One day about a decade and a half ago, when we found ourselves waiting for a delayed flight at an airport in Washington, DC, I got talking with Giora Eiland, a former IDF planning and operations chief and the former head of the National Security Council under prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Among other things, we discussed a proposal he had for dealing with the densely population Gaza Strip — a plan for an expanded Gaza, created in part by Egypt allocating a very small proportion of the vast Sinai Peninsula. Eiland sketched me a map of the envisaged territorial adjustments, with lines showing tunnels and pipelines and trade routes emerging from the Gulf and crossing Israel and Gaza to the sea — a blueprint for regional cooperation.