Has Israel been building capacity for peacekeeping / nation-building type operations, of the sort that the U.S. really wished it had before trying to do that sort of thing?
We have been keeping peace and nation building in the West Bank in the last fourty years or so. It’s far from perfect, but the places didn’t go up in flames in the last 20 years or so. We have less options than the US in Afghanistan so we learn through trial and error. Also the EU tends to send experts to try and help (whether they do is a diffferent question, for which I don’t actually know the answer).
The problem tends to be not that we don’t know how to nation- build, but that we don’t want to. When we tried to build an actual Palestinian country in the 90′s it kinda blew up in our face. The Palestinian Authority became a terror nation which we had to weaken a lot in Operation Defensive Shield back in 2002. It remained a weak, unelected government ever since (last elections were back at 2006, when Hamas started taking over). Nobody knows what will happen when the current president will die and it’s A Problem.
In conclusion: Yes, better that the US did but not very good objectively. We muddled through so far, so… fingers crossed?
Like… training people to do policing (or build buildings, or run schools) in occupied territory, when those people could have instead be trained only to defeat enemy soldiers. Or building a stockpile of equipment for providing clean drinking water to residents of occupied territory, in addition to the stockpile of weapons for defeating enemy soldiers. That sort of planning.
I haven’t heard of anything like that (but not sure if I would).
Note there are also problems in trying to set up a government using force, in setting up a police force there if they’re not interested in it, in building an education system (which is currently, afaik, very anti Israel and wouldn’t accept Israel’s opinions on changes, I think) ((not that I’m excited about Israel’s internal education system either)).
I do think Israel provides water, electricity, internet, equipment, medical equipment (subsidized? free? i’m not sure of all this anyway) to Gaza. I don’t know if you count that is something like “building a stockpile of equipment for providing clean drinking water to residents of occupied territory”.
I don’t claim the current solution is good, I’m just pointing out some problems with what I think you’re suggesting (and I’m not judging whether those problems are bigger or smaller).
Has Israel been building capacity for peacekeeping / nation-building type operations, of the sort that the U.S. really wished it had before trying to do that sort of thing?
We have been keeping peace and nation building in the West Bank in the last fourty years or so. It’s far from perfect, but the places didn’t go up in flames in the last 20 years or so. We have less options than the US in Afghanistan so we learn through trial and error. Also the EU tends to send experts to try and help (whether they do is a diffferent question, for which I don’t actually know the answer).
The problem tends to be not that we don’t know how to nation- build, but that we don’t want to. When we tried to build an actual Palestinian country in the 90′s it kinda blew up in our face. The Palestinian Authority became a terror nation which we had to weaken a lot in Operation Defensive Shield back in 2002. It remained a weak, unelected government ever since (last elections were back at 2006, when Hamas started taking over). Nobody knows what will happen when the current president will die and it’s A Problem.
In conclusion: Yes, better that the US did but not very good objectively. We muddled through so far, so… fingers crossed?
What do you mean by “building capacity” in this context? (maybe my English isn’t good enough, I didn’t understand your question)
Like… training people to do policing (or build buildings, or run schools) in occupied territory, when those people could have instead be trained only to defeat enemy soldiers. Or building a stockpile of equipment for providing clean drinking water to residents of occupied territory, in addition to the stockpile of weapons for defeating enemy soldiers. That sort of planning.
I haven’t heard of anything like that (but not sure if I would).
Note there are also problems in trying to set up a government using force, in setting up a police force there if they’re not interested in it, in building an education system (which is currently, afaik, very anti Israel and wouldn’t accept Israel’s opinions on changes, I think) ((not that I’m excited about Israel’s internal education system either)).
I do think Israel provides water, electricity, internet, equipment, medical equipment (subsidized? free? i’m not sure of all this anyway) to Gaza. I don’t know if you count that is something like “building a stockpile of equipment for providing clean drinking water to residents of occupied territory”.
I don’t claim the current solution is good, I’m just pointing out some problems with what I think you’re suggesting (and I’m not judging whether those problems are bigger or smaller).