Editors at National Review Online ponder President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the Middle East conflict.
The 20-point plan for peace, unveiled by Trump last week during a visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is an ambitious vision that in its early stages would see the return of all remaining hostages within days and the end to the current conflict. As the plan goes through the steps, there would be an interim international body to oversee Gaza led by Trump and other dignitaries such as Tony Blair, the former prime minister of Britain, while day-to-day administration of Gaza would be the responsibility of a “technocratic” committee of Palestinians. Toward the very end of the process, as Gaza is redeveloped and proves no threat to its neighbors, there is a reference to a pathway to Palestinian statehood. …
… There are certainly many devilish details that remain to be worked out in the coming days, months, and years for Trump’s full vision for a new Gaza to be realized. And there’s a lot of poison for Israel to swallow. For instance, to bring its hostages home, Israel will have to release 250 terrorists serving life sentences on top of 1,700 taken prisoner on October 7. Among them is one of Israel’s most notorious prisoners, Ibrahim Hamad, who organized high-profile suicide bombings during the Second Intifada. So dangerous is Hamad that Israel refused to release him as part of a 2011 prisoner exchange to reclaim kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit — an exchange that released Yahya Sinwar, who went on to mastermind October 7.
On the plus side, however, the deal does away with the Biden framework for deals in which hostages were released on a piecemeal basis over weeks or months. Instead, this one entails the promise of Israel regaining all hostages at once. While Hamas has not been totally destroyed, much has been achieved in Gaza and beyond over the past two years. Israel has eviscerated Hamas, severely curtailing its ability to carry out anything approaching the October 7 attacks.
