It has been observed, including by your servant, that Gaza is where the two-state solution went to die. The Gazans had every opportunity to build themselves a country and willfully tossed it away, joining the world’s petulant destroyers rather than the optomistic creators. If any people ever deserved to be colonized surely the Gazans top the list. They beg for it. …

Still there remains some lingering sense that Israel controls Gaza’s fate, as a parent controls a child’s. How about we banish that sense entirely? How about we call a state a state? Gaza is a state. Treat it like one.

Israel should unilaterally declare Gaza’s independence and recognize it as an independent state, terminating to the last degree its dependence on Israel or Israel’s responsibility. Seal the border entirely until the Gazans learn to behave. No supplies or trade or workers in or out. No water, no electricity unless at market prices.

[Some will argue that’s what Israel did before October 7, but that’s nonsense, as is the description of Gaza as an “open air prison.” Israel and Egypt closed down the borders and restricted the sea passages to Gaza *after* the Gazans put Hamas in charge of their proto-state. Hamas threatens both countries, and they have demonstrated continuously since why that containment was necessary. Still, nations poured billions of dollars into Gaza to build their water, power, and industrial infrastructure. The Gazans used it for their sole purpose of conquest of Israel and genocide of the Jews. Let them feel the true costs of those choices; it’s the only possible way to disincentivize those choices in the future. — Ed]