{"id":319352,"date":"2026-08-17T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=319352"},"modified":"2026-08-12T17:56:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:56:00","slug":"gazas-board-of-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/08\/gazas-board-of-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza\u2019s Board of Pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Peace President – by Mr. Fish<\/p><\/div>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s peace plan for Gaza is a mirage, a conjuring trick in which peace is unilaterally declared as Israel seizes more Palestinian land and brings the genocide to its grim conclusion.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

10 Aug 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0There is no ceasefire in Gaza. There is no functioning \u201cBoard of Peace.\u201d There is no roadmap to ending the genocide or mechanism to creation of a Palestinian state. Israel has refused to implement or abide by any of the conditions of Trump\u2019s \u201cComprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict\u201d since its inception. It won\u2019t begin to honor them now.<\/p>\n

There is only genocide. It changes shape and intensity. But it does not change its essence.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s plan is a mirage, a conjuring trick, a fleeting vanity project. In October 2025, Trump gathered<\/a> world leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to announce his peace deal, which he said \u201ctook 3,000 years\u201d to achieve, before disappearing offstage. The peace plan, like the smoke-and-mirrors act that defines the Trump era, has been relegated to a dark memory hole, as our P.T. Barnum<\/a> commander in chief trots out another bloody spectacle: war on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump announced a \u201chistoric\u201d agreement<\/a> on July 30 that entailed \u201cthe complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza.\u201d He called the 15-point plan, credited to the Board of Peace, which has no Palestinian representatives and installed Trump as its chair for life, \u201ca monumental step toward lasting peace and security.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Hamas swiftly qualified<\/a> the demand by saying that handing over its heavy weapons was only contingent on Israel ending \u201call forms of\u201d its \u201caggression\u201d and withdrawing its occupying forces from Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu blithely dismissed<\/a> Trump\u2019s proposal. Israel, he said, will not withdraw its forces until Hamas is \u201cgenuinely\u201d disarmed.<\/p>\n

Read this to mean never<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The peace plan<\/a> \u2014 which was endorsed<\/a> by the United Nations in a stunning disregard for Palestinian sovereignty and international law \u2014 was never more than a publicity stunt. It exists to provide Israel with the diplomatic cover to bring the genocide to its intended conclusion \u2014 the \u201cvoluntary emigration<\/a>\u201d of Palestinians from Gaza \u2014 a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

Since the \u201cceasefire\u201d went into effect on Oct. 10, 2025, two months before the Trump \u201cpeace plan\u201d was formalised, Israel has killed<\/a> 1,258 Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Ceasefires with these body counts are not ceasefires.<\/p>\n

Once Gaza is emptied, the West Bank will be next<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of the myriads of peace plans over the decades, this one is the least serious.<\/p>\n

Aside from a demand that Hamas release the hostages within 72-hours after the ceasefire began \u2014 which took place \u2014 it lacks specifics and imposed timetables. It is filled with caveats that allow Israel to abrogate the agreement.<\/p>\n

That is the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not designed to be a viable path to peace, which most Israeli leaders understand,\u201d I wrote<\/a> when the plan was announced. \u201cIsrael\u2019s largest-circulation newspaper, Israel Hayom, <\/em>established by the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson to serve as a mouthpiece for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and champion messianic Zionism, instructed its readers not to be concerned about the Trump plan because it is only \u2018rhetoric\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel, I noted, in one example from the proposal, will \u201cnot return to areas that have been withdrawn from, as long as Hamas fully implements the agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho decides if Hamas has \u201cfully implemented\u201d the agreement?\u201d I asked. \u201cIsrael. Does anyone believe in Israel\u2019s good faith? Can Israel be trusted as an objective arbitrator of the agreement? If Hamas \u2014 demonized as a terrorist group \u2014 objects, will anyone listen?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is it possible that a peace proposal ignores the International Court of Justice\u2019s July 2024 Advisory Opinion<\/a>, which reiterated that Israel\u2019s occupation is illegal and must end?\u201d I continued. \u201cHow can it fail to mention the Palestinian\u2019s right to self-determination<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho gave the U.S. the authority to send to Gaza an \u201cInternational Stabilization Force,\u201d a polite term for foreign occupation?\u201d I wrote. \u201cWhy is Israel, which has destroyed Gaza, not required to pay reparations?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ninety-two percent of Gaza\u2019s residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed and around 81 percent of all structures are damaged, according to UN estimates<\/a>. The Strip has been reduced to 61 million tons of rubble, including nine million tons of hazardous waste that includes asbestos, industrial waste, and heavy metals, in addition to unexploded ordinance and an estimated 10,000 decaying corpses. Israel has demolished some 1,500 buildings since the ceasefire went into effect.<\/p>\n

How can anyone believe that Israel, intent on leveling Gaza, will reverse itself to allow Palestinians to rebuild what it spent so much time, money and blood to destroy?<\/p>\n

Retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel\u2019s National Security Council, echoed this sentiment on Sunday on Israel\u2019s 103FM<\/a> radio station.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt, it is better for us that it be destroyed for generations to come,\u201d Eiland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greater the despair in Gaza and the greater the destruction, and the greater the monument to what they did on October 7, years to come, that is good,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Israel will never permit reconstruction in Gaza. It will never restore health facilities or water treatment plants. It will never turn over authority to an International Stabilization Force (ISF), one which only exists on paper. It will never permit the creation of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza<\/a> or agree to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.<\/p>\n

Trump promises a Gaza Riviera<\/a> that will function as a \u201cspecial economic zone\u201d \u2014 a territory operating outside of state law governed entirely by private investors, such as the Peter Thiel-backed charter city in Honduras<\/a>. But Trump\u2019s Gaza Riviera<\/a> is nothing more than a pathetic temporary camp along the ceasefire line near Rafah. It consists of \u201cportable cabins\u201d under Palestinian administration and a tiny international security force, according to<\/a> The Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It is touted, in desperation, as a pilot scheme.<\/p>\n

Despite some $17 billion in pledges to the Board of Peace, as of late May 2026 not a single dollar had reached its official World Bank-administered Gaza reconstruction fund. Only about $23 million had been received through alternative channels for operating costs, with a further $100 million pledged by the United Arab Emirates that was earmarked for a future Palestinian police force, though it remains \u201cfrozen,\u201d according to<\/a> the Financial Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This amounts to about $0.72 for every $100 pledged.<\/p>\n

Given the heavy economic costs incurred by Gulf and regional donor countries because of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran \u2014 including Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the UAE \u2014 it is very unlikely the pledged funds will be paid.<\/p>\n

The European Union, the U.N. and the World Bank, in an assessment published in April, estimated<\/a> that $71.4 billion is needed for recovery in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The Board of Peace, for which Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov is the principal official<\/a>, is desperate for funds. The U.S. attempted to pilfer $11 billion in Palestinian tax revenues and frozen bank funds withheld<\/a> by Israel, which was rejected<\/a> by the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Israeli withholding of tax revenues has deepened the \u2060financial crisis in the West Bank, with the PA slashing salaries<\/a> in half of thousands of Palestinian civil servants.<\/p>\n

The ISF, a multinational peacekeeping force that is supposed to be composed<\/a> of troops from Albania, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Uganda and Indonesia \u2014 the latter of which has since suspended<\/a> its commitment, is also nonexistent.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strook have demanded<\/a> that Netanyahu reconvene the Security Cabinet so that its July 26 vote authorizing the entry of ISF troops can be reversed.<\/p>\n

The entire Trump project is an Alice-in-Wonderland fantasy.<\/p>\n

Anyone in Gaza who strays close<\/a> to the Yellow Line \u2014 which is constantly shifting and poorly marked \u2014 is shot. Police are shot. Hamas leaders, along with their families \u2014 including<\/a> Azzam Khalil al-Hayya, the son of Khalil al-Hayya who was the head of Hamas\u2019 political bureau and the faction\u2019s lead negotiator \u2014 are assassinated. Palestinians lining up at food kitchens and those handing out aid to them are obliterated<\/a> by Israeli bombs. Israel restricts food and humanitarian aid to half of the trucks stipulated in the ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n

Palestinians, 90 percent of whom have been displaced, continue to live in tent cities amid rubble and open pools of raw sewage. They lack toilets<\/a> or electricity<\/a>. There is an 80 percent unemployment<\/a> rate. Tens of thousands of children suffer<\/a> acute malnutrition in Gaza. A child, on average, is killed<\/a> every day.<\/p>\n

Tacitus understood. They made a desert and call it peace<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s plan was not designed to end the conflict. It was not designed to provide an equitable settlement for the Palestinians. It was not designed to halt the ongoing mass slaughter. It was designed to allow Israel to complete its genocide and drive surviving Palestinians from their homeland \u2014 the culmination of the Zionist dream.<\/p>\n

Trump, however obtuse, has at least figured this out.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for\u00a0<\/em>The New York Times,\u00a0where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief. He previously worked overseas for\u00a0<\/em>The Dallas Morning News,\u00a0The Christian Science Monitor, and<\/em> NPR. He used to be the host of the Emmy Award-nominated <\/em>RT America show\u00a0<\/em>On Contact.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – chrishedges.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Aug 2026\u00a0–\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s peace plan for Gaza is a mirage, a conjuring trick in which peace is unilaterally declared as Israel seizes more Palestinian land and brings the genocide to its grim conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":319353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[3843,4115,249,70],"class_list":["post-319352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-board-of-peace","tag-board-of-pieces","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319352"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319355,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319352\/revisions\/319355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}