An orientalist and colonialist mindset is behind the management of the Phase Two Trump Plan, involving several Washington-based pro-war think tanks.
Washington-based pro-war think tanks, commonly understood to be arms of the Israel Lobby, are revealing the schemes that are currently being set upon the people of Gaza. In contrast to the vague statements coming from the White House, the thinking behind the strategy at play is much more complex and layered.
A recent policy analysis published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), entitled “The Ceasefire in Gaza: Views on Security, Palestinian Governance, and Regional Dynamics”, gives away the imperialist mindset behind the management of Phase Two of the deal.
In the piece, a range of issues are summarized by a range of WINEP’s “experts”, who seek to influence and shape how the ceasefire’s terms are implemented on the ground. It is important to note that this think-tank, which was linked to the Israel Lobby, was mentioned by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their book ‘The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy’ and is widely viewed as having been influential in pushing the United States into war against Iraq.
More recently, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft’s project, Think Tank Funding Tracker, gave WINEP a 0 out of 5 transparency rating, indicating its funding comes from what is called ‘dark donor money’. Also, on that list, was the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), also accused of being tied to the Israel Lobby, and also a key think tank that pushed for the US’s illegal war on Iraq.
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What Are The Think Tanks Saying?
The latest WINEP policy analysis begins with introducing the ceasefire in Gaza as having unleashed a Hamas tyranny on its own people, painting a picture that the group, which has governed Gaza since 2006, is cracking down on clans who took up arms to resist their rule.
“Of the clans, the largest and most established is Abu Shabab, whose members are concentrated in south-east Gaza near the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel”, the WINEP analysis piece even claims. Right off the bat, the framing is key as it lays the ground for what recommendations are being put forth.
To address this briefly, Abu Shabab refers to Yasser Abu Shabab, a convicted drug trafficker who leads the so-called “Popular Forces”, an ISIS-linked militia group. The clan from which this overtly Israeli-backed group originated is the Tarabin clan, which had officially disavowed the militant group for bringing disgrace to their family name way before the ceasefire came into effect. There is no “Abu Shabab clan”, representing the clear lack of knowledge on the part of the writer of the introduction to the piece.
The policy analysis then goes on to state the following:
“At present, the anti-Hamas clans lack the capability to withstand a direct offensive without external support, thus requiring Israel to act strategically to prevent a scenario of widespread violent retribution. Any future agreement should therefore include an explicit clause guaranteeing the security of the clans and potentially seek to gradually integrate their militias into Israel-controlled areas, with the longer-term goal of placing them under the Palestinian Authority. Such a move could help stabilize the territory, expand the operational space for non-Hamas actors, and thus prevent Hamas from reasserting full control over Gaza.”
This alone is indicative of the thinking of the Israeli military at this point, which has granted safe haven to its three primary militant groups – which function in Rafah, Khan Yunis and Northern Gaza – that are not simply “clans”. These armed groups have official names; they were revealed to have carried out operations on orders from their Israeli military and Shin Bet handlers and equating them with entire clans, or families, is not only false, but recklessly blaming entire bloodlines for the actions of their relatives.
While the WINEP piece has no recommendations for how Israel should be restrained or enact any kind of reforms, one of its experts, Ghaith Al-Omari, advocates that the US government must spell out organizing principles for reforms within the Palestinian Authority, to define what that will mean.
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When it comes to Gaza’s new technocratic administration, Al-Omari points out an issue which I have written about many times in pieces for the Palestine Chronicle, noting that many “technocrats”- whether now or previously – have worked within the PA or the Gaza government, and separating them out from political operatives will be challenging. Excluding them wholesale – except for members of Hamas and other terrorist groups – will be a recipe for failure.”
This portion of the analysis advocates for the US to begin taking steps towards a process that he even appears to spell out, is headed for disaster, yet makes a rather incoherent case regardless.
Ehud Yaari’s segment to the piece openly notes how Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye were all pushed towards pressuring Hamas to accept the current agreement, although they themselves are having their own reservations about the Trump Plan. Yaari outlines how aid handouts to Egypt, pressure on Turkiye, which has been sanctioned over the purchase of Russian air defense systems, and Qatar, through assurance that Israel will not bomb it again, all worked in favor of securing the deal’s pro-Israeli agenda.
In Dana Stroul’s segment on security maintenance in Gaza, she writes:
“Training for vetted Palestinian forces will need to accelerate so that the Information Security Forum (ISF) interim mission does not become a forever mission. The Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator (USSC), based in Israel, already developed plans for building a Palestinian security force focused on policing tasks for Gaza. Training should accelerate in Jordan at U.S.-supported facilities like the Jordan International Police Training Center, and the United States should prioritize coordination with Egypt to ensure that its training and vetting retains Israeli support.”
The question here is that, when the international intervention force enters Gaza and the Palestinian “security force” is trained, what is that going to look like and who will be involved? As is also covered in the briefing, issues such as how to get rid of weapons production and tunnel infrastructure must be solved.
The issue here with all of these schemes and policy recommendations is that what is being advocated for is a mission that is flawed from the get-go. In every entry from each analyst, they point out the gaping holes in the strategies they are arguing for.
In addition to this, the other major issue here is the framing. The “clans”, which are presented as if they are families revolting against Hamas organically, a categorically false framing, are in fact ISIS-linked death squads who were first used by Israel to loot humanitarian aid, before going on to carry out direct military operations against Palestinian resistance factions.
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When the US-Israeli project known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began, it employed a large number of bloodthirsty ex-special forces militants who were part of an anti-Muslim biker gang. The PMC’s then teamed up with the Israeli military as it slaughtered over 1,300 aid seekers, while coordinating with Yasser Abu Shabab’s ISIS-linked militants. This is how the US and Israel have, so far, implemented their agendas in Gaza, with these kinds of actors.
The idea of somehow backing these ISIS-linked militia groups, who have no popular support in Gaza whatsoever, to eventually allow for their areas of control to come under the PA’s leadership is ludicrous and not even workable on paper. Yet, this seems to be the direction of the policy analysis’s advocacy.
Under this think tank vision, which is echoed in pieces recently published by think tanks like the FDD, is one in which the Palestinian people have no real say over their future at all. What Gaza looks like is completely shaped by foreign powers and Israel. Democracy is barred, too, and the will of the people forgotten.
An orientalist and colonialist mindset has gripped all of the Washington-based think tanks, including others like the Atlantic Council. Under such visions, the Palestinians who have suffered through genocide are being squeezed even tighter than before and the saviors that are being proposed to rule them are quite literally Israeli-backed death squads whose militiamen are thieves, ISIS-linked Salafists, drug dealers and murderers.
These kinds of psychotic policy analysis pieces are strong indications of a violent future ahead, as not even a modicum of consideration for the people on the ground comes into play; the only consideration appears to be for achieving Israel’s total annihilation of the Palestinian armed struggle.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
Global media are on a front line now. People continue pushing through social media and on the street, but mainstream media have to be forced to stop spreading Israeli lies or lose subscriptions, viewers, readers and either fold or be sold. The narrative has always been the rock wall behind the conflict, and that has to change.
Excellent analysis! Agree, the whole think tank “piece” is destined to failure, if Hamas doesn’t eliminate ISIS-affiliate Yasser Abu Shabab, first!
usa ” think tanks ” are ONLY important in their own warped minds!… Most of them are simply fools, Dead Souls who can’t exist without war-mongering!… Gaza is not and cannot be a usa-israeli preserve, for the simple reason that the usa has no money for such a venture…Whether usa likes it or not, many Nations will have to be involved for many years and many of those Nations do not agree with the usa approach… Hamas can take charge by getting out in front of the ” think-tanks ” and Proving them Wrong…they have almost no influence so it should not be hard to do… trump himself is sinking deep in dementia, which gives Hamas the opening it needs… to WIN the Peace in Palestine