Israelis deserves their own country. So do Palestinians. And they deserve real economic development.
I'm not sure what to think about the muddle that is the West Bank, where clearly defined and agreed upon boundaries are scarce, but I do have thoughts about Gaza, whose boundaries are generally agreed upon.
Simply put, Gaza could be its own state and potentially thrive reasonably well. If governed well, it could - like many developing countries have - reach middle class status within two or three generations. Instead, generations have been wasted, both by Israel when it occupied Gaza and now by Hamas.
But what if Hamas quit chanting "from the river to the sea" and focused on internal development?
Gaza has challenges, to be sure, but not what some might expect. Here are some objections and responses.
It's too small. It's 140 square miles, which is tiny. But not even counting Vatican City, which doesn't count, IMO, Gaza is bigger than Monaco, Tuvalu, and San Marino, and almost the size of Liechtenstein. Three of those states are rich, by the way. Not that Gaza could soon reach their standard of living, but smallness isn't an inherent limiting factor to wealth.
Its population is too small. It has just under 2.4 million people. Around 60 independent countries have fewer.
It's too densely populated. It's population density is 15,000 people per square mile. Among countries that would trail only Monaco's 18,000. But it would also trail Manhattan's 70,000 per square mile and Macau's 21,000 per square mile. None of those places is poor.
It lacks natural resources. Yes, but so do New York, Hong Kong, Monaco, and some other developed regions.
It does have real problems, but they are all solvable.
First, its biggest problem is arguably a lack of human resources development. But devote effort to education and encourage businesses of all kinds to locate there, and that takes care of itself.
Second, it has severe transportation issues. Neither Israel nor Egypt make it easy to access due to security concerns.
Eliminate the security concerns, and they will - albeit only slowly - come around. Just consider that in recent years Israel had been granting an increasing number of work visas. (Sadly, it will probably be a long time before they open up like that again.)
The transportation issues include not having an effective cargo port or an airport. These are not critical to begin growth, but are vital to sustaining growth. Israel would have to back off its opposition to sea and airports, but Gazan governance shares responsibility here. 20 years ago Israel supported the development of a seaport in Gaza, but then bombed it as part of its response to the 2nd Intifada in the early 2000s.
Of course from the Israeli perspective ports are a security issue, making it easier to ship weapons to Gaza. Maybe a trusted third party could run the ports. Perhaps the UAE could run them? They recently normalized relations with Israel, they're Arabic, and they know how to run sea and airports. If not them, maybe Singapore? There's someone out there that could earn the trust, even if grudging, of both sides.
But in all this, the first steps have to be taken by Hamas (or a successor government). They have to commit to attainable economic development, not a fantasy of defeating a much more powerful neighbour.