Jewish Think Tank Tasks Iraq War Architects to Develop 'Day After' Plan for Gaza

On March 16, 2003, days before the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, then-Vice President Dick Cheney told US media that the American forces “would be greeted as liberators.” Nearly 21 years later, US troops are still being attacked in the country.

Some of the architects of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq have been tapped to create a plan for the “day after” in Gaza for the Jewish Institute of National Security of America (JINSA) and the Vandenberg Coalition.

Dubbed the “Gaza Futures Task Force” and first pointed out by Responsible Statecraft, the group issued a report calling for a “multibillion-dollar private organization” funded by “interested nations” to govern Gaza after the hostilities end.

The group consists of nine members, four of whom - including the chairman - played critical roles in the Iraq war and occupation. The chairman, John Hannah, served as the deputy national security adviser to former US Vice President Dick Cheney before taking over as Cheney’s national security adviser for Lewis “Scooter” Libby after he resigned following a perjury indictment.

Libby also sits on the Gaza Futures Task Force alongside Elliott Abrams, who served in the National Security Council (NSC) under former US President George W. Bush and as the director for democracy in the NSC, he played a significant role in funding a failed coup in Gaza by Hamas’ chief political rival Fatah in 2007, which led to a short-lived civil war. Abrams also served as the special envoy to Venezuela and Iran during the administration of former US President Donald Trump.

The fourth member of the nine-member board with Iraq war connections is former Ambassador Eric Edelman, who was the principal deputy national security adviser to Cheney, the number three position at the Pentagon, under former Secretary of Defenses Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates between 2005 and 2009.

Much of the document focuses not only on restoring stability in Gaza but countering Israel’s rivals in the region.

The report lists two goals of the task force:

The document also parrots Israeli demands that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) should be disbanded and “serve[s] to perpetuate and deepen the Palestinian crisis.” It recommends that the organization be replaced with “local Palestinian institutions or other international organizations committed to peace that should be developed and implemented.”

Further, the “multibillion-dollar private organization,” which it dubs the “International Trust for Gaza Relief and Reconstruction,” should be led by a “group of Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates” and supported by the United States “and concerned states that accept Israel’s role in the region.”

The group should initially be focused on providing aid, the task force argues, including “humanitarian islands of stability,” with “large prefabricated housing communities.” But the next step, the Task Force argues, should focus on “de-radicalization” efforts, reflecting the disastrous “de-Baathification” efforts in Iraq. The task force recommends that “moderate” Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank and in the diaspora be utilized to help with the efforts to de-radicalize the region’s schools, mosques and media.

However, considering that Israel’s bombing campaign has displaced 85% of the population and killed more than 30,000 (and rising) Gazans, it may be difficult to find Gazans the JINSA will find acceptably “moderate” to perform this task. The task force did not address this issue.

The Task Force also recommends that the International Trust goals should be within the broader context of countering “Iran’s aggressive campaign to derail peace efforts, including by constraining the threat posed by Hezbollah [in Lebanon] and resuming progress towards normalizing [relations between] Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

Since the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, an estimated 315,000 people have died directly from the conflict.

As of 2020, the US spent an estimated $1.922 trillion invading and stabilizing the country, where at least five US military bases and roughly 2,500 troops remain.