By James E. Jennings*
ATLANTA, USA | 2 October 2025 (IDN) — Last Monday’s show at the White House featured a smug-faced Prime Minister Netanyahu and a rambling, self-congratulatory President Trump, virtually bestowing the Nobel Prize on himself for his “Millennial” achievement.
It was somewhat reminiscent of the scene at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on 2 December 1804, when Napoleon crowned himself instead of allowing the Pope to do so.
The thought of the Israeli hostages being freed and bombs no longer falling on the hapless Palestinians’ heads after two years of constant attacks made everybody watching breathe a bit easier because, after all the carnage and bloodshed, hope springs eternal.
The virtual message to the press corps and the watching world was, “What a magnificent achievement! Look at what we’ve done! Nothing like this has ever been done in the history of civilization!” The problem is that no concrete action has yet been taken.
Make no mistake, the world will welcome peace in Gaza in any shape that it takes. But multitudes of people, especially those in Gaza, are asking, “Why did it take so long? Why did so many innocent people have to die? Why are those who supplied the money, aeroplanes, fuel, and bombs now the ones draping themselves in the mantle of peacemaker?”
Trump’s Spectacle of Self-Congratulation
There are some wrinkles in the plan, as painful as it is to recite them, because we all want peace. However, this, like the peace negotiations after WWI, may be a peace to end all peace and merely bring on another war.
The first obstacle is that HAMAS must agree to release the Israeli hostages and lay down their arms, if they have any. This would be a major achievement of the plan, but it is uncertain at best, as it would mean signing their own death warrants in the absence of the projected stabilization force.
Next, the PLO is ruled out of governing both in Gaza and the West Bank. They must relinquish any pretense of governing they might have left, which is precious little, and let others decide how the Palestinian Authority is to be reconstituted. Since the plan for Palestine’s future is not going to be decided by the Palestinians themselves, it’s hard to see how that will work.
Under the “Board of Peace” with Trump as Chair, what will change on the West Bank for Palestinians? Very little, because, despite Trump’s bluster, the Israeli government has already resolved by a vote of 71-13 in the Knesset on 23 July 2025 that the totality of the Palestinian homeland belongs to the Jewish people forever. The Jewish Chronicle calls it “Effective annexation.”
Trump’s strong declaration last week that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank is meaningless anyway. Because, for all intents and purposes, that happened 58 years ago in 1967. Since that time, Israel has variously surrounded, occupied, and administered the territory through military, economic, and political dominance. Suddenly, the much-ballyhooed Two-State Solution has disappeared.
The Roadblocks to a Real Settlement
For the past two years, IDF troops have been rampaging freely through Palestinian towns and villages, arbitrarily arresting thousands of civilians, mostly youths, and killing 1,000 Palestinians plus 9 Americans.
Another issue considered a deal-breaker by all Palestinian factions is the near certainty that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory will continue to be protected and expanded by the Likud government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Already more than 500,000 Jewish settlers live in enclaves within Palestinian territory and are protected by the Israeli government under a draconian policy inspired by the settler movement’s religious zeal.
Gaza, whose 2.2 million citizens form a large percentage of the Palestinian population (compared to the West Bank’s 3.8 million), will not be governed by Palestinians, but by outsiders, with Israel having an influential vote, since they plan to control a “Security Perimeter” either in or just outside the enclave.
Incidentally, under international law, a surrounding military power is still an occupying power for the territory it controls.
So, what will change in Gaza? Will the “Board of Peace” plan simply be an updated “Riviera Plan” advanced earlier by Trump? Arab and African troops may be imported and charged with guarding, or perhaps at times suppressing, the population of Gaza. Over time, they will likely withdraw.
Who will pay for all the damage? The Israelis surely won’t. Without the billions of US aid, they will be bankrupt. The Palestinians left in Gaza following the most punishing two years since the siege of Stalingrad barely have rags to cover themselves, much less a shekel. Why should they pay their torturers for rebuilding the homes that their bombs have destroyed?
It’s clear from the above more or less intractable issues that the “Board of Peace” will soon become bored with peace and its problems. Then, as Trump has threatened, Gaza will suffer war again.
*James E. Jennings, PhD, is President of Conscience International and a former professor of Middle East Archaeology and History. As a longtime defender of Palestinian human rights, he has delivered aid to hospitals in Gaza during Israeli bombardments. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image: Reminiscent of the scene at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on 2 December 1804, when Napoleon crowned himself instead of allowing the Pope to do so, President Trump virtually bestowed the Nobel Prize on himself for his “Millennial” achievement. Credit: AI-generated image, conceived by Nastranis.