A screengrab from a zoom presentation with Samir Hulileh, founder of Maalchat Digital Wallet (@INJAZAlArab/X_
Samir Hulileh - taken from a zoom presentation (@INJAZAlArab/X)

Gaza’s Future Governor? Inside the Shadow Campaign for Samir Hulileh

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The Judean Staff
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The Secret Campaign to Install Gaza’s Post-War Governor: The U.S.-Backed Power Play No One Is Talking About.
 
Washington, Ramallah, and Riyadh are quietly plotting the future of Gaza—and they may already have a governor in waiting.

While the world’s cameras remain fixed on the rubble and ruin of Gaza, a shadow game of geopolitics is unfolding behind closed doors. At its center is a man few outside of Palestinian political circles know by name—Samir Hulileh, a well-connected Palestinian businessman and former senior official in the Palestinian Authority. The plan? To anoint him as Gaza’s post-war governor under the auspices of the Arab League—effectively creating a U.S.- and Gulf-backed protectorate on Israel’s southern border.

According to an interview on Palestinian radio station Ajyal, the plot is being quietly engineered by a familiar figure in the world of high-stakes lobbying and covert political maneuvering: Ari Ben-Menashe, an Iranian-born former Israeli intelligence officer turned international dealmaker, whose client list reads like the guestbook at a dictator’s conference.

The Man They Want to Rule Gaza

Samir Hulileh is no backroom bureaucrat. A trained economist from Ramallah, he has spent decades straddling the worlds of Palestinian politics and high finance. His résumé includes:

  • Secretary-General of the Palestinian Government (2005)

  • Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade

  • Chairman, Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute

  • CEO of PADICO, Palestine’s largest holding company

  • Chairman of the Palestinian Stock Exchange

His close ties to Palestinian-American billionaire Bashar al-Masri—developer of the gleaming West Bank city of Rawabi and a known player in Washington during the Trump years—place him firmly in the orbit of U.S.-friendly Palestinian elites.

A Lobbyist With a History of Ghosts and Guns

The man promoting Hulileh’s candidacy is as controversial as he is connected. Ari Ben-Menashe—once accused (and acquitted) in the Iran-Contra affair—has made a career representing regimes shunned by the West: Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Myanmar’s military junta, Sudan’s generals, and now… the potential governor of Gaza.

According to U.S. Justice Department filings, Ben-Menashe has already signed a $300,000 lobbying contract with Hulileh—$130,000 of which has been paid—to push his candidacy in Washington, Doha, Riyadh, and Cairo. The sales pitch: Gaza’s governance can’t be left to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. Instead, a “neutral” Palestinian, shielded by the Arab League and backed by U.S. power, must step in.

The Post-War Blueprint: A Protectorate in All But Name

Ben-Menashe’s proposal is nothing short of audacious. According to lobbying documents and Shomrim’s investigation, the plan calls for:

  • U.S. and Arab League troops stationed in Gaza.

  • Special UN status for the territory, avoiding the thorny issue of PA sovereignty.

  • Land in Egypt’s Sinai leased for an international airport and seaport serving Gaza.

  • Offshore gas drilling rights in Gaza’s coastal waters.

  • Massive reconstruction aid, funneled through Gulf states, the U.S., and the EU.

Hulileh’s own vision is equally ambitious—if not utopian. He imagines a post-Hamas Gaza flooded with 600 to 1,000 aid trucks a day, 4–5 open commercial crossings, restored law and order, and a sweeping $53 billion rebuilding program funded by Gulf monarchies and the West. Crucially, he insists the governing authority must be “neither the PA nor Hamas”—a third path that would, in practice, answer to Washington, Riyadh, and Cairo.

Why Now? The Washington Factor

The scheme began quietly in the waning days of the Biden presidency but accelerated after Donald Trump’s return to the White House. According to Hulileh, the U.S. is signaling—for the first time—that it’s ready to talk about ending the war outright, not just negotiating temporary ceasefires. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has reportedly told hostage families that the administration’s goal is “all-or-nothing—end the war and bring all the hostages home at once.”

That shift, combined with Israel’s recent Cabinet rejection of a full military takeover of Gaza, suggests the pieces are being moved into place for a post-war governance arrangement—whether Hamas likes it or not.

The Big Question: Who Really Benefits?

For Ben-Menashe, the answer is clear. “It’s good for the Jews,” he bluntly told Shomrim, implying that a U.S.- and Gulf-backed Palestinian figure could stabilize Gaza without forcing Israel into a politically toxic handover to the Palestinian Authority.

For Hulileh, the prize is nothing less than rebuilding Gaza from the ground up—with himself as “project manager” of the largest reconstruction effort in Palestinian history.

For Washington, Cairo, Riyadh, and Doha, it’s a way to keep Gaza from slipping back into Hamas’s grip while carving out lucrative infrastructure and energy deals.

The Silence Speaks Volumes

Officially, none of the governments involved will confirm the plan. Unofficially, the lobbying contracts, the Gulf meetings, and the sudden change in U.S. tone all point to the same reality: Post-war Gaza is already being designed—just not at the negotiating table everyone’s watching.

And if the plan succeeds, Gaza may emerge not as a sovereign Palestinian territory, nor as an Israeli-occupied zone, but as something new entirely: an Arab League protectorate with an American guarantee—and Samir Hulileh in the governor’s chair.

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