RUTHFULLY YOURS

How serious is US President Donald J. Trump about his peace plan? While everyone is eager to celebrate the successful completion of Phase One, with the return of the Israeli hostages in exchange for 2,000 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, the rest remains to be seen.

The Trump Peace Plan began as an ultimatum: If Hamas would not release all the hostages within 72 hours, Israel would have the blessing of the US to “finish the job” full blast.

It is admirable that Trump wants peace and that, in his first term, he astonishingly produced the Abraham Accords. Now, he has brilliantly secured an agreement for release of all the hostages by October 13. If, however, the negotiations continue to go in the direction they seem to be going in, peace is the last thing Trump will achieve.

The main concern is that, with the US wishing to collaborate with countries that support terrorists, such as Qatar, Turkey and Egypt — whose government Qatar has reportedly been planning to oust in a new “Arab Spring” — where could this collaboration end up?

Qatar, which has a thick track record of promoting and often funding Islamist terrorist movements — ISIS, the Taliban, Hamas, the al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Syria), militias in Libya, and the Muslim Brotherhood movement — has repeatedly been taking on the role of both the “arsonist and firefighter.”

Yigal Carmon, president of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), cautions:

“There is no propaganda trick that they [Erdoğan’s Turkey, Qatar and now Al-Sharaa’s Syria] would not play to pretend to be America’s friends. By now, Qatar’s trick is well known: Create a problem, like supporting the Taliban for years up to their takeover of Afghanistan with American casualties, then help move American troops to safety, in what Trump called the ‘the greatest foreign policy humiliation’ in U.S. history.

“Qatar does this everywhere on the planet. It supports Hamas, which committed the atrocities of October 7, and then presents itself as a mediator. Qatar supports every Islamist terrorist organization against its Westernized opponents.”

Qatar’s gallant offer to negotiate a “settlement” in Afghanistan ended up with a Taliban that is stronger than ever — and 20 years of US progress in human rights, treasure and countless lives have all gone for nought.

Separately, Carmon writes:

“In every Muslim country where there is a battle between the Islamists and the secularists, Qatar supports the Islamists, as in Gaza supporting Hamas for years, building its military might and enabling October 7… wherever Qatar is allowed to be involved with its money, such as financing the Lebanese army, rebuilding Gaza, or investing in the West, it does so under the lofty goal of promoting radical Wahhabi Islam in the world. In the case of Gaza and Lebanon, and possibly Syria, it will only build a new cycle of Islamism and terrorism.”

Qatar’s rulers appear to see their mission — with the aid of their Al Jazeera television empire, as well as big cheques — as spreading radical Sunni Islam throughout the region and the world. Qatar has been Hamas’s leading patron since 2007.

Qatar has already spent a reported $100 billion in the United States alone just to buy influence there.

Trump seems to be looking toward Qatar as one of the main funders that will rebuild Gaza. If Qatar’s ruling family accepts this role, they will doubtless expect a role just as important in governing it, which could well include appointing who else might share that privilege. Candidates include the Palestinian Authority, the 2,000 returning terrorists, and, if not precisely Qatar’s longtime client, Hamas, then “Son of Hamas,” or “Hamas 2.0,” or “Hamas the Sequel.” One could call the enclave the “Democratic Republic of Gaza,” but it would still be home to genocidal terrorist groups, committed to destroying Israel for the glory of Islam, smuggling in as many weapons as before the October 7 massacre. That is just what Qatar is – reportedly with aspirations of someday replacing Saudi Arabia as the keeper of Islam’s holy sites.

The negotiators in Egypt’s resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh presently include Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi; Qatar, Turkey, the Palestinian Authority-Hamas, and various Islamist terror groups. As Trump will not be expecting Egypt or Turkey to fund any reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, that basically leaves primarily Qatar and the Palestinian Authority as long-term future stakeholders.

Carmon noted on July 22:

“[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan acted like an ally of Trump by helping him eliminate the ISIS commander Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and thereby won Trump’s trust. However, Erdoğan did it for his own sake, because Al-Baghdadi had claimed the role of leader of the believers (amir al-mu’minim ) – which Erdoğan saw as unnecessary rivalry. He was not doing Trump any favors.”

Erdoğan has also long had designs on Jerusalem as a legacy of the Ottoman Empire, which he wishes to recreate — with himself as sultan.

How serious is Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas when he says that the Iran-backed Hamas terror group “will have no role in governance” of the Gaza Strip and it must hand over its weapons to the PA? Not even slightly.

In July 2024, almost a year after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction, under the auspices of China, signed an agreement with Hamas for joint control of the Gaza Strip after the war. Hamas’s atrocities on October 7 included murdering 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, and the abduction of 251 others.

According to the agreement, known as the Beijing Declaration:

“A Palestinian national unity government will be temporarily formed with the consensus of all Palestinian factions and by a decision from the president [Abbas].”

According to commentary by Al-Monitor:

“Said government will exercise its powers over all Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, unify all Palestinian institutions and begin the reconstruction process, as well as prepare for holding general elections.”

Abbas was prepared to form a joint government with Hamas 10 months after thousands of Israelis and Palestinians were killed in that war. Notably, Abbas did not rule out the possibility that Hamas would be given a role in governing not only the Gaza Strip, but also the West Bank, as outlined in the Beijing Declaration.

This is why Abbas’s recent statement that Hamas “will have no role in governance” should be taken with a spoonful of hummus. Abbas’s statement came during a speech he delivered, via video link, to the United Nations General Assembly last month.

UN Secretary General António Guterres welcomed the China-brokered PA-Hamas deal. According to a UN press release dated July 24, 2024:

“In response to questions at the regular daily briefing in New York, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said António Guterres ‘very much welcomes the signing of the Beijing Declaration by the Palestinian factions’, adding that it was ‘an important step towards furthering Palestinian unity’… ‘The Secretary-General encourages all factions to overcome their differences through dialogue and urges them to follow up on the commitments that were made in Beijing and the Declaration they signed on to’, said Mr. Dujarric.”

The UN, in other words, has no problem with Hamas continuing to play a role in governance in the Gaza Strip despite the terror group’s responsibility for the October 7 massacre and the ensuing war with Israel.

The UN position contradicts Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the war.

According to Trump’s plan:

“Gaza will be governed under the temporary transnational governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the ‘Board of Peace,’ which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including Former [British] Prime Minister Tony Blair.”

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated the need to ensure that “Hamas has no role in Palestinian governance.” Rubio’s statement, on the second anniversary of October 7, was made during a phone call with British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Trump’s peace plan is peachy as long as Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Tony Blair are there to make sure everything stays in place. What, however, happens if and when they are not there anymore? A Middle East saying goes, “You have the watches, but we have the time.”

Although it took Abbas nearly two years to condemn Hamas’s atrocities, senior Fatah officials have consistently voiced support for the terror group.

Abbas Zaki, a veteran member of the Fatah Central Committee, a key decision-making body, defended the October 7 attack and praised the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest terror group in the Gaza Strip:

“The resistance prepared and planed the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation with clear goals, including lifting the [Israeli naval] blockade [on the Gaza Strip], a full withdrawal from the West Bank, and a prisoner exchange.”

Jibril Rajoub, another senior Fatah official and a former commander of the PA’s Preventive Security Service, remarked this week:

“October 7 was part of the [Palestinian] defensive war that has been going on since 1948. The armed struggle [against Israel] cannot be denounced.”

Both Zaki and Rajoub had previously come out in support of forming a unity government with Hamas. Last year, Zaki was quoted as saying: “We [Fatah], Hamas, [Islamic] Jihad, and every fighting faction constitute one unit.”

Last year, Rajoub said that any resolution to the Gaza war “must incorporate Hamas because its ideological and resistance roots resonate deeply within the fabric of Palestinian society.”

If Abbas does not want Hamas to play a role in Palestinian governance, why — ever since Hamas completely ousted the PA from Gaza in a violent coup in 2007 — has he been working relentlessly over the past two decades to reach “reconciliation” agreements with the terror group?

In 2006, after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections, Abbas and then Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh reached a tentative agreement to form a government of national unity.

A year later, Fatah and Hamas signed the Mecca Agreement, agreeing to stop military clashes between the two parties in the Gaza Strip and the formation of a unity government.

In 2008, Fatah and Hamas signed the Sana’a Declaration in Yemen to end their differences.

In 2011, representatives of the two factions announced an agreement, mediated by Egypt, to form a joint government. The accord provided for the formation of a “transitional” government of technocrats to prepare for legislative and presidential elections one year later.

In 2012, the two parties signed the Doha Agreement, again for a new unity government and elections. In 2014, they signed a “reconciliation” agreement that resulted in the establishment of a new technocratic unity government.

In 2017, Fatah and Hamas signed yet another agreement under the auspices of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

In 2020, Abbas held a joint press conference with Hamas leaders where he announced the launching of a new dialogue for a unity agreement.

In 2022, Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement in Algiers to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.

Unsurprisingly, these agreements were partially or not at all implemented, but they show that Abbas has spent more time negotiating unity deals with Hamas than searching for ways to achieve peace with Israel.

It is safe to assume that once the war in the Gaza Strip ends, Abbas and his Fatah loyalists will resume their efforts to achieve “reconciliation” with Hamas under the pretext of ending divisions among the Palestinians.

All peace talks between Israel and the PA have been stalled since 2014, when Abbas signed a unity agreement with Hamas.

Put bluntly, Abbas is not interested in returning to the negotiating table: he has been waiting for the UN and other international parties to impose a solution on Israel, just as French President Emmanuel Macron so helpfully offered to do just last month. The recent one-sided recognitions of a “Palestinian state” by France, Britain, Canada, Australia and other countries only reinforced Abbas’s determination not to resume any peace process with Israel. After all, why should he negotiate with anyone when the West is handing him a state on a silver platter without even a single condition attached?

As far as Abbas is concerned, there is no need to return to the negotiating table: these Western countries have already decided that the Palestinians should have their own state, cost-free. As such, there is nothing left to negotiate.

Abbas, and whoever succeeds him, will always prefer peace with Hamas over peace with Israel. He knows that Hamas continues to enjoy widespread support among Palestinians, most of whom, according to public opinion polls, are passionately opposed to disarming the terror group. One poll, published in September 2024, showed that almost 90% of the Palestinian public believes that Hamas terrorists did not commit the atrocities depicted in videos that they themselves filmed and livestreamed on the day of the massacre.

Those who state that Hamas should not be permitted to play any role in governing Gaza after the war ends should also demand the exclusion of the PA and Qatar from such a process. Allowing either Qatar or Abbas’s PA into the Gaza Strip will only pave the way for a new Hamas to enter through the back door.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.