Trump Can Push Past Israeli-Palestinian Paralysis

Trump Can Push Past Israeli-Palestinian Paralysis

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Argument: Trump Can Push Past Israeli-Palestinian Paralysis

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Argument

An expert’s point of view on a current event.

Trump Can Push Past Israeli-Palestinian Paralysis

Practical steps, U.S. pressure, and greater Arab involvement are needed to overcome trauma and despair.

By **Dennis Ross**, a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

!A group of people scatter and run across a dry, grassy field amid haze and smoke. In the background, uniformed personnel in tactical gear stand in a line, while a white and red ambulance with Arabic writing and "101 AMBULANCE" on the side is parked nearby on a hillside under a hazy sky.

*A group of people scatter and run across a dry, grassy field amid haze and smoke. In the background, uniformed personnel in tactical gear stand in a line, while a white and red ambulance with Arabic writing and "101 AMBULANCE" on the side is parked nearby on a hillside under a hazy sky.*

Israeli soldiers use tear gas to disperse Palestinians near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on July 18. Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images

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October 19, 2026, 10:18 AM

Three years after Oct. 7, 2023, the prospects for meaningful Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic progress appear worse than ever. Israelis look at the way Hamas celebrated killing innocents and brutalizing hostages and conclude that they could never be safe alongside an independent Palestinian state. Palestinians look at many Israelis’ indifference to their deaths and continued suffering in Gaza and are equally convinced that Israel will never accept their independence or let them live with security and dignity.

Peacemaking in such an environment seems hopeless—and hopelessness provides fertile ground for the extremists to promote violence, claiming the conflict can only end with the destruction of the other side. Which is why, as daunting as the current environment is, it is more important than ever to show that practical, positive changes are possible.

Three years after Oct. 7, 2023, the prospects for meaningful Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic progress appear worse than ever. Israelis look at the way Hamas celebrated killing innocents and brutalizing hostages and conclude that they could never be safe alongside an independent Palestinian state. Palestinians look at many Israelis’ indifference to their deaths and continued suffering in Gaza and are equally convinced that Israel will never accept their independence or let them live with security and dignity.

Peacemaking in such an environment seems hopeless—and hopelessness provides fertile ground for the extremists to promote violence, claiming the conflict can only end with the destruction of the other side. Which is why, as daunting as the current environment is, it is more important than ever to show that practical, positive changes are possible.

First, it is important to recognize that actual cooperation is taking place between Israelis and Palestinians even now, for example, in managing the sewage problem in Gaza. Sewage from Gaza flows directly to the Israeli coastline and, from time to time, has necessitated closing Israel’s nearby desalination plant at Ashkelon. Not surprisingly, there are nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), like the Arava Institute in Israel, that bring Israelis and Palestinians together to work on water, sanitation, health, environment, and related economic issues and challenges.

All this needs to become far more visible. The Trump administration—whether through Jared Kushner’s team or through the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, or through the U.S. embassy—should promote, participate in, and publicize such meetings. It should also provide funds, or solicit them from partners, for NGOs whose mission is to foster cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians on functional issues.

Second, the realities on the ground must be transformed. In Gaza, U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan produced a cease-fire a year ago and helped secure the release of the remaining hostages. The basic formula built into the Trump plan was the demilitarization of Gaza in return for reconstruction and Israeli withdrawal. A year later, Palestinians in Gaza are still living in wretched conditions, and Hamas coercively controls about 30 percent to 35 percent of the territory, including a vast majority of its population.

The promise of the 20 points remains on paper but not on the ground, where there has been no disarmament, no reconstruction, and no Israel Defense Forces withdrawal. Similarly, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG)—the 15-member body of Palestinian technocrats designed to govern Gaza on a transitional basis—remains in Cairo, not Gaza. So long as it is not in Gaza, it cannot begin to demonstrate that there is an alternative to Hamas rule. (The initial tranche of Palestinian police who are to provide security for the NCAG also remains in Cairo.) Moreover, the International Stabilization Force (ISF), which is to back up the Palestinian police, monitor Hamas’s disarming, and oversee the borders to prevent smuggling, is only now organizing and will not deploy to Gaza until the NCAG and the Palestinian police are entering the strip.

After long months of talks and prodding, Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative, working with Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, reached agreement with Hamas on a 15-point road map to