Israel’s new plan to recapture Gaza: Is history repeating itself 20 years later?

Under a new Israeli plan, announced Aug. 7 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about a million Palestinian residents of Gaza City would be forced to evacuate the area over the next two months, culminating on Oct. 7, 2025. After that, Netanyahu’s plan calls for the Israel Defense Forces to move in and capture the capital city, along with one other area: the remaining 25 percent of the strip that Israel doesn’t yet control. The forthcoming escalation, after 22 months of fighting, has touched off international condemnation, including from the Canadian government, over fears of a worsening humanitarian crisis. However, the plan is also sparking deep divisions within Israel. Families of the remaining hostages call it a death sentence for their loved ones; some reservists and haredi groups have vowed not to answer their call-ups to the armed forces. Other right-wing politicians and settlers support the move, as they have long called for the government to annex the Gaza Strip and re-establish Jewish settlements that stood there until 2005. Negotiating expert John Shulman, based in Nova Scotia, has been watching the developments this week—and they’ve given him déjà vu. Twenty years ago, Shulman, a lawyer, was sent to the region with a Harvard University negotiation program to help facilitate dialogue between Israeli politicians just before Ariel Sharon’s government (which Netanyahu was part of) moved to unilaterally withdraw more than 8,000 Jewish residents and soldiers from Gaza and the West Bank, beginning on Aug. 15, 2005. Shulman says that historic withdrawal, known as “The Disengagement”, had costly consequences—not only because Hamas quickly took over Gaza in 2007, but also because its scars are still playing out inside Israel today, ahead of the planned recapture of Gaza. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Shulman joins host Ellin Bessner to discuss what’s at stake by not following the rules of successful conflict resolution.

Related links

• Learn more about how the Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiations had a front row seat during the 2005 Gaza Disengagement.
• Read more about our guest, negotiation expert John Shulman of Alignor.
• Why some Israelis want to return to live in the Gaza Strip, in The CJN.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

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