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Bored of Peace: Why is Trump undermining his own Gaza plan?
['Khaled Elgindy', 'Khaled Elgindy Is A Senior Research Fellow In The Middle East Program Of The Quincy Institute', "The Author Of 'Blind Spot", 'America', 'The Palestinians', "Balfour To Trump'", 'Published Brookings Institution Press In April']
Responsible Statecraft
Barely five days after President Donald Trump hailed the “historic agreement” on Hamas’s disarmament by the Board of Peace (BOP) — the body Trump created to oversee his Gaza Peace Plan — the very same Board of Peace has now effectively reneged on its own agreement.
Keen to make the deal work, Trump administration officials even lodged an implicit threat , warning that if Israel rejected the plan, “obviously President Trump would be very, very disappointed.”
But Israel rejected the terms of the deal , insisting there would be no Israeli withdrawal unless Hamas was fully disarmed and Israel maintained the freedom to continue conducting military operations in Gaza.
As such, Trump’s Board of Peace has essentially rewritten its own peace plan, requiring Hamas to meet all of its Phase 2 obligations even before Israel has met any of its Phase 1 obligations.
Trump is also undercutting his own peace plan more broadly, jeopardizing one of his few concrete foreign policy achievements.