President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, unveiled on September 29, 2025, promises a “deradicalized terror-free zone” through ceasefires, hostage-for-terrorist swaps, massive aid, and a shiny “special economic zone.” At its heart lies the so-called “International Stabilization Force” (ISF)—a laughable rebranding of the tired “international peace-keeping force” trope. Despite Trump’s good intentions, this plan is an old Western utopian fantasy, poised to squander Israel’s blood-soaked gains and rewind the clock to the catastrophic 2005 Gaza disengagement and the Oslo Accords. It’s a betrayal of the Jewish state’s resolve to never again tolerate a jihadist terror state inside its borders. Israel needs to politely thank the Americans, resist this madness, and seize the hard-won moment to secure Gaza once and for all.
What is the ISF? It is Americans and Europeans hiring Egyptians and Jordanians to train Palestinian Arabs to police Gaza and keep it free of jihad. Sound familiar? It’s a recycled Oslo fantasy, dressed up in new jargon. Most of all, for Muslim countries to agree to participate in the ISF, Israel must swear to not only withdraw from Gaza, but to never exercise its sovereignty in its biblical heartland—Judea and Samaria—home to nearly a million Israeli citizens.
The plan envisions the ISF overseeing Gaza until the Muslim-Marxist terror group PLO (PA) supposedly reforms itself and is given control. This is a bad rerun of 2005, when Israel handed Gaza to the PLO, only for the residents to elect Hamas, which promptly slaughtered its rivals.
Rather than the 20-point plan, what is 1,000% more likely to happen if this delusion is implemented? First, Israel will endure exhaustive haggling over minute bureaucratic details. Then, the moment when real bullets start flying, the “international” elements of the peacekeeping force will run for the hills (Israel) and catch direct flights home. The past century in the Middle East proves this, as any historian knows. International forces quickly corrupt, crumble, Trump’s New Gaza Plan: An Old Delusion 2 and withdraw under pressure. The ISF’s reliance on foreign oversight is a house of cards, destined to collapse at the first sign of real danger.
Meanwhile, the Arab Muslims that the ISF brought in from Egypt, Jordan, or wherever else to train Arab Muslims in Gaza will not uphold Trump’s vision. Instead, they’ll increasingly provide material and diplomatic support for the jihad. Arabist “experts” and Western diplomats never sufficiently learn the iron-clad rule of the Muslim Middle East: “Me against my brother. My brother and I against our cousin. And all of us against the Jews and infidels.” This cultural and fundamentally religious commitment guarantees that “regional partners,” despite any initial cooperation, will prioritize anti-Israel sentiment over Western mandates.
Worse, a handful of Europeans in the ISF are likely to linger to actively support the jihad, as seen in the past.
Some good-hearted Americans might actually stay to fight against the jihad, but this would be catastrophic. It risks turning the last segment of Americans who still support Israel—already a dwindling number or Republicans—against the Jewish state, blaming “the Zionists” for dead Americans. When the inevitable U.S. pullout follows, Israel will be left alone, facing a reempowered, jihadist Gaza, but with no guarantee of another friendly U.S. president, and zero political will left to re-secure Gaza.
Israel would be dragged back to Gaza circa 2005. That year, in a fit of liberal self-harm spurred on by George W. Bush and the Israeli Left, Israel expelled every Jewish town from Gaza and gave it all to the American-trained and Israel-supplied “stabilizing force,” the supposedly reformed terrorist group PLO, effectively handing it to Hamas on a platter.
Today, after losing over 1,000 soldiers and 20,000 wounded to painstakingly retake Gaza, after apprehending multitudes of terrorists with blood on their hands—guilty of dismembering and torturing Jews in the most bestial ways for the glory of the jihad—Israel is asked to surrender it all. The plan demands trading this hard-won ground and hundreds of jailed jihadists for circa 20 hostages and 30 corpses.
This exchange is a gut-punch to Israel’s resolve. The fractured nation united after October 7, 2023, vowing “never again” to allow a terror state within its borders. Yet, Trump’s plan, with its fantastical ISF, would force Israel to promise its strongest ally not to interfere or seize control, paving the way for a de-facto jihadist state. All the blood, sweat, and tears spilled to secure Gaza (not to mention the immense economic toll regular Israelis have all paid) will be traded for fleeting gestures and a return to chaos. This is how Einstein defined madness.
And the jihad would know conclusively that with 20 living hostages remaining, they can bring Israel and the entire Western world to its knees.
One indispensable partner in this Gaza deal is the Israeli left-wing media which must continue to persuade the Israeli public to surrender absolutely everything for 20 living hostages, 30 dead bodies, and a future attack doomed to repeat itself.
Some hostage families oppose surrendering Gaza. But others who support it, receive exclusive media attention. This is a painful distortion as the media will not equally highlight the pain of the more than 1,000 bereaved families of fallen soldiers and 20,000 wounded.
Israeli media will not sufficiently admit that Israel has already paid four times more with the blood of its best and bravest for every single hostage to try to free them and prevent further atrocities.
Are the parents of soldiers who ran into hellfire to save their nation and its hostages really to be valued so much less than the parents of hostages? That is not to say the whole nation doesn’t feel horrible pain for every kidnapped hostage and their loved ones.
Yet, for its own political ends, Israel’s left-wing movement has forced this morbid national debate that some hostage families with liberal politics should have a greater moral voice than any other in the fate of the nation. The narrative is absurd and distorts the true cost of this new Gaza plan.
Trump has surely been the best friend Israel has ever had in a U.S. president. But Israel is naturally not America’s only interest, and this is not a matter America ultimately can or should decide.
The undeniable reality on the ground is this
- Though some in Israel do not want the job, no one but Israel can guarantee any real stability and security in Gaza and southern Israel.
- Whether measured by history, by international law, or by conquest, Israel has the best national, legal claim to the territory of Gaza out of any existing party.
- Israeli security cannot be accomplished with only military bases and patrols, which have shown themselves to become isolated forts under continuous siege by jihadist residents. Only the return of Jewish communities and sovereignty in Gaza as an integral part of the Holy Land would actually enable Israel to extend stability and security for both Jews and Arabs.
Persons who refuse to swear loyalty to be peaceful residents of the democratic state of Israel cannot be granted residency in that same territory.
By invading and attacking Israel through the Gaza Strip in the past century and secretly supplying Hamas with the weapons for the October 7th War, Egypt bears the greatest historic and current responsibility to receive any such persons unwilling to live at peace under Israeli sovereignty. The best move America could make for Gaza is to use its significant leverage to pressure Egypt to accept its true responsibility for Gazan refugees.
Trump’s well-intentioned plan, with its “regional partners,” “international stabilizing force,” and economic zones, is a tired old fantasy that ignores the jihadist reality on the ground. At best, it may save 20 hostages, but it would betray Israel’s massive national sacrifices and invite another Oslo and 2005-style disaster. Given that Netanyahu has already principally agreed to this delusion, the only hope is that Hamas will self-sabotage the entire affair. Israel as a nation needs to reject this delusion and assert its sovereignty over Gaza, no matter how much the Europeans would wail and moan. By re-establishing the historic and modern Jewish communities of Gaza and refusing residency to anyone unwilling to swear peaceful loyalty to the sovereign state, Israel can ensure the greatest possible measure of security and prosperity for both Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land.
The current U.S. plan to give Gaza to regional Muslim actors would unavoidably succumb to jihad and brutally betray Israel’s October 7th vow: never again.
John Enarson is a Christian theology student from Sweden, living in Israel. He has lived in the Middle East for over 25 years and currently serves as the Christian Relations Director at Cry For Zion (cryforzion.com). He is happy to receive input or questions about his articles. j.enarson (at) gmail (dot) com
