Israel’s secret plan to “Iraq-ify” Gaza
Netanyahu will use private military contractors
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Israel’s far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a secret plan for Gaza as his defence forces continue to bomb, displace and now starve its more than 2 million inhabitants.
Haaretz journalist Noa Landau says that despite never admitting it, Netanyahu has a “day after” scheme for Gaza that looks remarkably like the way the United States devastated Iraq following the invasion in 2003.
“Throughout all his years in office, Netanyahu has benefited from deliberate ambiguity, including contradictory messages in Hebrew and English. But reality doesn't lie. That is how, very slowly, large chunks of the West Bank have been annexed de facto, without grandiose legislation. And that's exactly what is happening now in the Gaza Strip,” writes Landau.
She says Netanyahu has three goals:
First, occupy large swaths of Gaza, expelling the residents, destroying their homes, paving new roads and building army outposts and other infrastructure for the long term.
Next, transfer responsibility for humanitarian aid in Gaza to the Israel Defence Forces – “a euphemism for a military government,” she writes.
And then, just as the U.S. did in Iraq, privatize military rule over Gaza by handing it over to private companies with private financial interests and nothing beyond that.
For those who may not have been around back in 2003, private contractors like Haliburton became synonymous with corruption and profiteering in U.S.-occupied Iraq.
Haliburton’s former CEO was President George W. Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, and the corporation received billions of dollars in uncompetitive contracts from the Pentagon following the defeat of Saddam Hussein’s forces (a war launched on false pretenses that cost the lives of an estimated 200,000 civilians.)
“Due to the [Israeli] army’s opposition to being involved in distributing aid, a decision is taking shape to hire a private Israeli-American company to handle this issue,” says Landau.
The company that has recently been mentioned as a candidate, GDC, is a military contractor of the kind that flooded Iraq and Afghanistan during America's occupation of those countries, says Landau.
“The goal is to transfer moral and legal responsibility from Israel to these armed militias,” she writes. GDC’s founder and CEO, Moti Kahana, said “If something happens, we'll send a message to Gaza's residents – you don't want to mess with us.” Pure gangster-style.
If something happens, we'll send a message to Gaza's residents – you don't want to mess with us.
The current plan gives private contractors the keys to civilian control of Gaza, thereby turning Gaza into another Iraq, which will be a tragedy for generations.
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