Nation-building in Gaza is doomed.
The West should get out of it now, before it's too late.
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This is a guest essay written by Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
The disastrous ceasefire deal proposed by former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration and rubber stamped by Steve Witkoff, Middle East envoy for now-President Donald Trump, doesn’t just free thousands of Islamic terrorists while letting Hamas reclaim power; it also commits the U.S. to a five-year rebuilding of Gaza.
If the Trump administration backs the deal, it will be forced to act as a “guarantor” which will not only mean protecting Hamas, but an extended terrorist nation-building program bigger even than Iraq or Afghanistan. Phase 3 of the deal reportedly calls for a three-to-five-year rebuilding program.
And the United Nation’s actual numbers are far worse. The UN Development Program is estimating $50 billion in costs to rebuild Gaza by 2040. Since the UN is not known for bringing in projects on time, it’s entirely possible that nation-building Gaza would cost even more and last indefinitely.
This would not have been the deal that a Trump administration national security team would have signed on to, but unfortunately President Trump’s envoy Witkoff went along with the Biden deal.
Witkoff worked with Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Middle East adviser Brett McGurk to make the United States a “guarantor” of a bad plan that includes an “interim force” to police Gaza, extended “reconstruction,” and a “technocratic” unity government acting as a front for the Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists as part of a unity deal formed in Beijing under China.
This is nation-building. And it may be the single worst example of it. Even worse than Iraq.
There was some remote possibility that Afghanistan and Iraq could work out; there is zero chance of nation-building in Gaza and the West Bank leading to anything except terrorism, billions of dollars in foreign aid, more dead Americans, and another war in the region.
Nation-building and endless war are the opposite of the foreign policy that Trump ran on.
The good news is that the Trump administration can pull out of this terrible Biden deal. And if he pulls out before Phase 3, America won’t be stuck doing more terrorist nation-building in Gaza.
“We’ve made it very clear to the Israelis, and I want the people of Israel to hear me on this — if they need to go back in, we’re with them. If Hamas doesn’t live up to the terms of this agreement, we are with them,” Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz vowed.
Since Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization have made it clear that the terrorist attacks will continue until Israel is destroyed, the Trump administration has a very simple exit strategy from Phase 3.
All it has to do is, as Walz said, let Israel go back to fighting once the hostages are free and the terrorists break the ceasefire. And that will abort the reconstruction.
If the Trump administration recognizes that the terrorists broke the ceasefire, then it’s over. However, if the Trump administration pressures Israel to accept ceasefire violations by Islamic terrorists in Gaza without fighting back — as it is reportedly doing with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon — not only Israel, but America will be stuck with endless nation-building in Gaza.
And that will be a disaster.
The Biden ceasefire deal isn’t just a trap for Israel; it traps the Trump administration into the same old failed nation-building programs in the Middle East that have failed under presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Biden.
In his first term, President Trump broke from 30 years of failed policies and oversaw the rise of a new pro-American alliance by dropping “Palestinian” nation-building. That legacy is now threatened by the Biden ceasefire deal, which puts America back in the business of nation-building a terrorist state in Gaza and the West Bank, which in turn drags us into a UN process in which billions of dollars will fall into the hands of terrorists. And the alliances that his first term worked so hard to build up will be torn apart by disputes over “the Palestinians.”
Every time an administration gets into the business of “Palestinian” nation-building, it comes away with nothing. That’s because the entire “Palestinian” cause was invented by the former Soviet Union to undermine America and Israel, to spread terrorism, and to cause new wars. Trying to build a “Palestinian” nation is even more doomed than trying to nation-build in Afghanistan.
Gaza is an even worse version of Afghanistan. And Phase 3 of the Biden ceasefire deal puts us right back to nation-building in another Islamic terrorist war zone. That’s why it’s urgent that Phase 3 should not be allowed to happen. Phase 3 is Afghanistan and Iraq all over again. Phase 3 is a trap for President Trump. Getting out of Phase 3 will determine if the Trump administration foreign policy succeeds.
The Trump administration should exit the Biden ceasefire deal as soon as possible. The sooner it gets out, the less likely Phase 3 will be to trap us into nation-building in Gaza. And the less likely it is that we will have to send soldiers to join an “interim force” to police Gaza or send billions of dollars to “rebuild” Gaza, so that Hamas can start another war and so we can rebuild it yet again.
This is not what Trump ran on. It’s not what Americans voted for. It’s not what they want. And people should not assume that it’s a done deal once it has been initiated. While the early phases are the most dangerous for Israelis because they lead to the mass release of Islamic terrorists and the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Phase 3 is the most dangerous for America.
The Trump administration needs to be out of the deal long before Phase 3. And the longer we stay in, the more commitments our negotiators will make and the harder it will be to get out.
Americans should not be complacent about assuming that the administration will pull the plug before Phase 3. Much will depend on whom President Trump is hearing from about the deal. Even once the deal is underway, it’s urgent to keep speaking out against nation-building in Gaza. Not one dollar or American life should be sacrificed for nation-building in Gaza.
America needs to rebuild itself, not Gaza. It needs to police its own streets, not Gazan streets. In his first year in office, President Trump vowed that we are “not nation-building again; we are killing terrorists.” America needs to stop nation-building in Gaza and keep letting Israel kill terrorists.
The US should not reward Hamas in any manner let alone a plan to rebuild Gaza with Hamas in charge
Very informative article. My own thoughts are that if nation rebuilding is to proceed, then tighter terms need to be put in place, along the lines of the Marshall Plan in Germany post WW2. In that, Nazism was totally banned. In the case of Gaza, it would be a complete ban on any terrorist groups. Then we might finaly see moderate groups emerge for elections, which was the case in 1949 Germany - no hint of a Nazi party in sight. The same needs to happen in Gaza and indeed the PA West Bank. Fatah also should be banned and the PA reformed with only moderate electable officials eligible who want to make peace with Israel on realistic terms.