August 1, 2026 | New York Post
Trump’s Board of Peace proposal has hit a roadblock amid reconstruction of Gaza Strip
August 1, 2026 | New York Post
Trump’s Board of Peace proposal has hit a roadblock amid reconstruction of Gaza Strip
President Trump is sounding bullish about the future of Gaza.
After the Board of Peace, created by the US administration to manage the postwar reconstruction of the coastal enclave, issued its plan on Friday to disarm Hamas and allied terrorist groups, Trump hailed it as a “monumental step” for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Encouragingly, a capable international team is leading the initiative: At the helm is Nickolay Mladenov, an experienced Bulgarian diplomat intimately familiar with the pitfalls of peacemaking in the Middle East.
Mladenov is under no illusions about the mammoth task ahead.
As he put it in his announcement of the disarmament proposal, “Implementation and verification have to be real.”
The disarmament of Hamas is the central plank of a broader 15-point Roadmap issued by the Board of Peace.
Both Israel and Hamas would have to meet key milestones within an agreed timeframe.
That includes the phased withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Gaza.
‘Terror-free zone’
It would also replace Hamas’ brutal regime with a technocratic government — the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), headed by Dr. Ali Shaath, a Gaza-born engineer and former Palestinian Authority official.
And it would result in the deployment of an International Stabilization Force charged with monitoring compliance, ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid, and training Palestinian law-enforcement authorities.
The final goal, as the Roadmap puts it, is to govern Gaza according to the principle of “One Authority, One Law, One Weapon.”
That, in turn, will prepare the ground for Gaza to become, in the words of Trump’s October peace plan, “a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors.”
Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, said Israel was “looking forward to implementing” the plan — but cautioned: “We have to verify what they [Hamas] are doing, not what they are saying.”
Hamas’ response, however, is worrying.
Calling the Roadmap “difficult and painful,” the terror group’s senior negotiator Ghazi Hamad is already trying to rewrite its provisions.
He is demanding the immediate withdrawal of the IDF to the positions it controlled prior to the October cease-fire — giving Hamas breathing space to continue its rearmament and recruitment.
And he is insisting that any weapons Hamas surrenders be placed under the control of the Palestinian Authority, rather than an international body that could put them permanently beyond use.
Hamad and other senior Hamas leaders know that without its weapons, the group is a paper tiger.
Deradicalization
That’s why disarmament is such a frightening proposition for them.
But the US and its international allies are standing firm.
Absent Hamas disarming, the chances for stability — and the rebuilding it would bring — are near zero.
Yet disarmament on paper is not enough: Any agreement is only as credible as its enforcement mechanism.
And the only meaningful enforcement mechanism is the IDF.
Only Israeli soldiers will risk their lives to protect their families from another Oct. 7.
International forces may monitor compliance, deliver humanitarian assistance and train Palestinian security forces.
But we should harbor no illusions that they will confront Hamas if it refuses to disarm or begins to rearm.
Any roadmap that restricts Israel’s ability to act decisively against a reconstituting Hamas risks undermining the very security it is supposed to create.
Nor can disarmament alone solve the deeper problem: Any serious plan for Gaza must include a comprehensive strategy for deradicalization.
Decades of anti-Israel and antisemitic poison have infected Palestinian education and society.
Schools, religious institutions, media and other institutions must stop glorifying terrorism and teaching hatred of Jews and Israel.
Without sustained deradicalization, Hamas can simply bide its time, rebuild its networks and wait to mobilize a new generation of Palestinian terrorists.
Trump’s original peace plan recognized this when it emphasized the imperative of deradicalizing Gaza.
That cannot remain an aspiration.
It must be a central pillar of implementation.
This week’s plan should not be mistaken for a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas remains sworn to the goal of eliminating Israel, a stance that remains the root cause of this conflict.
What the plan can do is effectively separate the two sides while preserving Israel’s security and giving Palestinians in Gaza a real stake in their own future.
But success ultimately depends on two things: ensuring that Israel retains the freedom to enforce Hamas’ disarmament, and uprooting the ideology that has sustained Hamas for generations.
Without both, Hamas will simply wait for another opportunity.
And the alternative will be a return to bloodshed.
Mark Dubowitz is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the presenter of “The Iran Breakdown” podcast. Ben Cohen is a research fellow at FDD.