Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The ZOA is concerned about Special Envoy Steven Witkoff’s announcement last Wednesday that the U.S. is launching “Phase 2” of President Trump’s 20-Point Gaza Plan – despite the fact that Muslim terrorist group Hamas has refused to meet the plan’s Phase One requirements to return every hostage and to disarm. Failing to insist on the preconditions of disarmament and returning every hostage signals U.S. weakness and emboldens Hamas and other anti-Israel and anti-American interests.
ZOA is also concerned by the announcement that the Phase 2 launch “establishes a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG)”; and that this weekend, President Trump appointed a “Gaza Executive Board” that includes enemies of Israel, and will be led by a so-called Palestinian “technocrat,” Ali Sha’ath.
The term “technocrat” has repeatedly been used to whitewash terrorists and officials committed to Israel’s destruction. Ali Sha’ath – appointed to head the Gazan administration – is a Palestinian Authority official, whose family is tied to PA dictator Mahmoud Abbas. In an interview following his appointment this weekend, Sha’ath never indicated any plan to reeducate the Gazan population to live in peace with Israel, and never indicated any intention of disarming Hamas. Instead, Sha’ath called Israel “the occupation”; accused “the occupation” of destroying Gaza’s hospitals; never mentioned that Hamas made Gazan hospitals into their headquarters and command centers; said nothing negative about Hamas; said that they would be “connecting” Gaza to the Palestinian Authority (which would cut Israel in half); said that “Palestine” lives within him; and said that the NCAG would be relying on an “Egyptian Arab Islamic plan.”
Sha’ath also said that NCAG plans to place 200,000 prefabricated homes in specific locations in Gaza. Just like illegal PA building in Judea and Samaria is designed to encircle and seize Israeli lands, we suspect that the Gazan building units will be placed in locations that most endanger Israel, especially since the Gazan plan is based on an “Egyptian Arab Islamic plan.”
Another serious danger is Egypt’s and the EU’s training of thousands of Palestinian “police” troops for Gaza. Palestinian Authority (PA) police are notorious for using their training and weapons to commit deadly terror attacks against innocent Jewish Israelis. PA “police” and “security” officers serve dual roles as terror commanders; and receive extra pay incentives and are glorified for attacking and killing Jews, etc. (See, e.g., “Terrorists in Uniform: A Study of Palestinian Authority Security Forces’ terror involvement,” Palestinian Media Watch Report, July 2025.)
It is also alarming that, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated on Saturday night: “The announcement regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy.”
Further, this weekend’s appointees to the “Gaza Executive Board” – which will oversee and administer Gaza – raise alarm bells – including appointees Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan; Qatari strategic affairs minister Ali Al-Thawadi; Egyptian intelligence chief General Hassan Rashad; and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (who has been advancing dangerous programs to have the PA control Gaza). Israeli PM Netanyahu also strongly opposed having any Qatari or Turkish troops in Gaza.
Nations that fund, support, host and propagandize for Hamas, such as Turkey and Qatar, are a danger to Israel, the West, and the cause of peace, and should not be given these critical supervisory roles in Gaza. As Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X: “The countries that inspired Hamas cannot be the ones that replace it. Those who support it and continue to host it even now will not be granted a foothold in Gaza. Period.”
Similarly, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, “The entry into Gaza of Qatar and Turkey, which support and finance Hamas, rewards Hamas for the October 7 massacre, endangers the security of Israel’s citizens, and sends a serious message to all the peoples of the region that the massacre of Jews yields political and military achievements.”
And, as Aliyah and Absorption Minister, Ofir Sofer, said, “Israel must oppose the entry of Qatar and Turkey into the administration of Gaza. This is a fundamental security interest, no less important than the insistence on control of the Philadelphi Corridor. Israel should tell its closest friend, ‘No. This is a real danger to the security of the state.’”
Still another alarming appointee to the Gaza Executive Board is Dutch UN official Sigrid Kaag, who propagandizes blood libels against Israel and is married to a Palestinian activist and PA official Anis al-Qaq. In a recent Council on Foreign Relations video, Kaag stated that a Palestinian state including Gaza and the “West Bank” including (the non-existent entity) “East Jerusalem” is an “overdue right.” Kaag also absurdly and wrongly claimed that Israel has still been the “occupying authority” of Gaza since 2005 and that Israel’s withdrawal from all of Gaza in 2005 was “irrelevant”; and that Gaza is “the world’s largest open-air prison” and is “under siege”; and that Israel controlled everything going in and out of Gaza. Kaag ignored Gaza’s border with Egypt, arms smuggling through tunnels from Egypt, etc.
Kaag also spouted phony blood libels that the “parties” (meaning Israel) are committing war crimes in Gaza; that Israel is an “occupying power” that is not meeting its obligations to provide security and access for aid under International Humanitarian Law (“IHL”), and that Israel is only allowing in minimal aid and is starving Gazans. (In fact, from October 2023 to September 2025, Israel facilitated in Gaza 2,174,489 tons of humanitarian aid on 111,540 trucks and 13,209 pallets by land, air and sea. Further, IHL is inapplicable. The applicable law is the Law of War, which Israel also complied with.)
Kaag also falsely condemned the U.S.-sponsored Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – and instead insisted that Hamas-infested UN agencies and NGOs must be in charge of humanitarian aid distribution. (In fact, the highly successful GHF provided 187 million meals directly to Gazans, without allowing Hamas to loot the aid.) One of ZOA’s concerns about the 20-Point Gaza plan (see Point 8) is that terror-infiltrated UN agencies such as UNRWA will again take over aid distribution in Gaza.
ZOA is also deeply concerned that another Israel-hater has been invited to join the “Gaza Peace Board,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif calls for establishing what would be a Palestinian terror state on Israel’s lawful lands, with the Temple Mount as the Palestinian state’s capital; and celebrates October 7 as “Palestine Solidarity Day.” Sharif also falsely accuses Israel of numerous blood libels, including perpetrating “genocide,” “massacres,” “state terrorism,” “starving,” “indiscriminate bombing,” “unrelenting oppression and aggression,” and “waves of atrocities” against “unarmed Palestinians.” Someone who perpetrates such dangerous blood libels should have no place on a “Board of Peace.”
ZOA urges the administration to reconsider the recent concerning and dangerous steps, and to hold off launching “Phase 2” until the Phase 1 requirements of returning every hostage and disarming Hamas are complete.