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Opinion

POST OP-ED: Trump’s Gaza Plan is Best Hope for Regional Peace Yet

posted by Hannity Staff - 9.30.25

By The New York Post Editorial Board

President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan to end the Gaza war, deliver the hostages, remove Hamas from power, ensure security for Israel and rebuild Gaza is ambitious and welcome, offering a real hope for regional peace and prosperity — if Hamas will take it, and maybe even if the terrorists won’t.

The plan, conceived in concert with a range of regional powers, is equal parts idealistic and practical.

And perhaps its most idealistic piece, the proposed “Board of Peace” — a multinational and interagency overseer to shepherd Gaza’s postwar progress — is the only realistic route out of this ghastly vortex.

Arab and Muslim powers are eager for an end to the conflict and, with the decline of Iranian influence, the beginning of a new regional stability.

Their buy-in, which Trump has personally sought and received, is necessary for the success of any peace plan.

The plan is thoughtful and well considered: Cessation of hostilities with the release of all hostages to follow immediately.

Israeli military withdrawal, but phased and limited — and even at its fullest still buttressed by credible security guarantees to ensure that Hamas “ceases to pose a threat to Israel or its own people.”

This sine qua non is the crux of any settlement. Israel will never — can never — again permit a terror group committed to its elimination to maintain control of neighboring territory.

Similarly, aid must flow rapidly and massively to feed and rebuild Gaza in the areas liberated from Hamas. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while neither a famine nor a “genocide,” is real and should be abated at once.

Hamas is intractably committed to keeping the war going as long as possible, which is why the peace plan will be partly implemented even if the terrorists won’t buy in.

Board of Peace member nations can replace Israeli forces in Hamas-free zones, while Israel focuses on uprooting Hamas from the areas it won’t leave.

Failing all else, Trump has given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu permission to “finish the job.”

Bibi’s strategy — “defeat Hamas” — is strategically sound but tactically amorphous.

Indeed, Netanyahu is already working on Point 1 of the plan — to “de-radicalize” Gaza and make it a “terror-free zone.” But this end can’t be achieved conventionally.

The war can have no clear end unless and until Hamas either is crushed or genuinely surrenders; we expect this death cult to keep on maximizing Gazan civilian casualties rather than set down its arms and leave.

But what a grand contrast Trump’s plan is to spineless, feckless European leaders who’ve been recognizing “a Palestinian state” as if it meant or changed anything.

This blueprint acknowledges the Palestinian aspiration for nationhood, but admits that getting there requires many real steps, from Hamas’ exit to radical reform of the woeful Palestinian Authority — a long road, but truly conceivable.

Trump says he foresees “eternal peace in the Middle East” rising from the implementation of his plan, including an expansion of the Abraham Accords to include even Iran at some point.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, may be risking his own premiership by embracing our president’s vision — putting his country’s interests first, as ever, though his enemies never admit that.

If this plan has potential flaws, well: The perfect is the enemy of the good.

Nearly two years after Oct. 7, Trump’s offered a genuine light at the end of the tunnel, and the best hope for Middle East peace yet.