PHILADELPHI

"Philadelphi" is the Israeli code name for a narrow strip of land, some 100 meters wide and 14 km (8.7 miles) long, situated along the entirety of the border between the Gaza Strip and the line of demarcation between Egypt and southern Gaza. Hamas insists on controlling it. Israel insists that the Israel Defense Force must be in charge.

For now, stalemate.

Though it has occasionally and only lightly surfaced in the media, bringing in an outside peace-keeping monitor has not been thoroughly explored — as far as the public knows. This is a war between Israel and Iran. Israel is backed and armed by the US. Iran outsources to Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and others.

Israel is at war in Gaza and Lebanon. In its West Bank, tolerated by Netanyahu and the cabinet, settler-outlaws are expanding their developments, killing their Arab neighbors and using the distractions of the Israel-Hamas conflagration to their immediate and long-term advantage. It is also apparent that the US will not do much to cut military aid and other support to Israel. First, Israel is a buffer nation for the US; second, though few in actual numbers, Jewish voters are a small but influential voting bloc, mostly Democratic.

Since 1948, when Truman recognized the state of Israel, military, educational, economic and cultural support has been a staple of US foreign policy. Ongoing military support without accountability is now under challenge -- as it should be. Continuing to arm Israel as an instrument of US foreign policy is on the table. But so far it's a spinning tire on a muddy road. Trump or Harris will inherit it.

The intractability of both Hamas and Israel in arriving at a solution that would bring a cease fire, release of the shrinking number of surviving hostages, relief to the people of Gaza, suspension of additional Hezbollah activity in Lebanon and a halt to Houthi adventuring in the Red Sea currently seems to hang primarily on resolving control of the Philadelphi Corridor.

It is widely believed that Netanyahu is deliberately slow-walking negotiations to keep his trial for breach of trust, accepting bribes and fraud on hold; and his ultra right wing cabinet members in place. Nonetheless, his coalition government could topple at any time. Hamas has achieved victory: Israel is a global pariah; Hamas has kept its Gaza populace, increasingly restive, from rebellion despite the incalculable cost in lives and property.

Netanyahu helped fund this mess. As reported by the New York Times on September 6th. Bibi “gambled that a strong Hamas (but not too strong) would keep the peace and reduce pressure for a Palestinian state”. If this was written as fiction, who would believe it?

Is an outside force even a realistic possibility? UN peacekeepers have a mixed record; frequently accused of corruption, sexual and other improprieties at sites to which they were detailed, the blue helmeted enforcers are not necessarily folks you’d like to ask home for dinner. The UN is best at talking and not very good at doing. Anyway, the UN has no army. It would still fall to a phalanx of member nations to implement, ideally a cadre composed, let's say, of Nordic and Swiss troops assembled as rapidly as practicable.

Israel and Hamas can end this war now by agreeing to internationalization of the Philadelphi Corridor. Israel would cease all military activity; in return Hamas would have to agree that no military personnel nor equipment replacement would be permitted. There is no trust between the two and whether internationalizing is termed a pause or a truce is really not relevant as long as the parties accept the arrangement and stick to it.