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Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, “We’re working with the United States very closely” to find countries that will “give the Palestinians a better future.” “If people want to stay, they can stay,” he explained, “but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.”

Netanyahu’s call for Palestinians to leave fits all too well with a series of Israeli policies that have made Gaza ungovernable and unlivable. Amid renewed discussion of a cease-fire and the lasting defeat of Hamas, the fact remains that Netanyahu has repeatedly prolonged the conflict and prevented the creation of a credible alternative to Hamas.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, “We’re working with the United States very closely” to find countries that will “give the Palestinians a better future.” “If people want to stay, they can stay,” he explained, “but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.”

Netanyahu’s call for Palestinians to leave fits all too well with a series of Israeli policies that have made Gaza ungovernable and unlivable. Amid renewed discussion of a cease-fire and the lasting defeat of Hamas, the fact remains that Netanyahu has repeatedly prolonged the conflict and prevented the creation of a credible alternative to Hamas.

In June, Israeli opposition politicians railed against Netanyahu’s attempts to arm and equip anti-Hamas militias in Gaza. Critics also condemned Israel’s use of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to deliver aid within the territory. And indeed, the outcome of these policies has been disastrous. Over the course of the past month, Israeli-affiliated forces killed nearly 600 Palestinians waiting to receive aid, just the latest manifestation of the territory’s death spiral.

Ostensibly, both Israel’s support for criminal gangs and its incompetent aid rollout look like two separate parts of a broader problem: Without a “day after” plan, Israel’s policies remain shortsighted and ineffective. If, however, Netanyahu’s goal is to increase chaos and suffering in the strip to the point where its residents choose to emigrate “voluntarily,” he has already succeeded.

The best evidence that Israeli policy seeks to sustain anarchy rather than empower a new “deradicalized” leadership in Gaza lies in the Palestinian actors Israel is cooperating with. Netanyahu recently confirmed that Israel had armed a Palestinian “anti-terror service,” led by a man called Yasser Abu Shabab. Netanyahu nonchalantly responded to questions about this policy, by claiming: “[W]e activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas. What’s wrong with that?”

In fact, there are several things wrong........

© Foreign Policy