Could chef Jose Andres now shape the course of Israel’s war in Gaza?
José Andrés in New York, May 2022
R. David Harden writes in Haaretz on 3 April 2024:
On Monday, an Israeli Defense Force drone strike killed seven staff from the U.S. relief agency, World Central Kitchen. According to WCK, the aid convoy was hit while leaving its Deir al-Balah warehouse, after unloading more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.
The seven killed are from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and Palestine with the deadly hit immediately internationalizing the IDF attack. Prime Minister Netanyahu acknowledged responsibility for the massacre, it a “tragic” and “unintentional” incident and vowed to “do every calling thing” to prevent a recurrence.
This event is not another unfortunate tragedy in a brutal war. Rather, policy planners in Jerusalem and Washington should take note, these WCK deaths will have strategic and immediate consequences for Israel’s war against Hamas.
WCK was new to Israel and Gaza – and after October 7th, they did everything right. WCK provided over 500,000 meals to displaced Israelis in both the south and the north of Israel. WCK also demonstrated incredible ingenuity by providing almost 200 tons of food to communities in northern Gaza with the first humanitarian shipment to reach the Gazan coast in nearly two decades. In 175 days, WCK served more than 42 million meals to Gaza’s most vulnerable people.
WCK did not venture into Gaza alone. WCK first partnered with ANERA, another extraordinary U.S. NGO that has been working in Gaza for 55 years. ANERA mentored WCK so it could operate in Gaza’s intensely dangerous and complex environment. ANERA, with a small staff of 25, is immensely effective, providing 150,000 daily meals to Gazans, while assisting dozens of other local and international NGOs in Gaza.
ANERA was key to opening the door to WCK, but more importantly, was central to blunting humanitarian risk in the prior wars between Hamas and Israel. Together, WCK and ANERA provided more meals to the Gazan people than the U.S. Air Force and its partners with the air drops of food baskets.
While the Israelis have its IDF, and seemingly unconditional U.S. military support, WCK has unmatched social credit in Washington. WCK’s founder is famed chef and entrepreneur, Jose Andres. Jose Andres is beloved in DC. Everyone in the foreign policy community, whether at the White House, the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, or in the think tanks have dined in Jose Andres’s Zaytinya, Jaleo, the Minibar, or other restaurants. For those outside of DC, it’s hard to understate the connectivity and popularity of Chef Andres to Washington culture and its political establishment.
The chef is also a local DC institution and hero. He threw out the first pitch during Game 5 of the 2019 World Series, where the Nationals baseball team finally brought home the championship. Jose Andres used Nationals Park to prepare 900,000 meals during COVID, he also provided meals to lower paid government employees who were furloughed during government shutdowns. Jose Andres brings immense reputational credibility, innovation to humanitarian operations, and a sophisticated geo-political agility. And, as of yesterday WCK, ANERA, and a third U.S. NGO, Project Hope have suspended operations in Gaza. Chef Jose Andres may very well shape the direction of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Without UNRWA, and now these three U.S. NGOs, Israel could soon be left with no humanitarian partners on the ground in Gaza, and 2.2 million Palestinians facing undeniable food insecurity and globally unacceptable famine risk.
The only way forward is for Israel to build, own, deploy, and operate a state of the art, disciplined, and accountable deconfliction system where humanitarians, including international NGOs and UN agencies, coordinate movements and logistics with the IDF’s Southern Command and COGAT to carve out safe space or clear passage for humanitarian workers and supplies. In this deconfliction system, there can be no errors. The IDF tactical approach must default to protecting humanitarian actors, facilities and civilians as a governing principle for its war in Gaza.
In the meantime, the WCK tragedy will give the Netanyahu cabinet and the Biden administration a few important lessons. The Israelis will soon realize how much they need humanitarians to achieve their war aims. Without WCK, ANERA, or UNRWA, the IDF may be the humanitarian provider of last resort.
This WCK attack reminds the Biden administration, yet again, that it will face an election year uproar from centrists and the foreign policy community given the timing of these deaths to the next arms sale and shipment to Israel.
Finally, the continuing catastrophe in Gaza will serve as a clarion call to the world that Israeli security for its nation and citizens is inextricably linked to Palestinian aspirations of statehood and justice for its people.
R. David Harden is a former assistant administrator at USAID’s bureau for democracy, conflict and humanitarian assistance; a former USAID mission director to the West Bank and Gaza; and a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Middle East peace.
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