Gaza from the Quartet to the Trump plan… French writer: The same prescriptions and the same failure policy

The French website Orient 21 said that the “peace plan of US President Donald Trump”, according to which a ceasefire was announced in exchange for the exchange of prisoners between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), is nothing but a reproduction of an old political thought and approach dating back to the beginning of the millennium, when the “Middle East Quartet” appeared in 2002.

The website explained – in an article written by Christian Jauret – that the Quartet, which then included the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, was an attempt to revive the peace process after the collapse of the Oslo Accords, and a fruit of the era after the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the United States.

The writer pointed out that the Quartet was part of Washington’s effort to unify its diplomatic efforts under the slogan “War on Terror” and to pressure Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to engage in the new American approach. Since then, managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become part of an American security system whose goal is to protect Israel and subjugate the Palestinians, not to achieve actual peace.

The writer believes that Trump’s 2025 plan, like the “road map” presented by the Quartet in 2003, is nothing but a tool to impose an “American-style peace” based on Palestinian disarmament, dismantling the resistance, and establishing a local technocratic authority that has no political character.

The first points of the plan stipulate that “Gaza will be a de-extremist zone, free of terrorism, and under the supervision of international observers,” which practically means the disarmament of Hamas and the factions under direct American supervision.

Jouret explains this as a continuation of the Western security approach, which confuses international terrorism with national resistance, and deals with Gaza as a security issue, not a political one.

International guardianship

The new plan is based on the establishment of a temporary transitional authority in Gaza, managed by an international Palestinian technocratic committee that has nothing to do with Hamas, which will be in charge of managing daily services only, and is likely to include 7 to 10 members, only one of whom will be Palestinian, and perhaps from businessmen or security services, such as Muhammad Dahlan, whose name has been put forward again despite the decline in his popularity in Gaza.

As for general supervision, it will be in the hands of the “International Peace Council,” which will be headed by Trump personally, and with the membership of international figures, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who previously represented the “Quartet” in 2007, and focused at that time on cosmetic economic projects that did not change the reality of the occupation at all.

Thus, the writer believes that the Palestinians’ role is once again limited to simple municipal tasks, as happened in the Oslo II Agreement in 1995, while the keys to the real decision remain in the hands of international powers, first and foremost Washington.

The writer recalled that the Quartet was a front for American diplomacy, with Washington controlling its decisions and using them to put pressure on the Palestinian side through its European and Arab allies. He stressed that this matter is being repeated today, as there are no mechanisms for accountability or accountability within the “Peace Council,” and no one knows who will evaluate its decisions or bear their consequences.

Thus, international institutions – according to the author – turn into tools to perpetuate American exclusivity and protect Israeli interests, at a time when the Palestinians are excluded from any actual role in determining their fate.

Trump’s plan makes clear that the primary goal is the security of Israel, not the establishment of a Palestinian state. It stipulates the establishment of a new Palestinian security force under international supervision to secure the borders and prevent any attacks or infiltrations into Israeli territory, in a reproduction of the security logic that prevailed during the Arafat era, when the Palestinian Authority was required to combat “terrorism” instead of resisting the occupation.

Trump’s plan is not a peace project as much as it is a political and economic guardianship plan to subject Gaza to American supervision, with a formal role for the Palestinians, and limited Arab and international blessing.

Profit for peace

Trump’s plan moves from the idea of ​​”peace for development” to “profit for peace,” because Trump, being a businessman before he was president, sees the destruction of Gaza as an opportunity to build “modern cities” similar to Dubai or Monaco.

Since 2024, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has promoted the idea of ​​turning Gaza into a “global resort,” and Trump himself stated in 2025 that “Gaza could become the Riviera of the Middle East.”

The plan stipulates the launch of the “Trump Economic Development Program,” which attracts major international real estate developers to establish huge investment projects on the shore of the Mediterranean, but it raises an embarrassing question that was not lost on the writer, who asked: “Does this mean displacing the population of Gaza to make room for these giant projects?”

Jouret concluded that the “Trump plan” is not a peace project as much as it is a political and economic guardianship plan to subject Gaza to American supervision, with a formal role for the Palestinians, and with limited Arab and international blessing, and therefore it is a direct continuation of the “Quartet” project based on Israel’s security first, disarming the resistance second, and improving the living conditions of the Palestinians instead of granting them their political rights.

Thus, the writer believes that the so-called “Pax Americana” is nothing but an ongoing strategy to perpetuate control and reproduce the same failures that the Middle East has known since Oslo until today, with only the names and tools changing.