Do you remember the hullabaloo when President Trump gathered in Egypt with all those European and Middle Eastern bigshots to announce Phase One of his 20-Point Peace Plan for Gaza?
Let’s see: The headlines are now gone, and Phase Two seems as far away as it was in those early days. No nation appears ready to send troops into Gaza as part of Phase II enforcement so long as Hamas remains armed. And Hamas? They have shown no willingness to lay down their weapons.
In Phase Two, non-Hamas Palestinians were to run the territory, while Hamas disarmed and accepted first-class flights to Kuwait to retire in the lap of luxury forever and ever. Trump was to lead a Board of Peace to oversee everything.
The president, of course, with his builder’s background, also had his eyes set on redeveloping the Gaza Strip, which he envisioned as a sort of French Riviera South.
In that regard, the Washington Post recently obtained and published an illustration (shown above) of what Gaza might look like under Trump that is said to be circulating the White House.
Of course, the image not only entails the evacuation of all Hamas troopers, but also the deportation of some 2 million Palestinians, according to the report accompanying the rendering.
Currently, it appears that — as predicted here — Phase Two might never happen, and if it does, it will be a scaled-down, non-functioning version with Hamas still on the scene.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine-Russia war is again being discussed at U.S. State Department headquarters in Florida, with co-chief executives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner leading the negotiations. No doubt these talks will be deemed “productive.”
My final thought on this whole Nobel Peace Prize pursuit by Trump: What happens if there is peace in Ukraine, and the Nobel committee gives the prize to Steve Witkoff? Worse, how about French President Emmanuel Macron? Putin just indicated a readiness to discuss matters with him.
