One of the joys of residing in Northern Virginia is the abundance of historical landmarks. Several days ago, I took some visiting friends to George Marshall’s Center at Dodona Manor. Revisiting the Center evoked a spontaneous comparison between the Marshall Plan and the recent Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire Plan.
Ben Shapiro provides a compelling analysis of the Gaza Ceasefire Plan:
President Trump totally broke open the war in Gaza and perhaps put together a workable peace plan. [He] has received an inordinate amount of hatred for actually being good at foreign policy…. He has always been heterodox in his foreign policy views, and that heterodoxy has actually served him quite well, particularly in the Middle East.
He didn’t get the credit he deserved over the Abraham Accords. He has not received the credit that he deserves for his continuing support of Israel in the face of genocidal hatred and terrorism from Hamas.
And now he has somehow drawn a fascinating path to peace in the Gaza Strip.
On [September 29, 2025], Trump and … Netanyahu … unveiled President Trump’s peace plan, which has been signed on to by Israel, the United States, Qatar, all of the regional players, and by the Europeans, which is an amazing achievement…
Let’s be clear: Hamas has not accepted this deal yet, but the deal totally changes the game.
Why?
Because if everybody is on the same page but Hamas, that means that Hamas is totally isolated…. Just a week ago, we were talking about how the Europeans were moving steadily … toward declaring a Palestinian state in the aftermath of the worst terror attack on Israel in its history and the worst attack on Jews since World War II. That is how badly things were going for Israel in the PR war.
That was because there is a strong drive among the “suicidally empathetic” — as the philosopher Gad Saad has said — in Europe to side with the people who wish to destroy Western civilization.
But now President Trump has now done something incredible… to achieve the strategic goals of the West. He has allowed Israel to achieve its strategic goals in Gaza if Hamas were to accept this deal while allowing for a path forward.
Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire Plan is reminiscent of the Marshall Plan in terms of its long-term goals and magnanimous provisions. Regardless of whether the Gaza Plan will be realized or not, there are some obvious parallels. The Marshall Plan demanded denazification; the Gaza Plan calls for deradicalization of the anti-Israel terrorists. The Marshall Plan helped create long-term peace and prosperity in those European countries that benefited from it; the Gaza Plan promises long-term peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
The communist governments in Eastern Europe rejected the Marshall Plan and suffered decades of poverty and oppression. So far Hamas has signaled partial acceptance of the Plan. If they end up thwarting it, they would create a self-inflicted lose-lose situation, without the overwhelming international support they have hitherto enjoyed.
Shapiro further elaborates:
“Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, … made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the ‘Board of Peace,’ which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair.”
This is Israel’s guarantee against the possibility that Hamas immediately reconstitutes and that the aid that flows in is somehow handed over directly to a reconstituted Hamas by another name. In reality, it’ll have to be run by Tony Blair with input from the United States, because … there are not a whole hell of a lot of “Palestinian moderates.”
And this brings us to the question of the Palestinian Authority…. The reality is the Palestinian Authority is wildly unpopular in Judea and Samaria, thanks to its incredible levels of corruption, thanks to the fact its leadership bilks the population and aid agencies out of literally billions of dollars.
The PA is never going to end up governing Gaza…. Trump’s plan is going to be dependent on decent governance…. Every single Palestinian poll statistic ever taken shows a vast bulk of Palestinian Arabs supporting terrorism against Jews and the destruction of the State of Israel.
“Hamas and other factions agree not to have any role in the governance of Gaza directly, indirectly or in any form. All military terror and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt.”…
Why would Hamas accept the deal if they’re going to have no governance power in the Gaza Strip? Why would they give up the hostages?
Because … they have no hope, if it turns out that even their terror masters in Qatar aren’t behind them…. Qatar apparently has joined in on the process of isolating Hamas…. [a]nd … does not wish to be in the crossfire at this point….
“The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza.”
What’s important there is that this international stabilization force will not be a nontransparent force. It will have coordination, including Israel….
“While Gaza redeployment development 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, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.”
Notice what that isn’t. That is not a recognition of a Palestinian state…. It is a recognition that if gigantic changes happen on the ground and the Palestinian Authority somehow moderates and somehow does all of the reform, and that if all of these hurdles are jumped, then maybe at some point there’s a pathway to a Palestinian state…. The Trump administration is making no bones about that. And now neither is the international community.
All in all, it’s a very good start.
While it is true that terrorists do not deserve any concessions, successful diplomacy requires realism and effective negotiations. Henry Kissinger famously warned that “the conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.” Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire Plan has the potential to turn this maxim on its head by isolating Hamas and offering a win-win situation for Israel and the West.
Much will depend on how the negotiations conclude, given Hamas’s misleading signal of partial acceptance at this moment. If fully accepted by Hamas and successfully implemented, the Plan can result in stability and peace. If rejected or thwarted, Israel can complete its mission in the region without constant international deterrence and nearly ubiquitous support for deafening outrage by the likes of Greta Thunberg.
Nora D. Clinton is a Research Scholar at the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD in Classics and has published extensively on ancient documents on stone. In 2020, she authored the popular memoir Quarantine Reflections Across Two Worlds. Nora is a co-founder of two partner charities dedicated to academic cooperation and American values. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.
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