Daniel DePetris: Donald Trump’s board of irrelevant peace |
In February, three months after his administration facilitated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that helped break two years of full-scale war in Gaza, President Donald Trump strode onto the stage in Washington with pep in his step. Optimistic about the future and confident in his own negotiating abilities, he addressed the so-called Board of Peace, the international consortium designed to turn Gaza from destruction to abundance, like he was at a ribbon-cutting inaugurating a new building in Manhattan.
“What we’re doing is very simple — peace,” Trump told the group. “It’s called the Board of Peace, and it’s all about an easy word to say, but a hard word to produce — peace, but we’re going to produce it.”
Trump’s words have proved prophetic. Peace, in turns out, is indeed very hard to produce. Seven months after the ceasefire arrangement was struck, progress toward peace has been afflicted by repeated roadblocks, a lack of attention and stubbornness of the combatants, who continue to wager that a return to large-scale war is a more likely outcome than a negotiated settlement. The Board of Peace, Trump’s pet project, increasingly looks like the diplomatic equivalent of an appendix, an organ useless to us.
On paper, Trump’s 20-point peace plan in Gaza is a level-headed document with noble goals: Demilitarize the Palestinian enclave, build it up and gradually turn the area over to Palestinians officials who would prioritize caring for their people over fighting Israel. The plan is prefaced on reciprocity — in........