While Israel insists that the board must have its prior approval, world leaders say that Trump has to work within the UN framework and not create his own to serve his interest.
By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, January 19 – US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” (BOP) for the rehabilitation of post-war Gaza has received mixed reactions from world leaders and stiff opposition from Israel, putting its workability in question.
While Israel insists that such a board must have its prior approval, world leaders say that Trump has to work within the UN framework and not create his own to serve his interest.
Israel has objected to the inclusion of the “anti-Israel” Turkey and Qatar in the board. And the Israeli population is holding demonstrations to say that the board should not have been formed before Hamas had released all the hostages.
Many world leaders have warned that the unilateral formation of such institutions outside the UN’s framework will ultimately weaken the UN, the only organisation which has global moral authority.
Human rights advocates have criticized Trump’s decision to put the infamous former British Prime Minister Tony Blair of the Iraq war fame, as the BOP’s chief executive. Finally, neither Hamas nor Israel has made a commitment to demilitarize Gaza, which is a pre-requisite for the functioning of the board.
Structure of Board of Peace
Besides Trump and Blair, others on the BOP include Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle-East negotiator, World Bank President Ajay Banga, billionaire US financier Marc Rowan, and Robert Gabriel, a loyal Trump aide who serves on the US National Security Council.
The board would also include senior figures from Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, which normalized ties with Israel in 2020. Trump also named Sigrid Kaag, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, and the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to the board.
The US is reportedly aiming to recruit roughly a dozen more leaders to join the panel headed by Trump, including Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Erdo?an.
In addition to the BOP, Trump also named a second 11-member “Executive Board” designed to have an advisory role.
The White House said that the BOP will take on issues such as “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding and capital mobilization.”
The BOP, which would be chaired “for life” by Trump, would start by addressing the Gaza conflict and then deal with other conflicts, according to a copy of the letter and draft charter seen by Reuters.
Member States in the BOP would be limited to three-year terms unless they paid US$ 1 billion each to fund the board’s activities and earn permanent membership, the letter states.
Trump’s Vision
The document on the BOP seen by Reuters said that the board is the result of a search for a “durable peace which requires pragmatic judgment, common-sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed.
There is a “need for a more nimble and effective international peace-building body,” it added.
“This board will be one of a kind, there has never been anything like it! It’s going to, in my opinion, start with Gaza and then do conflicts as they arise,” Trump told Reuters in an interview earlier this week.
International Stabilization Force
US Army Major General Jasper Jeffers will head the “International Stabilization Force” (ISF) which will be tasked to provide security in Gaza and train a new Gazan police force to succeed Hamas. Jeffers, who is from the special operations group in the US Central Command, was in charge of monitoring a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel in 2024.
The US had been searching the world for countries to contribute to the security force, with Indonesia emerging as an early volunteer. But others who were approached were wary of firing on Hamas, which many see as a liberation force.
Divided International Opinion
Hungary, whose leader is a close Trump ally, gave an unequivocal acceptance of Trump’s invitation, which had been sent to some 60 nations. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy is ready to do its part. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had agreed to Trump’s plan in principle.
But other governments appeared reluctant to make public statements, leaving officials to express concerns anonymously about the impact on the work of the UN, Reuters reported.
Not Outside UN Framework
It is pointed out that the BOP is not outside the UN framework. It was authorized by the UN Security Council in November, but only for the Gaza conflict and that only till the end of 2027. But it should be recalled that Russia and China, two veto wielding powers, had abstained, complaining that the resolution did not give the UN a clear role in the future of Gaza.
However, according to Farhan Haq, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General, said Antonio Guterres “believes Member States are free to associate in different groups and that the UN will continue with its mandated work.”
Annalena Baerbock, president of the United Nations General Assembly warned that if the UN were degraded the world would face “very, very, dark, times.” Some Western diplomats suspected that the BOB might be intended to eventually nullify the UN and replace it by a Trumpian UN as Trump has long been wary of multilateral institutions, particularly the United Nations. He has repeatedly questioned the effectiveness, cost and accountability of international bodies, arguing they often fail to serve US interests.
Israel’s Opposition
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has objected to the participation of the “anti-Israel” Turkey and Qatar on the board. A day after the White House announced the appointment of the Board of Peace (BOP), the office of Israeli Prime Minister said that the composition of the Gaza executive board was not decided in consultation with Israel. The participation of Turkey and Qatar was not in line with Israeli policy, Netanyahu’s office said.
Netanyahu had come under attack from his local political foes who were outraged to learn that Turkey and Qatar, which had, according to them, backed Hamas, would have a role on Trump’s board.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a key figure in Netanyahu’s coalition, said that countries that “breathed life into Hamas cannot be the ones that replace it.”
Choice of Tony Blair
The choice of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be the functional head of the board (the chair is Trump himself) clearly indicated that Trump’s aim was to enhance US-Israeli hegemony over Gaza and the Middle East.
There is a chorus of objections from the world’s liberals against the appointment of Blair as head of the board. “Tony Blair should be on trial for war crimes, not running Gaza,” wrote Mehdi Hasan, editor of Zeteo on Saturday.
“Putting Tony Blair in charge of any kind of peace effort in the Middle East is like making the arsonist the head fire-fighter; the burglar the chief detective. This is the man who allied with George W. Bush to illegally invade and occupy Iraq – a war that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Arabs, ripped an entire Middle Eastern country apart, and unleashed extremism and terrorism across the region,” Hasan recalled.
Alex MacDonald wrote in Middle East Eye (MEE) in 2023 that Al Qaeda rose as a result of the 2003 Iraq war. It caused illegal immigration in the UK.
In 2003, a group of academics, campaigners and public intellectuals set up the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) – modelled on the people’s court set up by philosopher Bertrand Russell over the war in Vietnam – as a means of assessing the legality of the invasion. It found that Blair had “misrepresented intelligence” to build a case for war, and had “failed to exhaust all peaceful options” before resorting to military force.
WTI accused the US and UK of “using disproportionate force and indiscriminate weapon systems”; “imposing punishments without charge or trial, including collective punishment” and “redefining torture in violation of international law, to allow use of torture and illegal detentions”. The British Army gave top honour to a soldier who ‘karate chopped and kicked’ Iraqi detainees.
Peace a Far Cry
With or without Blair, the restoration of peace will face obstacles. A fragile truce has largely held, but Israelis are occupying half of Gaza as a buffer zone, and have killed at least 450 people. Israel is yet to make good on its promise to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt that could allow safe passage for Palestinian civilians and aid stockpiled on the Egyptian side of the border.
Another huge obstacle is Hamas’s refusal to lay down its arms, which means Israel will not commit to fully withdrawing from Gaza. Hamas has emerged from its tunnels weakened, but is still able to assert dominance in Gaza due to the absence of an alternative security force.
And no country is willing to commit ground troops if it means battling Hamas. Privately, Arab States say they would prefer Israel to do the dirty job of finishing Hamas, according to “The Washington Post”.
END
