If Donald Trump were still a Democrat, this would be hailed in the press as another in a series of foreign policy triumphs, and would guarantee him a Nobel Prize: In Major Breakthrough, U.N. Security Council Adopts U.S. Peace Plan for Gaza.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, a breakthrough that provides a legal U.N. mandate for the administration’s vision of how to move past the cease-fire and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip after two years of war.
The Council’s vote was also a major diplomatic victory for the Trump administration.
And that’s the New York Times talking!
For the past two years, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas has raged, the United States had been isolated at the United Nations over its staunch support for Israel.
Yeah, being “isolated at the United Nations” has never been the kiss of death.
The U.S. resolution calls for an International Stabilization Force to enter, demilitarize and govern Gaza. The proposal, which contained Mr. Trump’s 20-point cease-fire plan, also envisions a “Board of Peace” to oversee the peace plan, though it does not clarify the composition of the board.
The resolution passed with 13 votes in favor and zero votes against. Russia and China, either of which could have vetoed it, abstained, apparently swayed by the support for the resolution from a number of Arab and Muslim nations: Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Indonesia, Turkey and Pakistan, which is a member of the Council.
So it was a coalition born of Trump I and Trump II foreign policy, anchored by the Abraham Accords. The Russians and Chinese couldn’t block the resolution, with the Arab countries on board.
But will this International Stabilization Force actually do any good? The real question is, will the members of that force be willing to kill Hamas terrorists?
Among the challenges the International Stabilization Force will face is how to confront Hamas’s fighters, who are still armed and present in Gaza. The resolution states that the force would be responsible for destroying military infrastructure in Gaza and decommissioning the militant groups’s weapons.
But Arab and Muslim countries expected to send soldiers to Gaza — Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates — are wary of their troops’ engaging in armed clashes with Palestinian militants and of any more bloodshed turning Arab public opinion against their involvement.
The Trump administration sought the mandate at the United Nations because those countries said they needed Security Council authorization so that their troops would not be viewed by their own populations as occupiers in Gaza.
“Destroying military infrastructure” and “decommissioning the militant group’s weapons” are secondary goals that can be achieved once Hamas’s fighters are all dead. But it will take more than a UN resolution to ensure that soldiers serving Muslim states will be willing, or able, to do what needs to be done.
And, as with every “plan” for the Middle East, money will flow to the malefactors and their supporters:
The resolution allows the World Bank, a U.N. entity, to allocate financial resources for the reconstruction of Gaza and calls for the establishment of a dedicated trust fund for this purpose.
Of course it does. If you didn’t know better, you might think that terrorism is being rewarded.
So I wish the international force well, and I hope that the Trump Plan will succeed. But in order for it to succeed, someone will have to be willing to kill Hamas soldiers more aggressively than the Israelis have been willing or able to do for the last two years.
