The Israeli-American Businessman Pitching a $200 Million Plan to Deploy Mercenaries to Gaza

Moti Kahana says he's talking to the Israeli government about creating a pilot program for "gated communities" controlled by private U.S. security forces.

GDC founder Moti Kahana gives an interview to AFP in Jerusalem on February 18, 2016. Photo: MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images

The Israeli government is actively considering a plan to deploy operatives from private U.S. logistics and security companies in the Gaza Strip under the auspices of delivering humanitarian aid, according to Israeli media reports. Israel’s security cabinet convened Sunday evening to discuss the proposal and is expected to approve a “pilot” program and begin conducting test runs in the next two months, according to Israeli media reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “agreed to examine” the plan last week, according to Haaretz.

The media reports portray the plan as the brainchild of Israeli-American businessman Mordechai “Moti” Kahana, the CEO of Global Delivery Company (GDC), who describes his for-profit business as “Uber for War Zones.” Kahana, a passionate supporter of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, has spent the past year aggressively trying to find a role for his company in Israel’s war on Gaza.

Among Kahana’s goals is to create a “gated community” in Gaza where Palestinians would be subjected to biometric screenings in order to receive humanitarian aid. For months, there has been discussion in Israel of creating “humanitarian bubbles” in northern Gaza where aid could be distributed after Israeli forces declare Hamas fighters have been eliminated from the areas. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has championed the idea. Rumors have been swirling in Israel about how this might be achieved and who might run the operations.

“GDC and its subcontractor have had extensive discussions with the Israeli government including the Ministry of Defense, the Israeli Defense Forces, and the Prime Minister’s Office on the modalities for this initiative,” GDC said in a statement on Monday. The company asserted that “well trained private security is the only realistic way” to deliver aid to Gaza “as long as the nations are unwilling to put their troops on the ground in Gaza and UN peacekeepers are seen as ineffective.” It added, “Personnel working for our security sub-contractor are trained and equipped for non-lethal and lethal methods of crowd control. They are trained to use deadly force only as a last resort if their lives are in danger. IDF forces on the other hand are combat troops who lack the training, equipment and discipline to avoid deadly force unless absolutely necessary. Using combat soldiers for this mission is almost sure to lead to civilian casualties.” 

GDC’s pilot proposal includes a plan to partner with Constellis—a successor and parent company to what was once Blackwater, the infamous mercenary company founded by Erik Prince. Constellis maintains it has no ties to Prince. The company operates in Israel on a Pentagon contract to provide security for U.S. personnel working at a discreet radar facility in the Negev desert 30 miles from Gaza. The site was established to provide early warnings of Iranian ballistic missile attacks. Among Constellis’s subsidiaries is the mercenary company Triple Canopy, which has long worked for the U.S. government and private companies in war and conflict zones across the globe. Constellis did not respond to a request for comment. 

While Kahana has been presented in Israeli media as generating the proposal for a private security force to deliver aid to Gaza, it is unclear if the Israeli government is actually considering his specific offer or exploring alternative private security contractors. A private U.S. security company would need approval from the State Department to offer armed services to a foreign entity or the Israeli government. In its statement Monday, GDC said it planned to follow up with the Israeli government and would “seek to meet with the government of the United States, the United Nations and humanitarian organizations active in Gaza.”

The barrage of media reports stating the Israeli government is increasingly occupied with humanitarian aid distribution logistics comes at a time when Israeli policy on the ground demonstrates it remains unwavering in its commitment to wage a war of extermination against Palestinians in Gaza. The entire discussion of “day after” plans for Gaza and the rumors and reports about proposals for private security may be a smokescreen. Whether Israel is seriously considering a plan to deploy a private force or not, it has made clear it intends to remain in Gaza indefinitely and has no plans to end its genocidal operations.

“Uber for War Zones”

Kahana frequently posts on Twitter (X), expanding on his vision for a “humanitarian” operation in Gaza in which eligibility to receive humanitarian aid is conditioned on passing biometric tests to determine if one is a “terrorist.” “Terrorists will get a bullet,” he vowed in one tweet. In response to questions from Drop Site News, Kahana added that it would be “similar to Miami without [a] golf course and swimming pool.” “It won’t be [a] ghetto,” he wrote, “they can go in and out anytime but it will have the goal of safe and secure communities with local Palestinian leadership and government.” GDC and company would be “just [providing] security.”

GDC has counted among its employees Stuart Seldowitz, the disgraced Obama administration official who was charged with a hate crime after harassing a halal food cart vendor. Kahana said Seldowitz was his “humanitarian diplomacy senior consultant.” GDC reportedly cut ties with Seldowitz soon after the incident, but Kahana said he is open to Seldowitz working with GDC in Gaza. “He is still a friend,” Kahana told Drop Site. “He helped GDC to save over 5,000 Muslims in Afghanistan, and he is welcome to do the same thing in Gaza with us.” Kahana himself has a record of incendiary statements, describing U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib as Hamas's “designated ambassador to the U.S.” and the underground tunnel system used by Al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza as the “system of the rat.”

GDC currently employs several former high-ranking Israeli officers—Brigadier General (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, a member of the extremist Think Tank “HaBitchonistim” which has advised Netanyahu since the outset of the genocide, and Lieutenant colonel Doron Avital, as well as former Chief Intelligence Officer David Tzur. GDC’s team also includes recently retired U.S. Green Beret Col. Justin Sapp, a consultant for Constellis and a veteran of covert CIA paramilitary operations in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Its logistical director is former U.S. Navy officer Michael Durnan. 

On Monday, Kahana tweeted that GDC would start its Gaza project as soon as it received approval and added, “our team leader who will be running the Gaza [project] conquered [Mazar-i-Sharif] in Afghanistan after September 11.” In a subsequent interview with YNet, Kahana said he was speaking about Sapp, the former Green Beret.

Kahana has boasted that his company has operated for 14 years in five wars: Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and Gaza. “Our slogan is ‘We Deliver,’” he wrote on X in March. GDC, a for-profit business operating since at least 2019, grew out of Kahana’s previous New York-based nonprofit called Amaliah. “My company is like a war-zone Uber/UPS for people and goods,” Kahana said in July 2023. “I can be here on my farm [in New Jersey] directing an operation in the Middle East.” 

Constellis is listed as an official partner on GDC’s site and GDC and Constellis have worked together in Ukraine, according to The Jewish Chronicle and confirmed by Kahana to Drop Site News. While GDC moved sunflower oil out and diesel into the country, Constellis provided security services. Constellis is one of the largest private security companies in the world. It claims to have operated in more than 50 countries and has several divisions and subsidiaries. In 2022, its subsidiary Triple Canopy won a 10-year contract to provide security to the U.S. embassy in Iraq worth an estimated $1.3 billion. It also owns Olive Group, a British private security and training firm.

In a recent tweet, Kahana shared a screenshot of a presentation dated May 30 describing the proposed pilot, which at the time was slated to begin in July and focus on Beit Hanoun. Constellis is named as a partner. Haaretz reporter Amos Harel, while not naming Constellis, said in a recent podcast interview that the company Israel was considering outsourcing the project to “had apparently worked with the Americans in Iraq.”  Kahana has described the security force he would work with as “made up of ex-combatants, veterans of elite units from the USA, England and France. The common denominator of all of them is that they are not Jewish.”

Kahana has been trying to get the Israeli government’s attention back in October 2023 he touted a plan to leverage humanitarian aid in order to secure the release of Israeli hostages. At the time, his plan was rejected by the Israeli government as “[sounding] like Hamas propaganda stemming from the pressure they are under.” 

In November 2023, Kahana joked about ethnically cleansing Gaza and moving its population to Jordan, and likened anti-genocide protesters in the US to “the mice in the tunnels of Gaza.” Referring to footage of a Palestinian child who arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital having survived an Israeli attack, covered in dust and blood and trembling uncontrollably, he wrote, “No worries. We are going to liberate him from Hamas.” 

In March, NBC News reported the Israeli government was contemplating outsourcing aid truck escorts to a private U.S. contractor, stating Israeli officials indicated it has “approached several security companies already, but declined to specify which ones.” Kahana posted a link to the article on his Facebook profile, alongside the comment: “GDC does not get paid by the Israeli  taxpayer ✌️🇺🇸.” In the recent interview with Ynet, Kahana claimed the U.S. will bankroll the project to the tune of $200 million for six months of operations.

After the killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers in successive airstrikes by the Israeli military in April, Kahana complained that his plan to establish what he described as a secure corridor into Gaza was not being implemented. “Israel has had this plan on the table for more than two months. We have had several meetings at the highest level to present the plan and go over the ideas. The army was in favor and we have been waiting for the green light, but when we asked if we could go ahead, the Prime Minister’s Office asked, ‘What’s the rush?’” he said. Kahana claimed his proposal “was presented to high level officials of the White House, State Department and Department of Defense. We did not receive a response to our request for a meeting to discuss and explain the plan.” 

By May, media reports indicated the Israeli government was engaged in talks with a private American security company, said to employ former soldiers from elite military units, with the aim of handing the company responsibility for managing the Rafah crossing. Kahana posted the report on his personal Facebook account, writing: “No comments 😎.” A few days later he followed up with an announcement: “I am finally able to share that I will be assisting with humanitarian supplies for civilians in #Gaza. After 14 years and 5 wars, I am now in my homeland 🇮🇱. My company has been approved to provide logistics within Gaza. Hamas, be aware that none of our supplies will be stolen by you! This is my first and final warning. 😎”

In August, the idea of the Israeli military outsourcing the occupation of Gaza to private American companies was once again floated, this time around in relation to the Netzarim corridor, which bisects the Strip. GDC was named as the firm the Israeli government was considering for the job. On his Facebook page Kahana proclaimed: “We are on our way to 🇮🇱 Netzarim Corridor 🇺🇸 😎.” 

In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. government dramatically expanded its use of private security companies to service its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Often portrayed as engaging in humanitarian operations, private security companies offer hired guns to both governments and the private sector. The U.S. has used them in CIA and military operations and to guard American and foreign diplomats and dignitaries. 

Blackwater entered Iraq in 2003 under the auspices of guarding humanitarian convoys and providing security for corporations. The company was then hired to guard senior U.S. occupation officials. In September 2007, Blackwater operatives gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, a massacre which drew global public attention to the burgeoning and secretive world of private military contracting. Private forces are not subject to the military justice system and do not fall under a military chain of command. Part of the pitch for Israel to use private contractors in Gaza would be to argue they do not constitute an official Israeli occupation force. It also offers Israel the option of using retired soldiers from the U.S. and other nations to do its bidding in Gaza.

Kahana has also claimed he was “involved” with a pitch developed by Erik Prince early in the Gaza war to assist the IDF in flooding underground tunnels in Gaza with sea water, which scientists warned would render the Strip “unlivable for up to 100 years.” Prince “asked me to talk to Israelis about the tunnel situation and his idea,” Kahana told Drop Site, “but the Israelis had no interest to do so.” 

Kahana has repeatedly called Prince “a good friend” and stated “we definitely share the same security views and our [love] for 🇺🇸🇮🇱🌍.” When it comes to U.S. politics, however, Prince is a close ally of Donald Trump, while Kahana has been outspoken in his enthusiasm for Kamala Harris’s candidacy for president.  “It’s about time for a woman to run the world,” he wrote in a Facebook post in July accompanied by a picture of Harris. “Politically we are 180, I am a Democrat,” Kahana told Drop Site. But, he added, “I did buy 9 cows from [Prince’s] wife.”

Nicholas Rodelo contributed reporting.