New Delhi, Dec 2 : Israel has no coherent roadmap for Gaza's future, with the return of the Palestinian Authority, an Arab/international military presence, or an Israeli re-occupation all creating new problems of their own, said Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics.

There has been some chatter about an Arab/international force managing post-war governance in Gaza. But Arab governments across the region have made it clear that they don’t want to touch the besieged enclave with a ten-foot pole, Cafiero wrote in The New Arab.

From their perspective, this is a crisis that Israel and its Western backers must own, and it is not the responsibility of Arab states to manage it, he said.

Moreover, any Arab military force put in charge of Gaza would be subject to grave dangers. Perceptions of Bahraini, Egyptian, Emirati, or Jordanian forces being Israel’s partners or allies against any Gaza-based resistance could put them in harm’s way.

While speaking earlier this month at the IISS Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain, Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi stressed that “there will be no Arab troops going to Gaza” and that the Arab states “are not going to be seen as the enemy”.

Amman’s chief diplomat emphasised that Arab governments were in agreement that this idea must be rejected. Entertaining that idea would send Israel’s government the wrong message about Arab states’ being willing to “clean up your mess”.