As I woke up to the news of Trump’s “Gaza Plan 2025,” I couldn’t help but think how familiar this all feels. The same colonial powers that carved up the Middle East a century ago are once again deciding the fate of Palestine—without even pretending to give Palestinians a voice. Just like last time.
The plan, hammered out between Western powers, opportunistic Gulf monarchies, and Israel, excludes the very people it claims to “help.” It is Sykes-Picot and Balfour all over again where imperialists treated the region like a chessboard, while real people lived under the consequences, and continue to do so more than 70 years on. Back then the League of Nations dressed it up as a “mandate”; today it’s Washington and Tel Aviv, with Gulf rulers nodding along.
And Tony Blair as transitional head?
That’s like rehiring the arsonist to rebuild the house that he burnt down? His role in the Iraq debacle—with over hundreds of thousands dead by some estimates—makes him one of the most toxic personalities in the region. What is this if not Western hubris where you impose an erstwhile tormentor as a guarantor of Palestinians’ well-being?
The Gulf states’ support feels less like solidarity and more like a transaction, bought with U.S. security guarantees and shared hostility to Iran. Once again, Palestinian agency is absent; once again, outsiders decide “everyday life” for two million Gazans from conference rooms thousands of miles away.
That said, the devil’s in the details—or lack thereof. Excluding Hamas from talks while demanding their total capitulation is a sure-shot recipe for failure. Netanyahu is already backpedalling—watch his Hebrew address— on withdrawal already sows doubt, and the “Board of Peace” setup, with Trump at the helm, smells fishy. To me it sounds like outsourced occupation more than neutral mediation.
Overall, this has very limited chances of success without major tweaks to include Palestinian voices directly; otherwise, it will act like fuel for endless cycles of violence. Trump’s “peacemaker” branding is classic showmanship that is aimed at bolstering his Nobel Peace Prize chances
Yes, I would welcome an end to war—it would stop the ongoing genocide by the IDF. But without Palestinians at the table, this plan is doomed to become another Balfour: an imposed “solution” that sows decades of new conflict.
Only time will tell.
By GS Seda