--- title: The Challenges of Trump's Gaza Peace Plan description: A lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will take efforts by the American president worthy of a Nobel Peace prize. canonical: https://time.com/7325340/challenges-trumps-gaza-peace-plan/ author: Shibley Telhami article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-13T16:30:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T08:12:01.431Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Challenges of Trump's Gaza Peace Plan og:description: "The 20-point Trump peace plan is thin on details and principles," writes Shibley Telhami. og:url: https://time.com/7325340/challenges-trumps-gaza-peace-plan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76d7154e33f230d4/6998cac707a30da96177d6f5/Trump-Gaza-Ceasefire.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Trump Visits Israel And Egypt After Gaza Ceasefire Takes Effect og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Challenges of Trump's Gaza Peace Plan twitter:description: "The 20-point Trump peace plan is thin on details and principles," writes Shibley Telhami. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76d7154e33f230d4/6998cac707a30da96177d6f5/Trump-Gaza-Ceasefire.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  IDEAS Time ideas # The Challenges of Trump's Gaza Peace Plan > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=8caa008f-c243-454d-a606-d67549eacba4&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Trump and World Leaders Sign ‘Enduring Peace’ Pact Aimed at Ending Gaza War [Watch (HLS stream): Trump and World Leaders Sign ‘Enduring Peace’ Pact Aimed at Ending Gaza War](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KCDy1YKf.m3u8) (5:29)  _Published 2025-10-14. On Monday, President Donald Trump proclaimed the “historic dawn” of a new Middle East while addressing the Knesset in Israel. Since Trump announced a ceasefire in Gaza last week, Israel’s relentless bombing and destruction of Gaza has stalled, Hamas has released Israeli hostages, desperately needed food, medicine, and other humanitarian aid has started flowing into Gaza, and around 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel have been released._ by [Shibley Telhami](https://time.com/author/shibley-telhami/) ## Shibley Telhami Oct 13, 2025 4:30 PM UTC On Monday, President Donald Trump proclaimed the “historic dawn” of a new Middle East while addressing the Knesset in Israel. Since Trump announced a ceasefire in Gaza last week, Israel’s relentless bombing and destruction of Gaza has stalled, Hamas has released Israeli hostages, desperately needed food, medicine, and other humanitarian aid has started flowing into Gaza, and around 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel have been released. by [Shibley Telhami](https://time.com/author/shibley-telhami/) ## Shibley Telhami Oct 13, 2025 4:30 PM UTC On Monday, President Donald Trump proclaimed the “[historic dawn](https://time.com/7325314/trump-israel-knesset-speech-hamas-cease-fire-gaza-war-hostages/)” of a new Middle East while addressing the Knesset in Israel. Since Trump announced a ceasefire in Gaza last week, Israel’s relentless [bombing and destruction](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/05/wasteland-rubble-dust-graves-how-gaza-looks-from-the-sky) of Gaza has stalled, Hamas has released Israeli hostages, desperately needed food, medicine, and other humanitarian [aid](https://www.aljazeera.com/#flips-6382579266112) has started flowing into Gaza, and around 2,000 Palestinians [held by Israel](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-prisoners-mideast-war-4ff433ea39a313c1937d1c0a577efaf4) have been released. Apart from these important steps, which comprise the first phase of Trump’s [Gaza peace plan](https://www.cfr.org/article/guide-trumps-twenty-point-gaza-peace-plan), halting plans of forcing Palestinians out of Gaza by the far right—at least for now—is significant. But Gaza, as we have known it, has been [obliterated](https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/oct/07/the-ruin-of-gaza-how-israel-two-year-assault-has-devastated-the-territory). Over the past two years, [more than 10%](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/15/middleeast/1-in-10-palestinians-killed-injured-gaza-israel-intl) of Gaza’s population is dead or wounded; about 90% of its [population](https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gaza-emergency-response-situation-report-7-may-12-2025) has been displaced; 78% of all structures [have been](https://unosat.org/products/4165) destroyed or damaged; [95%](https://palestine.un.org/en/289429-gaza-and-west-bank-interim-rapid-damage-and-needs-assessment-february-2025) of hospitals have been rendered non-functional; and 90% of the [schools](https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/oct/07/the-ruin-of-gaza-how-israel-two-year-assault-has-devastated-the-territory) have been damaged or destroyed. Facing a dystopian reality, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been [walking back](https://time.com/7325246/trump-hostages-release-gaza-return/) through the apocalyptic ruins of their neighborhoods and homes. Rebuilding Gaza would take tens of billions of dollars and decades. In the face of this devastating reality, President Trump’s plan amounts to a hostage release deal, a ceasefire of an uncertain term, and a prayer. ## A vague, thin plan The 20-point [Trump peace plan](https://www.cfr.org/article/guide-trumps-twenty-point-gaza-peace-plan) is thin on details and principles. Who will administer Gaza in the meanwhile? Who will offer the billions required for reconstruction in the absence of a lasting political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? The plan proclaims that Israel will not “occupy or annex Gaza” and Hamas “will not have” any direct or indirect role in the governance of Gaza. It envisions a transitional authority of technocrats led by [Tony Blair](https://apnews.com/article/tony-blair-kosovo-gaza-un-peace-governing-1634f1b682e7c54cadfb80e273960e75), the former British Prime Minister, and supervised by a “board of peace” chaired by President Trump. This is hoped to pave the way for the return of the Palestinian Authority to run Gaza, after it meets a series of demands and tests, following which, conditions may finally be in place for a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” The vague promise of a “pathway” to Palestinian independence is reminiscent of past negotiations, when invoking the promise of an eventual Palestinian state had become a smokescreen to camouflage what was already a cruel, unjust, and explosive reality; it predictably led to the immense violence witnessed over the past two years. ## A reluctant accommodation To achieve a lasting peace, the cessation of violence needs to be followed by transformative steps on a path to Palestinian freedom and independence, in peaceful coexistence with Israel. Even as [half](https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3929) of all Americans see Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide and a [majority](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/06/jewish-americans-israel-poll-gaza/) of Jewish Americans see them as war crimes, Trump has rarely expressed empathy with Palestinian civilians or seemed to have been moved by their suffering. His original ideas about Gaza included a plan that [excluded](http://youtube.com/shorts/oUrTbEVyJPo?reload=9) its people. Like President Joe Biden, Trump [vetoed](https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165881) UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire. During the negotiations, and in his dramatic social media post announcing the ceasefire, Trump’s stated focus has primarily been on the release of the Israeli hostages. The Israeli government also [sees](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israeli-cabinet-approves-outline-of-deal-to-release-all-remaining-hostages-held-by-hamas) this agreement as a hostage release agreement. They see the ceasefire and [withdrawing their military](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/9/map-of-gaza-shows-how-israeli-forces-will-withdraw-under-ceasefire-deal) to a boundary, which reduces the Israeli military control of Gaza from more than 80% of the strip’s area to 58% as the price they pay for the return of the hostages. There is no evidence yet that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the extremists in his government have been fully convinced by this deal to abandon their stated expansionist plans in Gaza and the West Bank. There is a risk they might see every bit of vagueness in the agreement as an opportunity to test the waters. Anything from Hamas’s refusal to accept terms of transitional period, completely disarming, or a violent incident could become a pretext to violate the ceasefire. By breaking the [ceasefire agreement](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-ceasefire-hostages-netanyahu-ff48f081b069e484955a72bc68261364) in March, Netanyahu has already demonstrated that he needs little excuse to violate a deal if it ceases to serve his broader strategic and political goals. To implement the first phase of the deal, Hamas has agreed to release all the Israeli hostages it is holding, deceased and alive. This is a breakthrough as the group had insisted in the past that releasing every hostage would be conditional on a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Public anger in Israel has been understandably focused on pushing the Netanyahu government to get back the hostages held by Hamas. And Hamas saw holding the Israeli hostages as leverage, and key to getting Palestinian prisoners released. Few fully understand the [importance](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-the-discourse-about-palestinian-payments-to-prisoners-families-is-distorted-and-misleading/) of the prisoners’ issue among Palestinians as [hundreds of thousands](https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf) of Palestinians have been arrested throughout the decades of occupation, without serious recourse, affecting nearly every family. Israel is [holding](https://addameer.ps/statistics) about 11, 000 Palestinians, including about 400 children, and retains the capacity to arrest as many more as it desires. On Monday, Israel [released](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-prisoners-mideast-war-4ff433ea39a313c1937d1c0a577efaf4) around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, the majority of whom have been held without charges, most of whom were arrested in the past two years. Clearly, the pressure on Hamas to accept the release of all Israeli hostagesin the first phase must have been enormous. [Reportedly Hamas was persuaded](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trusting-trump-why-hamas-gambled-giving-up-gaza-hostages-2025-10-10/) by Qatar and Turkey that holding the hostages had become more of a liability than an asset for the group. Hostage release is also likely to give Netanyahu far more domestic space on Gaza policy. ## A lasting peace To pull off a lasting settlement to the conflict, will take efforts by the American president worthy of a Nobel Peace prize. On Israel and Palestine, every U.S. president in recent decades, including Trump, has been part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. President Biden singularly stands out in his callous enabling of the horrors inflicted on Gaza for more than a year. On Trump’s watch, Israel [killed](https://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-20000-children-killed-23-months-war-more-one-child-killed-every-hour) more than 20 children every day with complete American military, economic, and diplomatic support. Yet it would be a stunning achievement if President Trump succeeds in bringing about an equitable and enduring end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For that to happen, Trump would have to do what no American president has been able to do in recent decades: Stop shielding Israel from the consequences of its expansionist behavior that violates international laws and norms. It may take an unconventional, mercurial president like Trump to pull it off. But to assume that he cares enough, has the bandwidth or the skill to pull it off is relying on too much hope. It is a prayer. [TIME Ideas](https://www.time.com/ideas) hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors. ## Transcript [00:00] This is not only the end of a war. [00:03] This is the end of an age of terror and death and [00:06] the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God. [00:11] It's the start of a grand concord and lasting harmony for Israel and [00:17] all the nations of what will soon be a truly magnificent region. [00:23] I believe that so strongly. [00:25] This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East. [00:30] I want to express my gratitude to a man of exceptional courage and patriotism, [00:35] whose partnership did so much to make this momentous day possible. [00:41] You know who I'm talking about. [00:43] There's only one prime minister, [00:45] Benjamin Netanyahu. Please stand up. [01:01] And he is not easy. [01:04] I want to tell you that he's not the easiest guy to deal with, [01:08] but that's what makes him great. [01:11] That's what makes him great. [01:19] Thank you very much, Bebe. Great job. [01:24] The momentous breakthrough that we're here to celebrate [01:28] tonight is more than the end of the war in Gaza. [01:31] It's with God's help. [01:32] It will be the new beginning for an entire beautiful Middle East. [01:37] From this moment forward, [01:39] we can build a region that's strong and stable and prosperous and [01:42] united in rejecting the path of terror once and for all. [01:47] We want to get rid of the terror and get on to other things. [01:50] There are many other things in life. They're so good. [01:53] The final sprint to this deal began less than three weeks ago, [01:57] on the sidelines of the United Nations in New York. [02:00] I met with many of the people in this room and it all just started coming together. [02:05] I've known so many of you for so long. [02:07] Your friends of mine, your great people. [02:09] I have a couple I don't like in particular, [02:11] but I won't tell you who. [02:13] We listened and we exchanged ideas, [02:15] and we kept pushing forward until the job was done. [02:18] And the first steps to peace are always the hardest. [02:21] And today we've taken them and we've put them all together, [02:24] and we've come up with this beautiful mix like nobody thought was possible. [02:28] And as you know, I've just come from Israel. [02:31] It was an amazing day to watch the hostages come in and [02:35] to watch all of the other things and do all of the other things that we did. [02:39] And like all of us here this evening, [02:42] the Israeli people are overjoyed that the war has ended. [02:45] Many of you have had dancing in the streets. [02:47] They had dancing in the streets. [02:49] All the momentum now is toward a great, [02:51] glorious and lasting peace and our commitment to fulfilling the 20 point plan [02:56] we developed together will be the crucial foundation for achieving that bright future. [03:02] And it's being worked on right now as we speak, [03:04] and we're actually in stage three and four. [03:07] It's not going to be, you know, just divided down. [03:09] So simply we can be long advanced on some of the things that we say we're going to do. [03:14] We're going to do something that's really monumental. [03:17] This is a monumental day. [03:18] This is a monumental moment in the history of the world beyond the Middle East. [03:23] We've all agreed that supporting Gaza must be done to lift up the people themselves, [03:30] but we don't want to fund anything having to do with the bloodshed, [03:34] hatred or terror, as has happened in the past. [03:38] And for the same reason. [03:40] We're also agreed that Gaza's reconstruction requires that it be demilitarized, [03:46] and that a new, [03:47] honest civilian police force must be allowed to create [03:50] a safe condition for the people in Gaza. [03:53] As I said earlier, [03:55] I intend to be a partner in securing a better future. [03:58] We're going to be working. [04:00] You're going to be working with the United States, [04:02] and we're going to make sure that the Middle East is going to be a safe and secure place. [04:07] It's a very important place in the world. [04:09] Okay. Thank you very much. So this was really a historic day, to put it mildly. [04:15] Right. Wasn't it amazing, [04:17] even that last meeting, [04:19] when you see the heads of those countries, [04:20] those those are serious countries, right? [04:24] Uh, but it was. [04:25] I thought it was fantastic. [04:27] I thought, and seeing the, [04:29] I mean, the so-called hostages. [04:31] But those kids come back home. [04:32] And the way their parents just went just went crazy. [04:36] Your father would not be that way with you. [04:38] He'd be okay. But he wouldn't be like that. [04:41] I would get a hug, a hug. [04:43] A minor hug. Okay. Come on, Peter, let's go. [04:46] No, he would be. I'm only kidding. [04:48] He said if you did Russia or if you did, [04:51] you know, lots of different combinations. [04:53] They say the Middle East blows it away. [04:55] And I said, well, by experts, [04:57] it's just thousands of years. [04:59] Nothing's been done. [05:00] It's a whole thing with the Arabs, [05:03] Jewish people, this, that, everybody. [05:05] It's just it's just never been done before. [05:08] And there's a certain mystery to the Middle East. [05:12] I mean, look, it's only because of ratings, [05:14] you know, you're only as good as the ratings, right? [05:16] If they weren't getting ratings, [05:17] your people at Fox would. [05:18] And by the way, Trey is excellent. [05:21] He does a really good job. He and his whole team. [05:24] We did a very quick interview. 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