I guess the general underlying assumption is that the refugee condition is only temporary, which more often than not becomes a cruel farce (and nowhere is this more crass than in the case of the Palestinians). Generally speaking, aid policies need to recognize a point where the focus must be shifted from relief to resettlement, but that is probably a very hot potato politically.

Just as an exercise, I wonder what it would cost to make the Gazans Egyptian citizens (and not just at the proletariat level)?

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman