Sinai: The key to solving Gaza’s crisis and achieving regional peace - opinion

Those who view the Palestinian problem and regional peace as a real estate issue should see the Sinai Peninsula as the geopolitical and humanitarian solution.

With its vast area and tiny population, the Sinai can serve as a solution to decades of hardship and political stasis for the residents of Gaza and Israel, and an opportunity for Egypt. The Sinai can provide a safety for Gazans and an economic solution for Egypt’s ailing economy. It can help bring peace and security to the entire region.

As President Donald Trump said, a day after his inauguration, “[Gaza]’s got to be rebuilt in a different way. Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea. The best weather. Some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.’’

Indeed, after Hamas is destroyed and with the Gaza Strip demilitarized and the remaining population deradicalized, Gaza can host an envious golf course, with luxury beach-side resorts. It could become the “greatest golf course on earth.”

The Nile and the Sinai Peninsula are pictured in this handout photo courtesy of Col. Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, who is photographing Earth from the International Space Station, taken on March 20, 2013 (credit: REUTERS/CSA/Col. Chris Hadfield/Handout )

But until then, the Sinai is the best solution. The peninsula, which is part of Egypt, shares natural geographic continuity with both Israel and Gaza, however, the contrast between the latter and the adjacent Sinai is stark.

Sinai covers an area 165 times larger than Gaza and more than twice the size of Israel (over 60,000 sq.km.) with a population only one-third the size of Gaza (600,000 inhabitants), making it one of the most scarcely populated places in the region.

Northern Sinai’s Mediterranean coast is particularly promising, featuring abundant groundwater resources. Likewise, northwestern Sinai, east of the Suez Canal, has seen substantial Egyptian investment in agricultural development, including freshwater canal systems and an extensive infrastructure development that includes a network of roads and highways connecting Sinai to mainland Egypt via tunnels that run under the Suez Canal.

WITH THIS kind of infrastructure, northern Sinai can be an ideal location for developing new communities for Gaza’s residents. Its broad open spaces can support large-scale development projects, benefiting both Egypt’s economic challenges and Israel’s security concerns. With sufficient international investment, this can be achieved in record time.

International financial investment can allow Gazan civilians to receive compensation in the form of large lots of land in the Sinai – an area that could be purchased from Egypt by the international community or by Saudi Arabia at above market value.

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While such a solution may sound unprecedented, in 2017, Saudi Arabia purchased the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir from Egypt, providing the Egyptian government with essential economic relief. Egypt, with a current annual budget deficit of $12 billion, inflation at 12%, and unemployment at 7.5%, Egypt could certainly use a similar deal.

This approach could also offer it significant geopolitical advantages: international recognition for addressing the Gaza crisis and facilitating the realization of its long-term goal to develop Sinai. Such a solution may accommodate regional dynamics and interests.

“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”

Trump said the part of the world that encompasses Gaza has “had many, many conflicts” over centuries. He said resettling “could be temporary or long term.”

“Something has to happen, so, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”

Qatar, a country with 300,000 citizens and some three million foreign workers, has served as a mediator to the hostage negotiations and could also help find a resolution to the Gaza-Israel conflict. Instead of financing terror, it could take in Gazan workers.

For Israel, the key lesson from the October 7, 2023 Hamas atrocities is that it cannot allow a genocidal terrorist organization anywhere near its borders.

With the Sinai solution, security concerns can become economic springboards and the time has never been better to explore this possibility.

The writer is a former head of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism’s office in Washington and a senior analyst at Acumen Risk Ltd., a risk-management firm.