Trump Promised Peace for Gaza. The Documents Tell a
Different Story.
The
Gaza peace deal looks less like diplomacy and more like déjà vu.
Nov 11, 2025
I’ve been here before, in Baghdad, twenty years ago, in the
post-war planning rooms, watching power struggles and greed take over. The
playbook hasn’t changed.
When I wrote last month that Donald Trump might deserve
credit for negotiating a ceasefire and bringing hostages home, I also warned
that America’s real test would come next: rebuilding peace.
📎Trump Brought the Ceasefire. Can America Bring the
Peace?
Today’s Politico exposé confirms what those of us who
have lived this know too well: there was no real plan for peace, only a
photo-op for the ceasefire.
Private documents obtained by the news outlet reveal that
67 slides presented at a two-day symposium for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)
and members of the new Civilian Military Coordination Center in Israel expose
the true nature of the “Gaza peace plan.” Inside the room were approximately
400 participants, including representatives from the Defense Department, the
State Department, non-profit organizations, and private contractors such as
RAND and the Blair Institute (the think tank helmed by former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair). The materials paint a vivid picture of dysfunction, a
peace process without a plan, a governance structure without a government, and
a security force without troops.
One slide literally shows an arrow with a question mark
linking Phase 1 (ceasefire and hostage release) to Phase 2 (Hamas disarmament
and reconstruction).
That question mark is the strategy.
“Divorced from the peace deal is a plan of how to actually
implement this peace deal,” one participant said. “Everyone is floating around
at 40,000 feet and nobody is talking operations or tactics.”
If that line sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve heard it
before, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya.
I’ve Seen This Movie Before
In 2003, I was there, in the reconstruction planning
meetings for Iraq. I sat in rooms in the Pentagon, at CENTCOM, the State
Department, the White House, hotel rooms in Doha, Kuwait, Camp Snoopy, and
inside Camp Victory in Baghdad, as well as in the main headquarters in one of
Saddam Hussein’s former palaces—where idealism collided with reality, where
bureaucrats debated governance models while the streets outside burned. I saw
well-intentioned people overruled by politics and power grabs. I saw greed take
root faster than democracy.
And I see the same red flags now.
The Trump administration’s “20-Point Peace Plan” is already
collapsing under its contradictions. The documents reported by Politico show
deep internal concern that the so-called International Stabilization Force,
meant to secure Gaza, can’t be deployed. Countries don’t want to send troops.
The “Board of Peace” is unstaffed. And the Palestinian Authority, rejected by
Israel, sits sidelined.
Meanwhile, private firms are positioning themselves for
reconstruction contracts before there’s even security on the ground. The
“peace” process looks more like a pre-investment summit than a humanitarian
mission.
The Mirage of American Reconstruction
The documents confirm what I wrote weeks ago: the United
States has never built peace well because our systems aren’t designed for it.
·
Short political horizons: Trump’s team took a victory lap
after the ceasefire, but his own officials admit the hard work has barely
begun.
·
Siloed agencies: The State is weakened, the Defense is
freelancing, and the civil-military apparatus is operating without clarity.
·
Contracting over capacity: RAND, the Blair Institute, and
private contractors are already shaping the next phase, not Gaza’s civil
leaders.
·
Security before sovereignty: Without local legitimacy, no
peace lasts.
Sound familiar? It’s the same movie, different set.
The Question Mark Between Two Wars
The slides apparently label one section: “The Hard
Work Begins Now: Implementing President Trump’s Plan.” But the slides
propose no actual policies, just lists of obstacles, empty flowcharts, and one
haunting graphic: a dotted line linking the ceasefire to the governance phase,
with a question mark in the middle.
That question mark could be stamped across every failed
U.S. reconstruction of the last two decades.
And the timing is cruel. While Gaza teeters on the edge of
renewed chaos, Iraq, once America’s “democracy project”, is holding elections this week. Peaceful,
yes. But hollow. The parliament still doesn’t control the country’s destiny;
real power lives in the shadows, negotiated outside formal institutions. That’s
what “nation-building” without legitimacy produces: the illusion of democracy,
without the substance of it.
There’s a grim irony in how these cycles repeat. Every
conflict spawns a new generation of “stabilization initiatives,”
“civil-military coordination centers,” and “economic development boards.”
Behind the jargon, the incentives remain the same: peace is just the next
contract.
The documents make clear that the U.S. plans an
international donor conference to raise funds for Gaza, but with no timetable,
no troops, and no real mandate. In other words, the PowerPoints are ready
before the peace is real.
What Comes Next
I said in October: wars end in headlines. Peace survives in
institutions. Right now, Gaza has none.
If this feels like déjà vu, it’s because it is. The world
is watching a replay of every American reconstruction gone wrong; only this
time, the theater is smaller, the stakes are higher, and the question mark is
still blinking between two phases of a plan that never made it past the slide
deck.
I’ve been there. I’ve seen what happens when the cameras
leave and the contractors arrive. Unless we learn from those lessons, Gaza will
not be rebuilt. It will be branded until the subsequent collapse.
It’s Veterans Day. I’ve spent most of my life surrounded by
those who serve—people who show up, do the hard work, and shoulder the cost of
political failure. To them: thank you for your service, your integrity, and
your resilience.
More soon,
Olivia
