Great plan. It will — and did — get all of the golf claps from the international arena. Don’t expect it to go anywhere, though, because Hamas will never agree to go anywhere else.
It’s still worth a shot, though, even just for the value of clarifying which side is the actual problem:
The Trump administration has reportedly put forward a peace plan which would eventually lead to a complete end to the war in Gaza, a Western source told the Lebanese media site Elnashra on Wednesday, only a day after US President Donald Trump met with the leaders of Muslim countries.
The plan reportedly includes a 20-day ceasefire followed by the return of the hostages. It is unclear in the report, however, how many of the 48 hostages would be returned at this stage of the deal.
Trump has been very clear for the last few months that any deal would require the return of all hostages at the same time. The 20-day window would allow Hamas to get them together and transfer them to the Red Cross, presumably. There would be no point in this scenario to a staged release, because this plan requires Hamas to leave anyway, almost certainly under some sort of safe-passage arrangement.
Of course, that’s the catch:
Following the return of the abductees, an Arab administration made up of Islamic nations would take over the administration of the Palestinian enclave, according to Elnashra. During this time, a Palestinian government would reportedly be built without the infiltration of Hamas.
Yes, this is a perfectly reasonable proposal. Unfortunately, Trump is offering it to Hamas, which is a very unreasonable terrorist group that wants to annihilate Israel. They won’t ever agree to concede power in Gaza, not even with safe passage out, which they have been offered in the past. Even if they accepted this plan in the short run, Hamas would waste no time in infiltrating the Arab-coalition protectorate government, followed by infiltrating the Palestinian successor government, if things even progressed to that point.
Hamas will not concede or capitulate, not in that sense. Their Iranian patrons will not allow that, nor will the surviving members of the Doha Billionaire Boys Club.
However, Trump does appear to be twisting arms all around the table. He told Arab leaders today that he will stop Israel from annexing the West Bank, a demand from the more conservative parties in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. One has to image, though, that Trump won’t feel much enthusiasm for that effort unless and until the Arab nations step up to deal with Hamas and the Gazans themselves:
President Donald Trump promised Arab leaders during a meeting Tuesday that he would not allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the West Bank, according to six people familiar with the discussion.
Two of those people said Trump was firm on the topic and that the president promised that Israel would not be allowed to absorb the West Bank, which is governed by the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas.
True, but Hamas operates openly there and has challenged Fatah for control. There’s a reason that Mahmoud Abbas hasn’t held elections for the Palestinian Authority since 2006, when Hamas won control of Gaza and then shortly afterward violently pushed Fatah out of the enclave to seize total power. Trump appears to be sending a somewhat-subtle signal that this opposition to annexation is linked to the disappearance of Hamas from Palestinian territories and the release of the hostages.
This expectation is entirely unrealistic, of course. Nevertheless, the assembled leaders in the talks praised Trump’s proposal as an advance toward a resolution of the conflict, especially Turkiye’s president-for-life:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the meeting with Trump as “very fruitful.” …
Speaking to reporters, Erdogan said a joint declaration from the meeting would be published and that he was “pleased” with the outcomes of the meeting, but did not elaborate.
Emirati state news agency WAM meanwhile reported that the meeting focused on ending the ongoing war in Gaza and reaching a permanent ceasefire. The news agency said releasing all hostages and taking steps toward addressing the worsening humanitarian crisis in the war-torn enclave were also discussed as priorities.
All of this is fine and good, but the war in Gaza will not end until Hamas agrees to leave and release the hostages. Even the Arab leaders understand this. Nothing about this proposal changes that basic condition, and nothing about this proposal pushes Hamas toward that end. Trump is doing the best he can do, but he can’t stop radical Islamist terrorists from being annihilationist mass murderers. Only Israel can do that, and that’s exactly what they are doing right now.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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