The Future of Gaza

The Gaza situation got a lot of attention in the State of the Union speech. I was part of a group that spent several months—with two visits to Israel and one to Saudi Arabia, many meetings in both places, and about one hundred zoom meetings with U.S., Israeli, Palestinian, Saudi, Emirati, civilian, military, and security officials—devising a Gaza plan.

Called the Gaza Futures Task Force and formed by JINSA and the Vandenberg Coalition, we have published The Day After: A Plan for Gaza and it can be found here: https://vandenbergcoalition.org/the-day-after-a-plan-for-gaza/.

Our five-page action plan can be found here: https://vandenbergcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/The-Day-After-A-Plan-for-Gaza-Action-Plan.pdf.

Very briefly, the plan calls for establishment of an International Trust for Gaza that would funnel funding for humanitarian relief and reconstruction, oversee deradicalization in Gaza, and undertake most governmental functions including provision of security. How will it do that? I urge you to look at the Plan and then the full report.

A brief comment on the President’s proposal that the United States assist with a maritime aid plan with a route from Cyprus to Gaza: it’s a good idea, and has been discussed for months. It will help increase the amount of aid arriving, and usefully take pressure off both Egyptian and Israeli supply routes.

But there is a huge problem, one that the President did not even address: what happens when the aid arrives in that new port? Who receives it? Who distributes it? The President suggested no plan, nor even ideas, for establishing security in Gaza. Unless he does, the kind of anarchy we see now in Gaza, including attacks on aid convoys, will only grow. He should read the Gaza Futures Task Force Report and Plan.