What comes after the war? (Updated)

I am thinking of Colin Powell's "Pottery Barn rule"; his admonition to George W. Bush in 2002 in relation to the decision whether to invade Iraq.  "You break it, you own it."

The war between Israel and Hamas can't last forever, and Israel hasn't made public any plans about what they intend to do after it is over.  Except, they have said that they aren't going to occupy Gaza.  Biden has said that they shouldn't occupy Gaza.  But in the short term, who is going to pick up the pieces?  They have said that they don't want UN forces to do it. Eqypt doesn't want Gaza. None of the Arab neighbors want it. But you don't get to just walk away from chaos that you helped cause, even if the other side started it.

I came across this piece by Moises Salinas Fleitman,A Marshall Plan for Gaza & a Three State Solution | Moises Salinas Fleitman | The Blogs (timesofisrael.com) and it is the only solution that makes sense to me from a humanitarian point of view, that is, to carry out a sort of Marshall Plan. From the article:

"After the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the country lay in ruins. The Allies, in a brutal but necessary campaign to defeat Hitler and uproot Nazism, had destroyed infrastructure, industrial complexes, and urban areas, leading to significant civilian casualties. Historians disagree on the exact number, but estimates range from several hundred thousand to a million or more. Physically and socially, Germany was a broken nation. However, by the 1960s, at least the western part of Germany had transformed into a country with a thriving liberal democracy and a dynamic economy. How did a nation that had over 8.5 million active members of the most horrific and radical ideology in modern history, and was devastated by war, become a beacon of economic recovery and democratic values in the second half of the 20th century?"

"To a large extent, this transformation was due to the Marshall Plan, an initiative spearheaded in 1947 by the United States to aid the economic recovery of Western Europe after World War II. In essence, it comprised financial assistance, economic stabilization, modernization, and political and social stability. Lasting about four years, the plan injected over $13 billion (equivalent to about $170 billion in 2023) into Western European economies. It was accompanied by the Allied occupation of Germany until a stable democratic government was established in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 (and a communist one in the German Democratic Republic)."

"If Israel is determined and able to uproot Hamas from the Gaza Strip, the Marshall Plan provides a promising blueprint for the territory. As I’ve previously written, there’s no long-term solution to the conflict if Palestinian youth lack hope for the future. Therefore, it is crucial to create conditions where young people don’t feel compelled to join terrorist organizations and adopt radical ideologies. And the attraction to such ideologies is not necessarily the result of education, indoctrination and culture. Millions of German children were fiercely indoctrinated by Nazi ideology between 1933 and 1945, and antisemitism was deeply rooted in German culture at the time. Yet, they became the generation that reconstructed Germany into a thriving democracy."

"I am convinced that replicating the success of the Marshall Plan and the German reconstruction in Gaza is possible, but it would require an international coalition to oversee the political and economic reconstruction of the strip. This would be akin to a “three” state solution of sorts, as the political structure of Gaza would be, albeit temporarily, separate from the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Most importantly, for a reconstruction plan to succeed, a solution to the root causes of the violence is needed: guaranteeing the legitimate aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians for a just peace, and security.

Japan was not included in the Marshall Plan, but the US also carried out a reconstruction program there, ending their occupation of Japan after seven years, in 1952.

It is interesting that Moises Salinas Fleitman calls the plan a "three state solution".  It has seemed obvious to me that there has been three states for a long time, since Gaza and the West Bank don't even have the same government.  It seems an unrealistic expectation to think that the Palestinian Authority in its present iteration would be willing or able to step into the gap of governing Gaza.  A temporary occupation seems inevitable, and more humane than leaving the Palestinians in Gaza to lift themselves by their own bootstraps, since they have nothing now.

Update:  There is a good article on the NCR site by Stephen M. Colecchi: Visionary leaders could point toward a just peace in the Holy Land | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)

"Tragically, actors on both sides undermine the possibility of peace. Hamas' failure to recognize Israel, its call for Israel's destruction, and its indiscriminate attacks on Israelis, including suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and the murders and kidnappings of Oct. 7, terrorize Israelis. They also undermine the legitimacy of the Palestinian quest for self-determination. "

"...Jerusalem is home to Jewish prayer at the Western Wall, Christian prayer at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and Muslim prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site. Jerusalem lies at the center of the conflict. Radical Israelis engage in provocative actions at Al-Aqsa. Christians are intimidated by Israeli extremists and Christian sites are defaced."

"What are the elements of a long-term solution? A just peace demands an end to both the violence of terrorism and the violence of occupation. It demands recognition and security for Israel. Nonviolent resistance to the violence of occupation would better serve the Palestinian cause. Terror attacks and indiscriminate rocket fire on Israeli civilians must end."

"A just peace demands an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Arab East Jerusalem and Gaza, and an end to the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Justice demands the establishment of a Palestinian state or confederation with equal rights for all. It also requires an agreement on Jerusalem that protects religious freedom and other basic rights, and the aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians."

"Visionary leaders could find light at the end of the tunnel."

That is the trouble, there don't seem to be any visionary leaders.