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“President Donald Trump published on Monday a 20-point peace proposal for Gaza that would end the war between Israel and Hamas militants and require the return of all hostages living and dead within 72 hours of a ceasefire.” Reuters
“Mediators Qatar and Egypt shared the 20-point plan with Hamas late on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had appeared alongside Trump at the White House and endorsed the document, saying it satisfied Israel’s war aims. Hamas was not involved in the negotiations that led to the proposal, which calls on the Islamist militant group to disarm, a demand it has previously rejected. However, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters that the group ‘would review it in good faith and provide a response.’” Reuters
“Under the proposal, the militant group would have to disarm in return for an end to fighting, humanitarian aid for Palestinians, and the promise of reconstruction in Gaza — all desperately hoped for by its population… Gaza and its more than 2 million Palestinians would be put under international control. An international security force would move in, and a ‘Board of Peace’ headed by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would oversee Gaza’s administration and reconstruction. The territory would remain surrounded by Israeli troops.” AP News
The left is divided about the plan.
“[The proposal] links the delivery of food and other life essentials and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the demilitarization of Gaza and includes several loopholes that would permit Israel to resume the genocide. It also would impose a foreign-led authority on the demilitarized Gaza Strip, backed by Arab and international troops, and allow the Israeli army to indefinitely encircle the enclave…
“The exclusion of all Palestinians from the process is an extension of decades of Western colonial dominance of decision-making surrounding the future of Palestine. At the heart of Trump’s plan is a thinly-veiled ultimatum to Palestinians: bend the knee to Israel, renounce the right of armed resistance, and agree to indefinite subjugation by foreign actors.”
Jeremy Scahill, Dropsite News
“The U.S. will do nothing to restrain Israel from flattening any buildings that remain standing in Gaza, or from continuing to wage war so long as a single Hamas soldier remains standing. That, in turn, assures Bibi of the continued support of the Palestinian-exterminationist far-right parties that keep him in power and out of prison; [and] enables Trump to say he did what he could without costing Republicans so much as a red cent from AIPAC.”
Harold Meyerson, American Prospect
Others argue, “Behind this organizational chart are some real commitments. Two senior Arab officials told me Friday that a short list of Palestinian ‘technocrats’ has been vetted for the governing committee. And a half-dozen countries — including Italy, Indonesia and Azerbaijan — have volunteered troops for the stabilization force. An informal Arab oversight group would include Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates… The door to something different seemed to open slightly Monday.”
David Ignatius, Washington Post
“Netanyahu can declare, with some real justification, that Israel is defending Western democratic values by defeating the Islamo-fascist Hamas in Gaza. Hamas is a terrible organization — most of all for Palestinians. But today any teenager on TikTok can also see how, at the same time, Bibi and Israel’s Jewish supremacists are perpetuating Western-style settler colonialism in the West Bank. No one is fooled…
“We need a bridge that builds trust where every shred of trust has been destroyed. This plan proposes to do so by effectively creating a U.N.-approved mandate for putting Gaza under the supervision of an international governing body and military force with Arab approval and input from the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The logic is that until and unless Palestinians in Gaza can build and demonstrate the capacity to govern there, it is impossible to talk about a two-state solution…
“But to give Palestinians the best chance to demonstrate that, they need not only international support, but also for Israel to get out of the way in Gaza, and, I would add, halt all Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank… Israel must be made to leave open the possibility of Palestinian statehood if the Palestinians achieve certain governance metrics. Only Trump… can force that upon Bibi.”
Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
The right generally supports the plan, but is skeptical that it will succeed.
The right generally supports the plan, but is skeptical that it will succeed.
“Israel will never — can never — again permit a terror group committed to its elimination to maintain control of neighboring territory. Similarly, aid must flow rapidly and massively to feed and rebuild Gaza in the areas liberated from Hamas. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while neither a famine nor a ‘genocide,’ is real and should be abated at once. Hamas is intractably committed to keeping the war going as long as possible, which is why the peace plan will be partly implemented even if the terrorists won’t buy in…
“What a grand contrast Trump’s plan is to spineless, feckless European leaders who’ve been recognizing ‘a Palestinian state’ as if it meant or changed anything. This blueprint acknowledges the Palestinian aspiration for nationhood, but admits that getting there requires many real steps, from Hamas’ exit to radical reform of the woeful Palestinian Authority — a long road, but truly conceivable.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
“The premise of the president’s 21-point plan is that Hamas will stop being Hamas, and that will end the jihadist threat… There is no deal with sharia-supremacist Islam. Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, is conducting a jihad to destroy Israel — not to reach a more favorable arrangement with Israel, to destroy Israel — based on sharia-supremacist principles, which are 14 centuries old and steeped in Jew hatred that goes back to Muhammad’s wars of conquest…
“The 21-point proposal assumes that the culture and population that produced these people are now going to lay down their arms and commit to peaceful coexistence…
“What has happened in the last two years to make anyone think that’s a possibility? We now have European nations and Canada claiming to recognize ‘Palestine’ (its lack of borders or a real government notwithstanding). Why would Hamas and its sharia-supremacist support network surrender now when they have reason to believe the barbaric October 7 attack, far from turning them into pariahs, has advanced their cause?”
Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review
Some argue, “Even if Hamas agrees to such a scheme – and given the plan’s call for what is in effect Hamas’s complete and total surrender, it’s hard to picture the militant group doing so – the implementation problems will be gargantuan. The plan is loose on timelines and execution mechanisms… The biggest error in Trump’s scheme, however, was something that wasn’t even written into the plan. In essence, Netanyahu was gifted an escape clause…
“Trump stressed that Israel would have Washington’s full support for continuing the war if Hamas rejected the agreement… Trump effectively killed whatever leverage he held over Netanyahu by giving the Israeli premier an incentive to do anything in his power to push Hamas into saying ‘no.’ Even if Hamas accepts the deal with reservations, Netanyahu can now claim to Trump that the terrorist group is an intransigent party that can’t be reasoned with. The only alternative, the logic goes, is a resumption of the war.”
Daniel DePetris, Spectator World
