Hamas’ Quest To Destroy Israel Thwarts Trump Peace Plan |
TEL AVIV—Despite its evident appeal, few Israelis think near-term success is in store for the Trump administration’s “Project Sunrise.” Drafted by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House Envoy Steve Witkoff and recently shown “to prospective donor countries … including wealthy Gulf kingdoms, Turkey and Egypt,” the ambitious proposal would invest $112.1 billion in Gaza over 10 years to transform the war-ravaged territory bordering Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea into “a ‘smart city’ with tech-driven governance and services.”
Israeli skepticism concerning the reconstruction of any part of Gaza dominated by Iran-backed Hamas derives from several factors.
More than two years after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, Israel Defense Forces currently control approximately half of Gaza. Israelis by and large doubt that the Hamas-dominated half can be rehabilitated without Hamas’ removal and doubt that Hamas, which the IDF has severely weakened, can be removed without further fighting.
Israelis, moreover, remember the first Trump administration’s failed effort, led by Kushner, to fashion a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Unveiled at a White House ceremony in January 2020, “Prosperity to Peace” envisaged the renovation of Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza at a price tag of $28 billion over 10 years. The plan went nowhere. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who attended the White House unveiling, embraced the extensive and detailed proposal as a basis for negotiation, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who declined to show up, promptly said no.
Israelis also remember that while their governments were open to Obama administration and George W. Bush administration peace efforts, Palestinians flatly rejected them.
And Israelis recall that Palestinians have been dismissing plans for partitioning the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea since before Israel was established and before West Bank and Gaza Arabs adopted the name Palestinian.
The principal reason, though, that Israelis – and responsible observers elsewhere – see little chance that the Trump administration’s “Project Sunrise” will transform Gaza any time soon stems from Hamas’ deepest political and religious commitments. No peace will come to Gaza unless Hamas departs, suffers a decisive military defeat, or renounces – with matching conduct – the war of annihilation against Israel that its 1988 charter declared an Islamic imperative.
In early October President Trump exaggerated when he announced that Hamas and Israel had agreed to his