December 1, 2025
Peace is an easy word to say, but a very difficult one to realize. And it is so much easier to announce Peace Plans (Deals) than have them become a reality. These are the lessons that I think we can learn from President Trump’s current efforts to resolve the Russia/Ukraine and Gaza wars.
Both of these efforts have the same fatal flaws. They both have attempted to end armed conflict while ignoring the historic realities that underlie the conflict. And they both rely on economic interests, including those of third parties, especially our nation’s and those of the Trump Family, being more critical than the underlying historic conflicts of the people directly involved.
Because both Trump Plans are built on this shaky foundation, we are seeing how hard it is to move from words to meaningful action, from shaky ceasefire to real solutions.
I noted this last month when I looked at the Gaza Peace Plan. I concluded that the plan for a transitional government, to be led by President Trump himself, and the lack of deep engagement with the Palestinian people in setting out a way from war to peace were very problematic.
My fear is that the lofty words announcing peace have not emerged from a deep recognition of the reality of Israeli Jewish and Palestinian histories and aspirations. The same difficult issues that existed decades ago remain and perhaps are even worse because of what has transpired over those years. My fear is that those who were confronted with unpleasant truths because of the brutality of the war will now slip back into what I would call their blissful ignorance. They will see only one part of this complicated, multipart story and choose sides again. The pressure on Israel’s government will ease, and they will keep doing what they have been doing hoping the next eruption of Palestinian violence is years away and that other priorities will move people’s minds to other concerns. Most worrying is that Palestinian voices are absent from the Trump Plan .
What has transpired since then has not proved me wrong.
The United Nations recently put its stamp of approval and provided international legal authority to the Trump Plan. But even the United Nations made only passing mention of engaging both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in the effort to build a future that will be different from the past. Like the Trump Plan, the United Nations did little to address the roots of this long and often violent conflict. Nor did it do more than Trump has done to force both sides to confront their role in this conflict.
Rather than starting from a perspective that recognizes that both Israelis and Palestinians desire their national aspirations to be fulfilled, even the United Nations begins from the premise that Israel is a state that needs to have its interests respected and protected while the Palestinians may someday demonstrate that they are worthy of being a people with their own vision and a rightful demand for self-determination that needs to be respected. Here’s how the United Nations endorsement resolution put it just days ago:
After the PA reform program is faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood. The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence
Palestinians are seen only as objects of this plan, not as participants in its creation or its implementation.
This weakness is illustrated by the scant progress that has been made in creating the international military force that the plan provides as the means of providing security while Gaza is healed, and for the removal of Israel’s military from Gaza. Here’s how Haaretz explains the reason that this part of the plan is stalled.
An Arab source familiar with the discussions said the biggest roadblock is the lack of a broad political agreement that would make such a mission viable.
“No country will send soldiers to Gaza to fight Hamas,” the source said, “certainly not Arab or Muslim forces. Countries will also refuse to deploy troops to serve U.S. and Israeli interests without a defined mandate, a clear timeline and agreement on two core questions: how to handle Hamas’ weapons and who will run the Strip on the Palestinian side.”
According to the sources, the United States is still pushing the multinational-force plan but has concentrated on technical arrangements rather than the political disputes holding it back.
So, after one month, we do not have a peacekeeping international force ready to take control of the land. We do not have the group of Palestinian technocrats in place that were given, in the Plan, responsibility for running the elements of a civil society.
What is missing from this approach to peace is a recognition of the true nature of the conflict and a demand on all parties that it be confronted directly
Neveen Sandouqa, Regional Director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, in a dialogue with Ksenia Svetlov a former Israeli Knesset member and researcher, Aziz Alghashian, gave us the missing vision that must be included if Peace is to be possible:
Ending the conflict and establishing a Palestinian state isn’t just our demand. It’s the key to unlocking lasting peace across the region. Without it, the conflict will continue to radicalize communities, weaken moderates, and destabilize neighbors like Jordan and Lebanon. If normalization sidelines a political vision, it risks cementing a one-state reality of inequality and unrest.
True peace must be built on justice, mutual recognition, and trust, and not just between governments, but between people. Without that, regional integration will always be provisional – and fragile.
Ukraine is not like Gaza. Ukraine and the Ukrainian people have been given the recognition that the Palestinian people have not. Thir right to a nation of their own is not questioned. Their use of force was seen as justified in the face of Russia’s invasion. Palestinians have never been given that dignity, nor has their struggle for freedom been seen by our leaders as valid.
When the US and Israel worked together to create the current Gaza Peace Plan, which clearly favored the Israeli government’s position, Palestinians were left out of the discussion. Rather than being invited to the table, Palestinians were told by President Trump, “.”
When the US announced its recent peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war, it was clear that it had been developed in close consultation with Russia and acceded to most Russian demands. Unlike the Gazan people, Ukraine had international support to say no and to demand that it must have an equal voice in setting a path forward.
We do not know how each of these conflicts will turn out. But, I think we know that if both sides in the conflict are not engaged in finding a solution, Peace will not come.
