First Person | A Just Peace Plan

The idea of the United States of Israel and Palestine is worth fantasising about

Ghazala Wahab

Making good on his February 2025 promise of turning Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’, real estate magnate-turned-US President Donald Trump unveiled his 20-point peace plan on 30 September 2025. Encompassing military, political and humanitarian aspects, Trump’s plan hinges entirely on Hamas’ total compliance. Described in one sentence, the plan seeks to bring to Gaza the same demilitarised status as West Bank, without the pretence of limited self-governance, which will be provided by an international consortium with chairman Trump at the helm. The plan makes no demands on Israel’s government, which is regarded as reactive (to Hamas’ terrorism), but reasonable.

The failure of the plan is written in its conception because it refuses to recognise that as more powerful of the two antagonists—Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Hamas—conflict and peace depend entirely on the former. Moreover, Trump and his advisors, either seem to believe or deliberately want to project to their audience that Palestinians of Gaza are different from those in the West Bank. Hence, Israeli military provocations on one part should not affect the other part. When you choose to misdiagnosis the problem, your solution can neither be honourable, nor sustainable.

While announcing his peace plan (with heart firmly set on the Nobel Peace candy), Trump drew upon the support of the Muslim world to add weight to his fantasies. The self-serving Arabs, opportunist Indians and forked-tongued Pakistanis complied, welcoming the plan. Clearly, everyone wants to assuage their guilt of complicity in the genocide in Gaza. Hence, any possibility of peace is welcome, even if it’s the peace of mass graveyards and silence of speared infants. But, with its newly acquired stature of being the leading Muslim power of the world, Pakistan realises that it must humour everyone, while furthering its national interests—a strategy mastered by General Pervez Musharraf during US’ Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Hence, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wholeheartedly welcomed Trump’s plan, but foreign minister Ishaq Da