86061 - Transcription:  Gaza is dangerous for all players in the region

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athina Kehagias

Because we are all dealing with the Middle East crisis at this point of time, we ought to understand a few substantial things. First of all, when we talk about Palestine we ought to remember that it is regarding the Gaza region, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Therefore, we have two entities with no coherence. Secondly, when we are talking about Gaza alone, we are not talking about the entire Palestine. Thirdly, when we are talking about Hamas we are not talking about Gaza, in reference to the region. Therefore what’s important is to understand the following: First of all, not everyone is pro Hamas, even in Arab countries because they consider it to be an extreme terrorist organization. Secondly, not everyone is pro-Gaza and quite simply do not want to have a direct relationship with the Gazawis because they consider them to be a specific entity of the Palestinian population. They are all much friendlier toward the population that exists in the West Bank than that of Gaza. Even Egypt, which borders Gaza, does not want Gaza in its territory. Jordan does not want Gazawis in its territory. We understand that they all know that this region constitutes a trap, so they’d rather for a confrontation with Israel to exist than to have problems themselves, and they’re basically content with verbalism, and yes it’s good for a Palestinian state to exist but it’s kind of subtractive because it’s not directly regarding Gaza. When we observe the case of Gaza specifically, we understand that it has a status which is completely different from that of the West Bank. Even now we hear the statements of the Prime Minister of Israel who says, I do not want the Palestinian Authority to rule in Gaza because it has not condemned the act of barbarism that took place on October 7th. But that’s not all, it’s not even certain that the West Bank itself wants something like that, because it can see the problems which exist in the region. Therefore, the West Bank already functions within three zones. In these three zones, management is either by the Palestinian Authority alone, in conjunction with the State of Israel, or solely by Israel. What is being played at this point of time, even though this crisis is not over yet, but we see that we are already talking about what will happen after the end, is that Israel does not want to be in the region, they merely want to be sure regarding the security issue, whereas on the other hand, the Palestinian Authority is not looking at how it will play in the region because it wants to see how the issue with Hamas will end, and the neighboring countries do not want to take on any initiative in relation to Gaza. Consequently, we now understand that the substance is much more of a theoretical context than a practical one, because everyone assumes that Gaza is a very specific case which requires a special handling and not merely a region which could be integrated very easily into any Arab country, or into any alliance, because as the context is specific and isolated is not beneficial for reasons of high strategy.