CNAS and Brookings Announce Formation of Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward Gaza

Washington, D.C. — The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy today announced the creation of their Future of U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Gaza Task Force. The task force will examine U.S. options for addressing the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip and convene a series of sessions over the next six months to tackle these issues. These issues include (but are not limited to) the near-term humanitarian challenges as well as the long-term political problems plaguing the Gaza Strip.

To learn more about the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Gaza Task Force, please contact Madeline Christian at [email protected] or 202-457-9410 or Suzanne Schaefer at [email protected] or 202-797-6063.

The task force includes a bipartisan set of foreign policy and national security experts, including former high-ranking U.S. government officials, former ambassadors who served in the Middle East, and a number of former negotiators. CNAS Middle East Security Program Director Ilan Goldenberg, Brookings Center for Middle East Peace Director Natan Sachs, and Brookings Visiting Fellow Hady Amr will serve as directors of the task force.

“The Gaza strip faces a grim reality of humanitarian and environmental crises that threatens the viability of the two-state solution, and while U.S. policy has focused heavily on the West Bank, it has badly neglected Gaza,” said Goldenberg. Sachs added: “Gaza is the kind of problem policymakers dread: The current situation has produced three wars between Israel and Hamas and a generation of Gazans growing up in terrible conditions. All of the key actors have adapted their approaches over the past decade. It is only appropriate that the United States also rethink its strategy.” Amr further added: “The nearly two million people of Gaza endure a catastrophic man-made mix of dire unemployment, lack of democracy, and urban overcrowding. This not only damages Palestinian prosperity, it also perpetuates conflict that threatens Israel and Egypt, and undermines U.S. national security. It’s in everyone’s interests to change course.”

The task force’s efforts will culminate in a final report written by a joint CNAS-Brookings team consisting of regional and security experts. The report will be released in late 2018 or early 2019.

A list of select task force members is included below. Affiliations are provided for identification purposes only and do not indicate institutional support.

Ghaith al-Omari, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Hady Amr, The Brookings Institution

Scott R. Anderson, The Brookings Institution

Dany Bahar, The Brookings Institution

Katherine Bauer, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Rachel Bradenburg, Atlantic Council Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Robert Danin, Council on Foreign Relations & Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center

Shira Efron, RAND Corporation

Khaled Elgindy, The Brookings Institution

Lara Friedman, Foundation for Middle East Peace

Susie Gelman, Israel Policy Forum

Ilan Goldenberg, Center for a New American Security

David Halperin, Israel Policy Forum

Zaha Hassan, New America

Nicholas Heras, Center for a New American Security

Ambassador Martin Indyk, The Brookings Institution

Michael Koplow, Israel Policy Forum

Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, Princeton University

Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen, United States Institute of Peace 

Scott Lasensky

Frank Lowenstein

David Makovsky, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute

Michael Ratney, National Defense University

Ambassador Dennis Ross, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Mara Rudman, Business Executives for National Security

Natan Sachs, The Brookings Institution

Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv

Ambassador Dana Shell Smith, Georgetown University

Michael Singh, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland

Toni Verstandig, S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace

Robert Wexler, S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace

Tamara Cofman Wittes, The Brookings Institution

Sarah Yerkes, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace