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‘BONKERS’: US, ISRAEL REPORTEDLY DISCUSS US-LED ADMINISTRATION IN
GAZA  
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Jessica Corbett
May 7, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "Right, because the U.S. occupation of Iraq is certainly the
best-case scenario for Gaza today," one critic quipped. _

President Trump and Israeli President Netanyahu, Sebastian
Scheiner/AP

 

_Reuters _reported
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that "the United States and Israel
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possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration
of Gaza [[link removed]], according to five
people familiar with the matter," sparking widespread criticism across
the globe.

Responses to the reporting on social media included: "Bonkers
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"Crazy and dangerous idea, besides being illegal
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Under both the Biden and Trump administrations, the U.S. government
has provided armed and diplomatic support to Israel in the wake of the
Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. The Israeli assault over the past 19
months has killed
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52,653 Palestinians, with thousands more missing. Survivors have been
repeatedly displaced and are struggling to find food thanks to an aid
blockade [[link removed]].

According to _Reuters_, other unnamed nations "would be invited to
take part" in the provisional U.S.-led administration, which "would
draw on Palestinian technocrats but would exclude Islamist group Hamas
and the Palestinian Authority."

As the news agency detailed:

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not
authorized to discuss the talks publicly, compared the proposal to the
Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in
2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The authority was perceived by many Iraqis as an occupying force and
it transferred power to an interim Iraqi government in 2004 after
failing to contain a growing insurgency.

Several critics of the reported "high-level" talks also cited the
United States' misadventures in Iraq in the early 2000s.

"This would be a rerun of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq,
but in a war-ravaged territory that isn't even a sovereign state and
in which no American official has been allowed to set foot for two
decades," said
[[link removed]] Gregg
Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent for _The Economist_. "So
bonkers, in fact, that whoever is floating this idea for Gaza is
literally comparing it to the CPA in Iraq, an entity which two decades
later remains a byword for waste, corruption, and incompetence."

Alexander Langlois, a contributing fellow at the foreign policy think
tank Defense Priorities, quipped
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because the U.S. occupation of Iraq is certainly the best-case
scenario for Gaza today. Because that went so well the first time.
It's clear Washington has learned nothing, in no small part because it
refuses to actually reflect on such failures."

Journalist Bobby Ghosh said
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Paul Bremer has pulled on his boots and is waiting by the phone," a
reference to the American diplomat who led the CPA in Iraq.

While the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu—a fugitive
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the International Criminal Court whose government also faces a
genocide case at the International Court of Justice over conduct in
Gaza—declined to comment, a spokesperson for U.S. State Department
sent _Reuters_ a statement that did not address the news agency's
questions.

"We want peace, and the immediate release of the hostages," the U.S.
spokesperson said, referring to captives taken by Palestinian
militants in October 2023. "The pillars of our approach remain
resolute: stand with Israel, stand for peace."

Earlier this week, Netanyahu's Security Cabinet unanimously approved
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Gideon's Chariots, a plan that involves "conquering" Gaza, occupying
the Palestinian territory, and forcibly expelling its residents to the
southern part of the strip.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Ze'ev Elkin suggested Monday that U.S.
President Donald Trump
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the plan, claiming, "I don't feel that there is pressure on us from
Trump and his administration—they understand exactly what is
happening here."

Trump in February proposed
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U.S. takeover of Gaza. He said that "we'll own it and be responsible
for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other
weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed
buildings—level it out and create an economic development that will
supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the
area."

In response to _Reuters_' Wednesday reporting, University of Florida
political science professor Michael McDonald nodded to those
remarks, saying
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"‪One step closer to Trump's dream of bulldozing Gaza to build Trump
resorts." ‪

Some critics connected the potential plan for Gaza to the Trump
administration's other international endeavors. U.K.-based Jewish
Voice for Labour‪ said
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"First Canada, then Greenland, now Palestine
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21st-century imperialism looks like."

Johns Hopkins University historian Eugene Finkel—who was born in
Ukraine and grew up in Israel—sarcastically said
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state-building, governance of places destroyed by U.S. weapons, and
reconstruction even more effectively than Israel does conflict
resolution."

"I was skeptical it was possible to produce something more unhinged
than Trump's peace plans for Ukraine," Finkel added, "but hey, I've
underestimated them."

_Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common
Dreams._

* Israel-Gaza War
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* Trump
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* Netanyahu
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* Gaza Administration
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