On Nov. 17, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that officially endorsed the U.S. peace plan for Gaza. It was a big moment for President Donald Trump’s administration, which spent months negotiating the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and weeks lobbying other countries to support the plan’s key tenets: the establishment of a so-called International Stabilization Force designed to provide stability to the battered enclave; the formation of a transitional administration under a Trump-led Board of Peace; the disarmament of Hamas and a massive reconstruction initiative.
“We will seize the opportunity today to end decades of bloodshed and make lasting peace a reality,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Michael Waltz said, beaming after the vote.
The reality on the ground is far less rosy. Nearly eight weeks after it was agreed to, Trump’s peace plan remains in a moribund state. The best that can be said is that the approximately 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are no longer under bombardment every day and Israeli troops are no longer getting ambushed in the dense confines of Gaza’s major cities. But the lack of progress on other aspects of the plan, including setting up an international policing force meant to pave the way for a full Israeli troop withdrawal from the territory, suggests that Trump’s bombastic claims of peace are misplaced.
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