Here, in this Wall Street Journal story published on 26 July 2024 (see below), we see that moves are now being attempted by the US to hand over the territory of Gaza to Israel.    

This will be presented as some kind of post-war governance solution that gives the people of Gaza the appearance of quasi-independence and control.  

They will get an indigenous governor who controls a few thousand armed security people - effectively a militia - to handle food distribution and control what remains of their people.  This is little different than the Nazi system of control during World War 2 of using Jewish prisoners as Kapos.  

Imprisoned in concentration camps, Kapos were enemies and victims of the Nazis; they were Jewish inmates who were forced by the Nazis to serve as “stand-in” guards. In effect, being a Kapo blurred the lines between collaborator, perpetrator and victim. 

This is how the annexation of Gaza will work.   

Comparison with the Portuguese Timor catastrophe, 1976-1999.

When the similar-sized territory of Portuguese Timor was invaded and annexed by neighbouring Indonesia in 1976 (with Australia's acquiescence and the green light from Henry Kissinger) the same formula was used.

An occupying power can always find puppet indigenous rulers picked from the local elite.   And create armed militia thugs to maintain security, recruited from local gangsters vulnerable to bribery and rewards. 

This is colonialism 101. 

The abandoned Portuguese colony of East Timor, after declaring independence following a brief civil war between two factions (UDT and Fretlin), suffered a brutal Indonesian invasion and occupation that lasted from 1976 until the independence referendum in 1999. 

During this time estimates suggest that around 100,000 to 200,000 East Timorese died as a result of the conflict, which included direct violence, famine, and disease.  This represents approximately one-third of the population, which was around 600,000 at the time of the invasion. The occupation had a profound impact on the demographic and social fabric of East Timor, with many families losing multiple members and entire communities being wiped out. 

And so it is, and will be, for Gaza, only worse than the annexation of Portuguese Timor.

Drawing parallels or making comparisons between the military annexation of East Timor in 1976 and the military annexation of Gaza in 2024 is simply not allowed in commentary sections of mainstream media. 

After reading on 26 July 2026 the Wall Street Journal story referred above, I read a report in The Australian newspaper, published on the same date.  It was headed Harris backs Israel, pushes Bibi on peace. Readers were adding their 2-cents worth in the comments section of the digital edition, all pro-Israel.      

I posted a comment under this story referring to the Wall Street Journal story.

It went to the moderators.  Next day I learnt that it was NOT APPROVED.  My comment, in italics below, would not see the light of day in the Murdoch-owned Australian newspaper. 

The Wall Street Journal published a story yesterday 26 July headed “Palestinian Exile Rises as Potential Post-war Leader”. This is Colonialism 101. Israel will annex Gaza after depopulation and put in a local governor. This is what the Indonesians did to East Timor during their brutal occupation from 1976 until 1999, during which one third of the population died as a result of conflict, famine and disease. And so will it be for Gaza, which is a land-grab war. But this revealing story from today’s Wall Street Journal also suggests Israel is not able to defeat Hamas. The extreme brutality, suffering, and destruction inflicted on the people of Gaza is simply ignored in the article that contemplates post-war indirect rule by Israel in perpetuity with Israeli settlement as in the West Bank. This does not solve the apartheid state situation unacceptable to the international community, as explained by Professor Mearsheimer

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Palestinian Exile Rises as a Potential Post-war Leader

BY SUMMER SAID AND STEPHEN KALIN

Published in Wall Street Journal, 26 July, 2024

The question of who will govern Gaza has plagued efforts to end Israel's nine-month war to destroy Hamas.

Some U.S., Israeli and Arab officials are pushing to empower a former Palestinian security chief who once tried to crush the militant group, was exiled from the West Bank and now lives in luxury in Abu Dhabi.

Some negotiators increasingly are drawn to Mohammed Dahlan as a temporary solution to a dilemma facing post-war Gaza: Putting someone in charge of security in the strip that Israel, Hamas and foreign powers such as the U.S. and Arab Gulf states find palatable. The discussions are picking up speed as cease-fire mediators try to revive stalled talks. Negotiators are likely to meet next week in Qatar.

Dahlan is a rare Palestinian leader who is independent of both Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and the Palestinian Authority that runs parts of the West Bank, making him someone the Israeli government could work with, said Israeli political analysts. And in Washington, where the George W. Bush administration saw him as a future Palestinian president, some officials privately have touted him as a key player since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, sparking the war.

Dahlan, a wealthy businessman who grew up poor in Gaza, has been on the side-lines of Palestinian politics for more than a decade, and said recently that he doesn't want to lead Gaza himself. But he has a political party that is active there and ties to groups on the ground that could help make
up a security force to bridge from the end of fighting to whatever comes next.

Mohammed Dahlan, 62 years old, is independent of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

Key player in talks

Since the war began, he has ferried between the United Arab Emirates - a wealthy Gulf state that could help fund Gaza's re-construction and provide troops for an international stabilization force - and Egypt, whose border with Gaza and Israel makes it key to the territory's future. 

Dahlan has advised both countries' leaders and benefited from their patronage.

In Cairo, he has convened Gaza businessmen and the heads of rich families, who fled the conflict, to find ways to get supplies into the enclave. Companies and families in south-east Gaza that historically have been aligned with Dahlan have provided security to some commercial shipments.

In recent conversations with Hamas and Fatah, Dahlan has presented himself as someone who eventually could oversee aid distribution in a new Palestinian administration of Gaza, said Arab and Hamas officials.

Dahlan has the charisma, street cred and connections across the political spectrum to be successful, said Aaron David
Miller, a veteran U.S. negotiator in the Mideast. "He's incredibly effective and could deliver under circumstances that would allow him to deliver," he said, including a supportive Israeli government and backing from the US. and key Arab states.

Importantly, Hamas has softened its opposition to Dahlan, recently indicating to mediators that it could accept him as
part of an interim solution to help end the war. Dahlan led Palestinian Authority security forces in a bloody US-backed
conflict with Hamas, after the Washington-designated terrorist group won elections in 2006 to rule the Gaza Strip.

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said the group is giving priority to an overall vision for post-war Gaza that is "based on national interest and national consensus" over opposition or support for specific individuals. "It is unacceptable for any party to be imposed from above," he told the Journal.

Dahlan has said he speaks to Hamas regularly, and believes the group can't be eradicated. Israel previously approached Dahlan to help put anti-Hamas Palestinians in charge of Gaza aid, the Journal has reported, a plan that Hamas quickly stamped out.

Security oversight

According to an option under consideration, Dahlan would oversee a Palestinian security force of 2,500 men working in coordination with an international force, as Israeli troops pull out, Arab officials said. The Palestinian forces would be vetted by the US, Israel and Egypt and wouldn't have clear loyalties to the Palestinian Authority, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't want to control Gaza, the officials said.

If successful, the force could expand to help with the reconstruction of Gaza, they said.

Other figures also are being considered to run the Gaza security force, including Majid Faraj, director of the Palestimian Authority's intelligence service in the West Bank.

Ehud Yaari, an Israeli analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Dahlan has had preliminary talks with Israeli security officials about a possible role in Gaza but Israeli acceptance isn't assured.

"Dahlan can play a role, but he cannot be the solution," he said. The Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment on Dahlan.

From his villa in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the U.A.E., the 62-year-old Dahlan has laid out an expansive vision for
the impoverished and now largely destroyed Palestinian territory where he was born and raised in Khan Younis. He
still has family living in Gaza.  His ideas largely echo those of the Arab states involved in either the cease-fire talks, such as Egypt, or in discussions about funding the reconstruction of Gaza, such as the UAE.  They include a transitional government to administer security and basic services until more permanent arrangements are made, potentially through parliamentary elections.

Dahlan, who was arrested repeatedly by the Israelis for his involvement in the Fatah youth movement and learned to
speak Hebrew in prison, was a close adviser to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He later had a falling-out with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and moved to the UAE before he was convicted in the West Bank of corruption charges, which he denied.

"He's always remained on the scene and yet not on the scene, as he hasn't been to Palestine since 2011," said Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian peace negotiator who worked with Dahlan.

Dahlan remains a rival of Abbas.  Dimitri Diliani, a spokesman for Dahlan's Democratic Reform Current, said the faction wants to relegate Abbas's presidency to a ceremonial role.

There must be room for Palestinian factions beyond Hamas and Abbas's Fatah to have a say in Gaza's future, Diliani said.

Mixed reviews

An empowered Dahlan would risk sidelining the Palestinian Authority, which sees him as a fugitive.  It also would
present a wrinkle for the Biden administration, which has said that a revitalized Palestinian Authority eventually
should take power. Further, Israeli officials oppose a Palestinian state, which the US and Arab states that could
fund reconstruction say is essential for regional security.

Among Palestinians, views of Dahlan are mixed. In a leadership election, he would get about 8%, nearly entirely from Gaza, according to a June poll by the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. That puts him about even with Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar but far behind Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and long-time Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail on charges of murder and membership in a terrorist organization.

-Abeer Ayyoub contributed to this article.

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