Among other remarkable effects, the Gaza peace plan resurrects the two-state solution as a pillar of bipartisan U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gaza and the West Bank are generally understood to be occupied territory under international law, meaning Israel is not supposed to permanently annex them. Instead, negotiations have long worked toward a process through which these territories can eventually be returned to Palestinian control as part of a future Palestinian state.
For years, this two-state solution was a focus of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy. But the first Trump administration took several steps that seemed to undermine it. And so has Israel, including by expanding West Bank settlements and openly debating annexation, with the apparent acquiescence of the second Trump administration. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently went so far as to openly declare that “there will be no Palestinian state” just days after a visit by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
But the Trump administration’s peace plan embraces a different tack, as it calls on Israel to disavow any intent to annex Gaza, guarantees Gazans a right to return, and provides for Gaza to ultimately be governed alongside the West Bank by a reformed Palestinian Authority. Combined with measures to address Israeli security concerns and U.S. assurances that it will oppose any West Bank annexation, these conditions openly aim toward, in the plan’s words, “a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
How effectively the White House will follow through remains to be seen. But at a minimum, its approach reflects a remarkable turnaround―one that President Donald Trump seems willing to put his political capital behind.