Recent reports that the United States and Israel have discussed a potential U.S.-led administration for Gaza within the framework of the Israeli government’s broader strategy for the indefinite military control should raise serious questions for Americans. 

A U.S.-led administration in Gaza is straight out of the failed neocon playbook which President Trump has publicly rejected. Indeed, Israeli newspaper Haaretz even reports that the proposal is based on the infamous U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Such a plan would mark a significant and perilous return to U.S. intervention in the Middle East. 

Twenty-two years after the invasion of Iraq, America has only just begun to pay down the trillion-dollar debt generated by that war, and across our nation, veterans continue to receive treatment for their wounds and trauma, while empty chairs at thousands of family tables will never be filled again. For the U.S. to insert itself into a mess of Israel’s making would not only be a disaster for our foreign policy, it would be to take on these costs in blood and treasure anew, learning nothing from our past mistakes, and reopening the door on America’s longest – and most unpopular – wars in the Middle East. 

In addition to opposing a U.S. occupation in Gaza, Americans should also be concerned by the continuous violations of U.S. law that our ongoing unconditional military support to Israel entails. U.S. law rightfully conditions military assistance on the delivery of humanitarian aid and the avoidance of gross violations of human rights. Israel’s widespread and systematic 

destruction of civilian infrastructure, displacement of populations, and the use of starvation as a method of war are unacceptable and flagrant violations of both American law and International Humanitarian Law. These tactics, and any U.S. facilitation of an exclusionary post-war administration, undermine any claim that the U.S. upholds democratic values or the rules-based international order. 

All of these proposals and policies run starkly counter to the interests of the American people. By bending to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s manipulations, President Trump is taking on an unjustified – and unjust – burden for America, and is forcing America into a commitment that will be unlimited in its burden and unbound in its illegality. 

As poll after poll makes clear, American voters do not want to be complicit in this humanitarian catastrophe. A New Policy and Eisenhower Media Network firmly believe there is no military solution to this conflict, and no American interest in deepening our involvement in this fashion. True security for both Palestinians and Israelis can only be forged through a rejuvenated diplomatic process, accountability for all violations of international law, and a political framework that guarantees justice