Gilbert Achcar
MORE THAN FIVE years ago, on January 28, 2020, then-U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his peace plan for Palestine at a White House ceremony attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The plan was drafted by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. During his election campaign, Trump had pledged to broker what he called the “Deal of the Century” between the Arabs and the State of Israel — a phrase Netanyahu echoed in his effusive praise of the U.S. president during the event.
Last Monday, Trump’s characteristic self-promotion and growing narcissism resurfaced as he described the announcement of the plan — co-authored by Kushner and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair — as “potentially one of the great days ever in civilization,” claiming it could resolve “things that have been going on for hundreds of years and thousands of years.”
The truth is that the latest “Millennium Deal,” like its predecessor, the “Deal of the Century,” will ultimately resolve nothing (see Recognizing a Palestinian State Doesn’t Mean a Free Palestine,” Jacobin, September 25, 2025). In stating, “While Gaza redevelopment advances and when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” (Point 19), the plan implicitly acknowledges that, in its current form, it is not grounded in the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. Instead, it treats this right as a mere possibility (“may”). Indeed, Netanyahu wasted no time confirming in a post-announcement interview that he does not recognize this right, and that Israel “will forcibly resist it.”
This flawed foundation renders Trump’s new plan even less realistic than the one he unveiled five years ago. While the original “Deal of the Century” proposed the establishment of a State of Palestine comprising parts of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip, the new plan calls for the imposition of an international mandate over Gaza. This proposal echoes the colonial mandates established after World War I and is inspired by the international administration installed in Kosovo in 1999. It is precisely this precedent that explains former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s involvement in the project to administer Gaza under Trump’s leadership. Blair played a central role in the Kosovo War and the subsequent decisions surrounding its governance.
While the plan calls for a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza, to be replaced by an “international stabilization force” (a name borrowed from the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina), it specifies that the Israeli military will “progressively hand over the Gaza territory it occupies to the ISF according to an agreement they will make with the transitional authority, until they are withdrawn completely from Gaza, save for a security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat” (Point 16).
In other words, even if the plan is implemented exactly as intended, the Israeli military will retain control over a “security perimeter” carved approximately one kilometer deep into Gaza along the entire border with the Zionist state — an area stretching roughly 60 kilometers. Construction of this perimeter began at the outset of the Israeli invasion, clearly in anticipation of maintaining control over it following any broader withdrawal from the rest of the Strip.
Ultimately, even if Hamas accepts the Trump plan under pressure from Arab and Muslim governments that have endorsed it (the movement had not yet announced its position at the time of writing), and the “Deal of the Millenium” begins to be implemented, the path forward remains steep and perilous — and is likely to end in a complete deadlock. The plan would result in a permanent fait accompli, during which Israeli control over large parts of the Gaza Strip would be solidified. Israel would likely invoke the renewed “terror threat” — including even the most basic forms of resistance, which are bound to persist — as a pretext to maintain its occupation of much of Gaza, mirroring its long-standing occupation of the West Bank. That occupation has officially been considered “temporary” under international law for 58 years.
Translated from the Arabic original published in Al-Quds al-Arabi on 30 September 2025.