Many countries sidestep U.N. involvement due to a recognition that U.N.rules-of-engagement and bureaucracy benefit only the lazy and malign. By Michael Rubin, Middle East ForumGaza’s Stabilization Force: Why Trump and Rubio Say “No” to the U.N.The International Stabilization Force for Gaza is beginning to come together, as President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio continue to solicit partners to fill the vacuum that Hamas’ planned disarmament will leave.Trump and Rubio have agreed that only Muslim countries will contribute troops. The United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Egypt have already signed up. Azerbaijan may do so.Turkey has also volunteered troops for Gaza, though Israel has rejected any Turkish participation because of Turkey’s colonial past and terror sponsorship.The U.N. Challenge for GazaFair enough: The idea that Arab states let alone Israel should trust an empowered Palestinian Authority in Gaza as some think tankers have suggested is both naïve and a recipe for disaster.So too is the insistence by both Germany and Jordan that the International Stabilization Force should have a U.N. mandate and follow U.N. rules and regulations.That is like demanding a Lamborghini replace its engine with a Pontiac’s before driving on the highway.Germany cares less about Gaza let alone Israel’s security than about pumping up the United Nations, an institution that it believes will allow it to amplify its influence despite its lack of military investment.Trump should reject Jordan’s input given Queen Rania’s apologetics for Hamas during her visit to Washington at the height of Israel’s fight against the terror group.King Abdullah II is more interested in appeasing Hamas in an ill-considered effort win the group’s commitment to focus its attention elsewhere than in defeating the group.His sudden embrace of the United Nations is an effort to hamstring the effectiveness of the International Stabilization Force.While some states seek to augment U.N. influence, neither the State Department nor other foreign ministries should accept the fiction that U.N. mandates are necessary or effective.In 1981, Egypt, Israel, and the United States created the Multinational Force of Observers (MFO) to monitor demilitarization clauses of the Camp David Accords.The MFO is among the world’s most successful peacekeeping forces, precisely because it had no U.N. mandate.Upon its founding, Washington, Cairo, and Jerusalem agreed to sidestep U.N. involvement to prevent the Soviet Union from having influence in arrangements.By the same logic, demanding a U.N. mandate today is to invite both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to influence a solution whose resolution they seek undermine.NATO likewise intervened in Kosovo without a U.N. mandate due to the likelihood that seeking a U.N. role would lead to a Russian veto.Many countries sidestep U.N. involvement due to a recognition that U.N.rules-of-engagement and bureaucracy benefit only the lazy and malign.In Cabo Delgado, for example, Mozambique’s northern province overrun by the Islamic State, Rwandan forces deployed and succeeded where the United Nations and Southern African Development Community could not succeed because they could fight without bureaucrats tying their hands or with soldiers more interested in collecting money than defeating the enemy.In the Central African Republic, the Rwanda Defense Force deployed in parallel to a U.N. peacekeeping mission so that it could fill in operational gaps left unaddressed by the United Nations.When I visited its capital Bangui, the head of the Rwandan U.N. contingent at the time told me that when insurgents threatened to sack the city, the Egyptian and Pakistani contingents in the Central African force rushed to the Rwandan camp since they knew to wait for U.N. permission to use lethal force to defend themselves would be suicidal, but that the Rwandans would act unilaterally if need be.The United Nations for Gaza Looks Like a Bad IdeaIt is that sort of operational flexibility that any peace in Gaza will require. The U.N. has failed—and deliberately so—for decades. Trump and Rubio are right to build an outside force.They must keep cheerleaders for the status quo, advocates for defeat, and self-interested U.N. bureaucrats from any involvement in the International Stabilization Force for Gaza.To show any flexibility is to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.The post Keep the United Nations out of Gaza appeared first on World Israel News.