One Year After the End of the Gaza War: ATFP's grim predictions proved accurate

One Year After the End of the Gaza War

One year after the end of the war in Gaza, alarming reports, reminiscent of the buildup war in 2008, are emerging from the region. Beginning in March 2008, ATFP repeatedly expressed concern that the behavior of both the Israeli government and the Hamas leadership were on a trajectory towards war. In numerous comments and publications, ATFP urged both parties to change course in order to avoid the inevitable and disastrous human and political consequence of a war in Gaza. Tragically, both parties persisted in their mutually-reinforcing policies and ATFP's grim predictions proved accurate.

After the end of the war, in testimony before the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, ATFP President Ziad Asali examined the causes and consequences of the conflict, and suggested ways in which the reconstruction of Gaza can be carried out.

Now, a year on, tensions around the Gaza Strip are again intensifying. It would appear that many of the lessons that should have been learned from the build-up to that eruption have not been internalized by many groups and individuals. Unfortunately, much of ATFP's analysis and many of its concerns from 2008 remain and are becoming increasingly relevant today. Equally, the essential reconstruction of Gaza, which is a humanitarian imperative above and beyond political considerations, is yet to start in earnest, and many of ATFP’s recommendations on this process continue to be both applicable and more urgently required than ever.

On this month’s one-year anniversary of the end of the Gaza war, we are re-issuing some of these analyses, as well as the text of Dr. Asali’s congressional the testimony, with the hope that both our continued concerns and the obvious lessons of the war will this time be heeded.

What Lies Ahead for Gaza?
Policy Focus by ATFP - March 5, 2008
http://www.americantaskforce.org/policy_and_analysis/policy_focus/2008/0...

ATFP Op-ed: Miscalculation
Ziad Asali The Washington Times (Opinion)
http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/in_print/2009/02/25/1235593339

ORAL TESTIMONY OF DR. ZIAD J. ASALI
President and Founder, American Task Force on Palestine
House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia
Chairman Gary L. Ackerman (D-NY)
February 12, 2009
http://www.americantaskforce.org/oral_testimony_dr_ziad_j_asali_february...

FULL TESTIMONY OF DR. ZIAD J. ASALI
President, American Task Force on Palestine
House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia
Chairman Gary L. Ackerman (D-NY)
February 12, 2009
http://www.americantaskforce.org/atfp_testimony_congressional_hearing_ga...