain control of Gaza. Many Gazans largely blame Hamas for what has happened to and inside the Gaza Strip, as they should.
In this regard, Trump is on-point when he said this week that he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”
However, there are quite a few forces that would like the Palestinians to stay living in areas where there is so much disruption and revolution and violence.
The first, of course, is Hamas.
Hamas thrives on perpetual conflict. Its entire raison d’être (reason for being) is not to build a functioning, prosperous Palestinian society, but to perpetuate a permanent state of struggle. The group invests in terror tunnels and rockets rather than infrastructure and industry, uses “humanitarian aid” for its war machine, and ensures that even in times of relative quiet, tensions simmer, ready to be ignited at a moment’s notice.
For Hamas, a peaceful and prosperous Palestinian populace — one that prioritizes societal advancement over armed struggle — is an existential threat to its grip on power. The terrorist organization needs disruption, revolution, and violence to thrive, and it also needs as many Palestinians in Gaza as possible in order to bring in more “humanitarian aid” from “humanitarian organizations” that it syphons money and goods from to fund terrorism.
Never mind that Hamas’ major strategy is the use of human shields and mass Palestinian suffering, which it then broadcasts to the world to blame the Jews. The more Palestinians in Gaza, the more effective this disgusting strategy is for the terror group.
But Hamas isn’t alone in this. The second force that benefits from Palestinian agony is the Palestinian Authority, which governs the Palestinian parts of the West Bank. Hence why Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday “expressed strong rejection and condemnation of any projects aimed at displacing our people from the Gaza Strip,” a statement from his office said, adding that the Palestinian people “will not abandon their land and holy sites.”
The reason Abbas, an 89-year-old Palestinian oligarch, opposes “displacing our people from the Gaza Strip” is because he and his family take advantage of “the Palestinians” to generate massive profits. Leaked records from a Panamanian law firm show that Abbas and his two sons used power and influence to control the two major Palestinian economic boards and built a West Bank economic empire worth more than $300 million.1
Abbas’ authoritarian rule — he’s now in the 19th year of a four-year term — has allowed his family’s consortium to dominate the West Bank’s commerce and labor markets, including owning shopping centers, media, and insurance companies, while distributing food, cigarettes, cosmetics, and other consumer items.
One of his sons, Tareq, is a multi-millionaire who owns villas in Jordan, Lebanon, and London. His older brother, Yasser (named after the Palestinian mega-terrorist Yasser Arafat), has made a fortune from his monopoly sale of U.S.-made cigarettes in the West Bank.
All this while the Palestinian Authority refuses to use its billions in international aid to relocate more than 100,000 Palestinians from Palestinian-controlled refugee camps to residential locations in the territories, preferring to leave them confined under extremely unpleasant conditions.
As such, Palestinians in the West Bank have long been fed up with Abbas and his cronies, and many have already left for other places. If the remaining 2.1 million Palestinians in the West Bank see that those in Gaza are allowed to leave, Palestinians in the West Bank would surely demand the same — which would not bode well for an Abbas oligarchy that relies on West Bank Palestinians to maximize their profits from the commerce and labor markets they manipulate.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is another player that opposes Gazan relocation for nefarious reasons. The Iranian regime has long viewed the Palestinian cause as a strategic asset — one that allows it to project influence beyond its borders and keep Israel occupied on multiple fronts.
Tehran supplies Hamas (and Hezbollah) with weapons, training, and funding, not out of a deep-seated concern for Palestinian well-being, but because an endless conflict in Gaza serves its broader regional hegemony ambitions. To “clean out” Gaza, as Trump put it, would be of no advantage to the Iranian regime.
And what about the international NGO and human rights industrial complex, which raises billions every year off of the continued plight of the Palestinians? For many of these organizations in Gaza, they “benefit” from the most amount of Palestinians living there as a crucial funding stream.
Their influence and financial stability depend on ensuring that as many Gazans as possible remain perpetual victims, always in need of “advocacy,” never in a position to leave and restart their lives elsewhere, outside the grasp of these organizations.
Then there are the Egyptian and Jordanian governments, both of which have long opposed Palestinian relocation to their countries. Publicly, Egypt and Jordan explain their opposition with “pro-Palestinian” statements, but it is clear that both regimes are particularly concerned about the implications of such a move for their stability.
Hassan al-Hassan, a researcher at the Bahrain Institute for Strategic Studies, estimated in a conversation with CNN that both regimes would face “widespread internal opposition” if they were perceived by their citizens as “participants in a second Palestinian Nakba.” According to him, Gazan relocation to Egypt or Jordan would create “a range of existential threats” for them.
For Egypt, the fear of protests that would undermine Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s rule already exists, especially given the precarious economic situation in the country, which has more than 100 million residents, many of whom live in poverty. The economic situation there only worsened during the war in Gaza because of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea that paralyzed ship traffic in the Suez Canal. Absorbing masses of refugees from Gaza will only weigh on Egypt’s economic situation.
Another concern for Egypt is the possibility of terrorist elements infiltrating Sinai (which borders Gaza to the south) under the guise of absorbing Gazan refugees. In Sinai, al-Sisi’s regime has been battling terrorists from jihadist organizations for years, and the Palestinians in Gaza are largely perceived by the Egyptian government as those identified with the Muslim Brotherhood, which was outlawed in Egypt.
Given a choice, the Egyptians prefer to see Hamas, a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood, inside the Gaza Strip — and not in their territory — even though hundreds of kilometers separate northern Sinai from Egypt proper.
Jordan also opposes any evacuation of Palestinians. While Egypt fears the displacement of Gazans into its territory, Jordan is primarily concerned about the displacement of West Bank Palestinians to its country.
For Jordan, too, there is a great concern that the absorption of masses of Palestinians will undermine the stability of the Hashemite royal family’s rule. Jordan already has 2.39 million Palestinians who are officially defined as “refugees,” and the arrival of tens or hundreds of thousands more could undermine the existing balance of power vis-à-vis the Bedouin tribes in the country.
Jordan also absorbed masses of refugees following the civil war in Syria — and the arrival of refugees from Gaza would weigh on its economy, which is also in a rather shaky state.
And then there’s the final force: the West’s ideological Left, which has turned the Palestinian struggle into a symbolic cause célèbre (a controversial issue that attracts a great deal of public attention). For these activists, Palestinian suffering is not an issue to be solved; it is a narrative to be wielded, one that provides them with an overly simplistic and thus unintelligent moral binary known as “oppressor versus oppressed.”
The moment more Palestinians reject endless war and choose to relocate, the West’s ideological Left risks losing their utility in the broader struggle against “Western imperialism” (while, for some reason, choosing to ignore Iranian and Muslim imperialism).
All of this serves as a microcosm for the so-called “Palestinian plight” — countries, politicians, bureaucrats, activists, and others claiming they vehemently support “the Palestinians” while not actually doing what is in the Palestinians’ best interests.
This has long been the reality of “the Palestinians” going back decades. But, of course, in our antisemitic world, the Jewish state is incessantly blamed for forces and circumstances that have little to do with us.
“Palestinian kleptocracy: West accepts corruption, people suffer the consequences.” The Hill.
Thank you, Josh. I agree. What you wrote really gets at the crux of the matter- all the groups advocating fir the Palestinians have a vested interest in maximizing their suffering and keeping them perpetual victims that can be uses to villify Israel. There is no incentive at all to better their situation or solve their problems.
Regarding the far left supporters of Hamas in America, at least some of whom are probably paid agitators by Iran or others, this would seem an ideal time for ICE to raid a few mosques in Michigan, or Queens, or elsewhere, and check the papers of some worshippers.