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A few weeks ago, Israeli-Palestinian peace seemed impossible. On Monday, President Donald Trump was in the Middle East, putting the finishing touches on his Gaza peace plan. It happened so fast, he made it look easy.
But achieving peace was neither fast nor easy. It’s the result of a careful, step-by-step process that President Trump set in motion during the first week of his first term.
He decided early on that the only path to peace lay in rejecting conventional wisdom and “flipping the script.”
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It began in January 2017, when Trump’s top advisers met in the White House Situation Room to assess President Joe Biden’s failed foreign policies. We went around the table, discussing countries and regions. When we got to the Middle East, we faced a choice.
The Gulf Arab nations were undergoing a generational change in leadership. We could continue working with the older generation of leaders in their seventies. They were a known quantity. The U.S. had done business with them for decades. They were radically conservative, anti-Israel and tolerant of terrorism. But they were also aligned with other American interests, especially oil exports.
The alternative was to work with the younger, rising generation of leaders in their thirties. President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner argued we should embrace that younger group, even though they were untested. They were Western-educated and comfortable with open societies and diversified economies. They understood that relying on oil revenues alone was a dead end. They were committed to a new direction — one that renounced Islamic extremism and constant war with Israel in favor of social and economic modernization. They would even be open to peace with Israel.
President Trump flipped the script. He backed that younger generation. Young Gulf Arab leaders came in and out of the White House regularly in those early days. They looked like traditional Arabs in their flowing robes and white headpieces, but they were committed to radical reform and modernization.
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Over the years, those leaders ascended to power, and President Trump forged close personal relationships with them. It was that mutual trust that allowed Trump to negotiate the historic Abraham Accords between Israel and the Gulf Arabs at the end of his first term. Even though President Biden foolishly distanced the U.S. from those leaders when he took office, Trump and Kushner kept the lines of communication open.
When President Trump returned to the White House, his first official visit was to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. That younger generation of Arab leaders, now firmly in power, revered him. Trump had both their confidence and their loyalty. Now he would use it to lead the region toward peace. Because he had backed them years before, they would back him now.
That’s when Trump flipped the script a second time. Conventional wisdom, led by President Biden, sought to placate Iran and distance the U.S. from Israel and the Gulf Arabs.
Back in office, President Trump reversed course from Biden’s failed policies. He reimposed sanctions to strangle Iran’s economy.
He resumed America’s strong support of Israel.
After Oct. 7, President Trump backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to defeat Iran’s terrorist proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and throughout the region.
Once Iran’s proxies were destroyed and Iran’s economy in ruins, President Trump dismantled Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
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Trump flipped the script a third time a few weeks ago at the United Nations. While the press focused on sabotaged teleprompters and escalators, Trump met privately with Gulf Arab leaders. He convinced Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan and other Muslim nations to sign on to his 20-point peace plan. The linchpin to success was getting Qatar, Hamas’ longtime ally, to agree. President Trump secured that by reining in Israel and providing security assurances.
Trump got the entire Muslim world to join a peace plan that demanded Hamas disarm and barred them from participating in a postwar Gaza government. In essence, they all abandoned Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed on to the plan two days later at the White House.
But would Hamas agree? They had little choice. Their Gulf Arab allies were against them. Their Iranian sponsor was bankrupt and defanged. The entire world had signed on to Trump’s plan. If Hamas refused, Israel had Trump’s permission to “finish the job” once and for all — destroy what remained of Hamas and do it quickly.
So Hamas signed on to the peace plan rather than face annihilation.
The hostages are now released. Israel will withdraw from Gaza and abandon efforts to build settlements in Palestinian territories.
But will it hold? Under normal circumstances, probably not. But the beauty of Trump’s peace plan is that it not only isolates Hamas from the Muslim world, it also separates Hamas from the Palestinian people. The day-after plan offers peace and prosperity for the Palestinian people — but only if Hamas is gone.
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After the cease-fire, the countries in the region have guaranteed to keep the peace and rebuild Gaza. Humanitarian aid, reconstruction and jobs will no longer be funneled through Hamas but will go directly to the Palestinian people through new, Hamas-free governing entities.
Everyone — Israel, the U.S., the Arabs, the Egyptians, the Turks, and especially the Palestinian people — has a vested interest in keeping Hamas out. Gaza will be rebuilt quickly as regional and international investors and sponsors move in.
As President Trump says, this is “a historic dawn” for the entire Middle East, not just Gaza. The people of the region will now trade terrorism for technology, commerce for chaos. They will join the Abraham Accords. The Middle East is poised for a golden age for all the Abrahamic peoples. A region at peace could become the gateway for trade and transit from Europe to Asia.
Only Donald J. Trump could have done this. His dogged determination, endless energy and willingness to turn conventional wisdom on its head made the difference.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
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