Statement on Trump's 20-Point Plan to End Israel’s War on Gaza
A New Policy, co-founded by former U.S. officials Tariq Habash and Josh Paul, today released the following statement
Gaza deserves peace, a lasting ceasefire, full resumption of humanitarian assistance, and the exchange of hostages. To that extent, the 20-Point Plan announced by President Trump this afternoon is an overdue proposal. However, a close reading of the plan’s operational and political details reveals a number of deeply concerning flaws.
A primary concern with President Trump’s proposed plan is that he would chair a “Peace Board,” aided by Tony Blair, to oversee the governance of Gaza. The President of the United States is not the President of Palestine, and U.S. “ownership” of the situation, even if buffered by a layer of Palestinian technocrats, fundamentally lacks the legitimacy that, as recent experience in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrates, is vital for sustainable governance. It further ties the United States to an open-ended and complex Middle East conflict that it has spent the past two decades trying to remove itself from.
Of equal concern is the question of whether Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet – members of whom have publicly committed to the reoccupation of Gaza and annexation of the West Bank – can be trusted to adhere to this framework. A plan that is readily embraced by a government with a stated commitment to military control and an explicit opposition to Palestinian sovereignty and human rights is unlikely to deliver the just peace the region requires.
A sustainable and just peace is unobtainable unless it is centered on Palestinian ownership and self-determination. That President Trump’s announcement of this plan was paired with condemnation of recent recognition of a Palestinian State by America’s closest allies makes it clear he continues to subjugate that right to Israel’s preferences. As the decades since Oslo have shown, this is ultimately a recipe for a reversion to a status quo marked by suffering and fear.
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