Retired Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of coalition forces in Iraq, on Wednesday, weighed in on how to resolve the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza while speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum powered by Bloomberg. Drawing on his hard-learned lessons from the troop surge in Iraq, Petraeus says the basic principle of "clear, hold, and rebuild" must be applied, according to his comments at the Forum.
"We learned it the hard way in Iraq. Clear and handoff didn't work, especially in 2006," Petraeus stated at the Qatar Economic Forum, referring to the previous strategy of US forces clearing areas of insurgents only to quickly hand over to Iraqi forces unable to hold the ground. To turn the tide, Petraeus oversaw an overhaul of strategy – "We reversed what we were doing" – encapsulated by a "surge of ideas" being most important in complementing the military surge at the time. Rather than just clearing and rapidly leaving, US forces would "clear and hold" territory by remaining in force while rapidly rebuilding and restoring services.
"We are not just going to clear and hand off to Iraq who was no longer combat effective. But clear and hold and rebuild," Petraeus explained at the forum of the new approach. In Petraeus' view shared at the Qatar Economic Forum, Israel needs to apply these same principles to resolve the Gaza conflict, though he admits "the situation they face is more complicated than Fallujah, Ramadi, and Baquba all put together because of the 350 miles of subterranean Hamas infrastructure, the high-rises, and the density of the population."
His prescription is for Israel to "clear and hold" sections of Gaza by military force to remove Hamas (whom he equates to ISIS) from populated areas. Civilians would be assured, "We are going to make your lives better by getting Hamas out of your lives." Petraeus said that this worked in Iraq by creating "gated communities" that walled off terrorists. This could be done in Gaza, he continued, by controlling access with biometric IDs to keep Hamas out, and then "flooding with humanitarian assistance" and "aggressively rebuilding all the damage" to show Palestinians "what it could be like" to live free of Hamas' control.
He recalled that in discussions with Israel's War Cabinet, Petraeus recommended walling off the upper third of Gaza with just three controlled entry points to exclude Hamas. This enclave could then become a model of clearing out terrorists while providing humanitarian relief and economic rejuvenation – core elements he believes were lacking in previous Israeli operations in northern Gaza, which forced the troops to raid the al-Shifa hospital repeatedly.
