A so-called “Parliamentary Lobby for the Israeli Victory Project,” which operates in Israel and the United States, decided to submit a demand to the US administration and the Israeli government to “seriously consider a project of voluntary transfer of Palestinians,” claiming that it was the best humanitarian solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
The lobby warned of the American plan to allow the Palestinian Authority to rule Gaza and to establish the two-state solution, claiming that this is “a recipe for repeating the Hamas attack on October 7, several times.”
These positions were announced on the eve of the meeting of the Israeli Mini Ministerial Council for Security and Political Affairs, on Thursday, to discuss the post-Gaza war stage. The lobby announced its adoption of the plan drawn up by Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, the author of the official project to deport the people of Gaza.
According to Gamliel, Hamas’ rule of the Gaza Strip should end, along with the complete destruction of its sites and tunnels and the dissolution of municipalities and village councils. She added that the entire agricultural land must become a security belt for Israel, while the Israeli army must remain in control of all border crossings and be able to continue its operations.
Transferring UNRWA materials
Gamliel stressed that transferring governing powers to the Palestinian Authority would be very dangerous for Israel.
She noted that the PA leaders share views as Hamas, saying: “They even expressed their support for the October 7 massacre. We did not fight for all this period and pay the price in blood for the establishment of an authority that is hostile to us.”
The minister emphasized that her project required interim civilian rule in the Gaza Strip, led by the United States, Egypt and Jordan, with the Israeli army maintaining its security control.
She added that among urgent tasks will be a process of complete disarmament and the termination of the Palestinian refugee file, while transferring the resources that go to UNRWA to finance the voluntary migration project so that the refugees can build a new life abroad.
The Israeli Victory Project was founded in 2017 and includes a group of deputies from both the coalition and the opposition.
‘Unrealistic illusions’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a briefing to Israeli media, described calls for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza launched by Israeli ministers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, as “unrealistic illusions.”
Netanyahu claimed that Israel “does not work to displace the people of Gaza and resettle them in other places in the world.”
“Even if we wanted to, Israel does not have the ability to push the residents of Gaza to leave to another country,” he said, citing legal restrictions.
American figures
Since the creation of the lobby, there have been two American figures in its leadership: Daniel Pipes, president of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, and Gregg Roman, Director General of the same institute, who is a former leader of Jewish institutions and worked as an employee in the Israeli Ministry of Defense and an advisor to the Israeli Foreign Minister.
The lobby believes that the Israeli government and the American administration failed to settle the conflict during 30 years of negotiations, because they “did not deal appropriately with the Palestinian policy” of rejecting proposals, while claiming that the Israelis had to constantly make concessions to the Palestinians.
Similar American lobby
The Israeli Victory Project works in partnership with a similar US lobby that has been established in Congress since 1988. It is led by figures in the American leadership, and funded by American support.
The intense campaign by the Israeli right to promote the voluntary deportation of Palestinians is “unsettling” the American administration and many forces in Israel, who believe it will politically and legally implicate Israel at international arenas.
A political source in the opposition said the call for deportation is no longer limited to a number of far-right ministers and representatives, but is now backed by political, popular and academic forces in Israel and the United States.
These forces are trying to give momentum to this project and refuse in any way to end the war with a political settlement, according to the source.
