Blinken makes the case for post-war reconstruction, security and governance of Gaza

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a last-minute case Tuesday for a plan for the post-war reconstruction and governance of Gaza as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appears tantalizingly close to completion.

Blinken touted the proposal, which has been in the works for a year, and discussed the importance of ensuring its success after the Biden administration leaves office in a speech to the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

''We have a responsibility to ensure that the strategic gains of the last 15 months endure and lay the foundation for a better future,'' Blinken said. ''All too often, in the Middle East, we've seen how the shoes of one dictator can be filled by another, or give way to conflict and chaos."

Blinken said the plan, which he has referenced in the past, envisions the Palestinian Authority inviting ''international partners'' to stand up an interim governing authority to run critical services and oversee the territory. Other partners, notably Arab states, would provide forces to ensure security in the short term, he said.

That security mission would depend on a pathway to an independent Palestinian state unifying Gaza and the West Bank and would be tasked with creating ''a secure environment for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts and ensuring border security,'' Blinken said. A Palestinian state, which Israel has refused, has been a sticking point.

At the same time, the U.S. would lead a new initiative to train, equip and vet a Palestinian-led security force for Gaza to focus on law and order that would take over from the interim mission, he said.

Blinken and his top aides have spent months trying to sell Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Gulf Arab nations on the plan, which outlines how Gaza would be run without Hamas in charge of the territory that has been devastated by a war that began in October 2023 after the militant group's attack inside Israel.

Those efforts initially met with resistance, with Israel objecting to calls for its complete withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian Authority taking a lead role in governance as well as Arab nations insisting that a ceasefire had to be sealed before discussion of a ''day after'' plan.

But during multiple trips to the region since last January, Blinken managed to get the Gulf Arab states, many of which would be asked to pay for reconstruction, on board with preparing the proposal.

Blinken's speech Tuesday was interrupted several times by protesters, who shouted that he was complicit in what they alleged were Israeli war crimes, calling him ''secretary of genocide'' and vowing that he would be held accountable for signing off on weapons shipments to Israel. The protests were brief and Blinken appeared unfazed.

America's top diplomat criticized Israel for not doing enough to rein in anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank, withholding tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority and opposing any significant future role for the West Bank leadership in Gaza. He also took the PA to task for resisting longstanding demands for reforms that it has only recently begun to embrace.

''The PA will need to carry out swift, far-reaching reform to build more transparent, accountable governance, continuing a process that it began last year. Israel will have to accept reuniting Gaza in the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed PA,'' he said.

Blinken also covered other areas of the administration's Middle East policy. He praised the U.S. and others for coming to Israel's defense during two unprecedented missile attacks from Iran and stressed that multiple American administrations from both political parties have vowed never to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the prospect of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia ''is the best incentive to get the parties to make tough decisions necessary to fully realize the aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians,'' Blinken said.

He noted that ''much of the heavy lifting for normalization is complete," notably elements of a new U.S.-Saudi strategic alliance that would make Saudi Arabia a formal treaty ally and include a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and enhanced investment opportunities. But he cautioned that without a deal on Gaza and a pathway to a Palestinian state, normalization would not happen.

The urgency of keeping the post-war Gaza plan alive even without a ceasefire became more intense after the November election of President-elect Donald Trump. U.S. officials have brought Trump aides into the discussions over the past month to get their buy-in on the plan, which will require significant American involvement during Trump's presidency.

One fear was that the plan might be abandoned by Trump's team in a similar fashion to the way former President George W. Bush's administration tossed aside a U.S.-backed proposal for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq that was crafted while Bill Clinton was in the White House.

That detailed, multi-volume plan designed to prevent Iraq from falling into chaos in the event of Saddam's ouster was the result of the ''Future of Iraq'' project that was started after Congress called for regime change in Iraq while Clinton was in office.