Trump Resets the Chessboard

Even Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu looked completely taken aback when Trump started outlining his ideas for the future of Gaza at their joint press conference.

I’d go one step further than Pletka and venture that even Trump himself has no clear idea of where he is heading or how to get there.

But that does not mean that his extended comments on the future of Gaza and its current residents last week were not highly significant. As Pletka put it, “We do know that Donald Trump in his first term upended the region, and forged the first meaningful peace between Jews and Arabs in decades. And he did it by ignoring the conventional wisdom, and the experts and the think tanks, and the diplomats, and the peace processors….” No matter what, she concluded, he has “shone a light on the bankruptcy of what has passed for Gaza policy until now.”

To understand that bankruptcy, let us contemplate where we are today. After the release of 33 hostages, both living and dead, in the first stage of the ceasefire agreement, Israel and Hamas are supposed to enter into a second stage of negotiations, culminating in Israel’s withdrawal from the entirety of the Gaza Strip, including the vital Philadelphi Corridor and a buffer zone in the northern part of the Strip adjacent to Israel.