After toying with plans last year to turn the carpet-bombed Palestinian territory of Gaza into a ritzy riviera, US President Donald Trump has now announced a Board of Peace for the strip of land and appointed himself its chairman for life. True to his proclivity for monetising virtually anything he controls, he has offered a permanent seat on the board to the 60 invited nations if they pony up $1 billion each.
Nobel ambitions and contradictions
Trump’s quest for peace pegs its ambition to the Nobel Peace Prize, which has eluded him. His closest brush with the honour was posing with the 2025 awardee, Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado, who ‘gifted’ her medal to him. Peace remains distant for the US President, however, both within his country and outside.
Force alongside peace rhetoric
He launched deadly strikes on boats at sea, carried out a military operation in Venezuela to capture its leader Nicolas Maduro on a narco-terrorism conspiracy charge, and bombed Iranian nuclear sites. With his bald threat to take over Greenland “the easy way or the hard way”, he alarmed NATO allies.
After Venezuela, his statements are being taken seriously: on regime change in Colombia, Cuba and Iran; US troop deployment in Mexico to curb drug cartels; and the annexation of Canada. Small wonder then that Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, pragmatically agreed to the Board in principle.
UN mandate and concerns
A Board of Peace for Gaza is feasible, since Trump could use the fig leaf of a mandate for such an initiative issued by the UN Security Council last November, though only valid through 2027 and without endorsement from Russia and China.
United Nations member nations are free to form various groupings, but there is justified concern that a body such as the one Trump proposes would undermine the post-war consensus that the multilateral UN enshrines in its charter.
A sceptical view of multilateralism
The US leader does not think much of the UN and has dismissed it as ineffective and unable to uphold America’s interests. The UN has little hope of realising anytime soon the $1.5 billion that the world’s supreme power owes it as its contribution.
Who pays, who participates
Israel and Hamas earlier agreed with Trump’s plan to set up a transitional administration in Gaza, overseen by an international board, but there are no invitations to Palestinians to join the one now proposed. It is unclear who will ultimately foot the bill for its work.
India, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Australia, Canada, the European Commission, and some West Asian nations have been invited. All except Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban, a Trump ally, have reacted with caution.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have been nominated.
An offer hard to refuse
Trump speaks loudly and carries a big tariff stick, while the dominant US dollar helps advance the America First policy. Now, he is making a peace offer that he wants no one to refuse.
