Key Points and Summary: Gordon Gray, the Kuwait Professor at George Washington University, examines the strategic voids in the Board of Peace (BoP) following its February 19 inaugural meeting.
-While UN Security Council Resolution 2803 authorized the International Stabilization Force (ISF), spearheaded by Major General Jasper Jeffers, significant friction remains regarding the disarmament of Hamas.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order creating a task force for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Tuesday, August 5, 2025, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. Vice President JD Vance attends. (Official White House Photo by Emily J. Higgins.)
-This analysis explores the $53 billion funding gap for Gaza’s reconstruction and the lack of interoperability between troop-contributing nations like Indonesia, Morocco, and Kazakhstan, questioning whether a “credible pathway to statehood” can survive the administration’s centralized governance model.
20,000 Troops, 5 Nations: Inside the Race to Stand Up the Gaza Stabilization Force
Gertrude Stein famously said of Oakland, “there’s no there there,” but she could have just as easily been referring to last week’s Board of Peace meeting. Membership is sparse: apart from the United States, it does not include a single permanent member of the UN Security Council or the G-7.
The concern that President Trump is seeking to replace the United Nations is one reason so few countries outside the Middle East are jumping at the chance to join his Board of Peace. His incessant self-aggrandizement may be another. The meeting took place at the U.S. Institute of Peace, renamed the “Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace” notwithstanding ongoing litigation about the legality of its takeover by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. (A federal judge ruled last May that the takeover was illegal – writing in her decision that the takeover was a “gross usurpation of power” – but enforcement has been stayed due to the government’s appeal.)
Trump’s meandering, self-congratulatory speech did nothing to convince skeptical heads of government that they made a mistake by staying away. After falsely claiming “we settled eight wars” and crowing about the continued rise of the U.S. stock market – and then launching into a baffling riff about his sexual preferences – Trump only mentioned Gaza at the 28th minute of his 47-minute speech.
The lack of attention paid to Gaza was no surprise. The Board of Peace does not include a single Palestinian representative. The scheduling of the meeting itself (during the daylight hours of Ramadan, when observant Muslims were fasting) ignored the fact that almost all Gazans are Muslim, further reflecting the absence of any consultation with Palestinians.
Botched Arabic plagued the presentation on developing Gaza, which Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, gave last month in Davos, and left no doubt about the lack of any discernible Palestinian input. As the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, the plan “was devoid of any genuine consideration for Palestinian realities” and “is disconnected from the reality where Israel is already taking active steps in formulating a new reality on the ground.”
Trump’s speech was as short on specifics as it was long on digressions. Four key questions need to be addressed.
First, who is going to disarm Hamas? UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2803 endorsed Trump’s 20-point peace plan and authorized the establishment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF). But the resolution did not specify that forcible disarmament of Hamas was a responsibility for the ISF, opting instead for the tamer and less precise goal of “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”
Indonesia – one of five countries that has signed on to provide troops – has already ruled out “combat operations or any action leading to direct confrontation with any armed group.” The U.S. Army Major General named to lead the ISF, Jasper Jeffers, told the Board of Peace meeting that “the ISF will do two things: stabilize the security environment in Gaza and enable civilian governance,” but made no mention of disarming Hamas.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders flanked by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya, Monday, May 5, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)
Second, will the ISF have enough troops to carry out its mandate? Disarmament of Hamas aside, UNSCR 2803 assigned several wide-ranging tasks to the ISF, including protecting civilians, training and supporting Palestinian police forces, and securing humanitarian corridors. While Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania will join Indonesia in providing troops for the ISF, commitments have not yet reached the level of 20,000 soldiers and 12,000 police officers that MG Jasper Jeffers envisions.
As points of reference, the population of Gaza today and Kosovo in 1999 are comparable, and the NATO-led Kosovo Force was initially 50,00 strong. Unlike NATO, the five countries that have pledged troops for the ISF in Gaza have not trained together and are not interoperable, which can only complicate their coordination on the ground.
Third, who is going to pay for Gaza’s reconstruction? Estimates for the cost of reconstructing Gaza range as high as $70 billion. President Trump pledged $10 billion but did not indicate the source of the funding. He has neither made an appropriation request to Congress nor submitted a reprogramming notification. Other countries attending the meeting pledged $7 billion. To paraphrase the late Senator Everett Dirksen, “a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money,” but the $17 billion pledged is far short of what will be needed.
Fourth, will there be a serious effort to find “a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”? This penultimate point in Trump’s 20-point peace plan received no mention in last week’s meeting but is critically important for Palestinians, Israelis, and their neighbors – as well as to potential investors.
Senator Graham offered a pithy summary of the challenges ahead when interviewed last week: “If no one disarms Hamas, who will invest in Gaza?” The Board of Peace meeting did not answer the question, which lies at the heart of the effort to provide a better life for the people in Gaza.
About the Author: Gordon Gray
Gordon Gray is the Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He was a career Foreign Service officer whose assignments included Deputy Commandant of the National War College, Ambassador to Tunisia, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Follow him on Bluesky: @AmbGordonGray.bsky.social.
yeye
February 25, 2026 at 9:26 pm
This ‘peace plan’ for Gaza by Donald trump is at least a bit better and a shade honest than joe biden’s there-is-zero-genocide policy for the Palestinian strip.
But at the end of the day, the plan is about fully supporting netanyahu’s aim for full control of the Gaza strip.
There’s simply no room for the establishment of a sovereign and free Palestinian state.
Netanyahu and company have already stated many times (multiple occasions) they’ll never allow it to exist.
Thus, trump’s ‘peace plan’ is just another method to seize Gaza from the gazan inhabitants instead of netanyahu’s method of endless war by the IDF.
In the coming future, the gazan people will be completely stripped of their rights to their land, and there won’t be any Palestinian state.
So, practical politicians seeking a practical solution to the Palestinian problem should look elsewhere.
West bank ?
Hmm, west bank now slowly being taken over by bulldozers and settlers, instead of by IDF tanks and military brigades.
In ten years’ time or so, the Palestinians will also lose their rights to the west bank.
But the Palestinians need a homeland of their own, and so the UN must apportion eastern Cyprus to become a permanent possession of the Palestinian people, as they have historically gotten cheated all the way by the ottoman empire, the British empire, their arab brothers, and netanyahu’s Israel.
Will the rest of the world, led by trump, cheat them, too.