Trump’s Gaza Plan — The Only Game in Town
Hillary Clinton is probably not the person most people expected to make one of the strongest arguments for Donald Trump’s Gaza policy.
Speaking with The New Yorker’s David Remnick at New York’s 92NY in June, the former secretary of state said Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan was “a pathway to security for Israel, reconstruction for Gaza, and the possibility of self-determination” for Palestinians. Then she delivered the line that deserves considerably more attention: “It’s the only game in town. There’s nothing else.”
Clinton was not endorsing Trump. She was making an analytical observation. And that observation has become more compelling with time. Trump’s 20-point proposal is no longer simply a Trump proposal. On November 17, 2025, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2803, endorsing the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict and authorizing the institutional mechanisms designed to implement it. The vote was 13-0, with Russia and China abstaining. In other words, the United Nations did not produce a competing Gaza plan. It effectively took Trump’s plan and gave it an international mandate. That distinction is now central to understanding where Gaza stands.
From Trump’s Plan to a UN Mandate
Resolution 2803 incorporates the Trump plan as its framework. It welcomes the establishment of the Board of Peace and authorizes an International Stabilization Force for Gaza. It provides for transitional governance, reconstruction, security, demilitarization and, ultimately, the return of Palestinian governance under specified conditions. The resolution is therefore much more than another Security Council call for a ceasefire. It is an attempt to answer the question that has defeated every previous Gaza initiative:
What happens the day after the war?
The answer is remarkably comprehensive. Gaza is to become a demilitarized and terror-free territory. Hamas is to be disarmed. An international stabilization force is to help provide security. A technocratic Palestinian administration is to oversee Gaza’s transition. Reconstruction is to proceed. The Palestinian Authority is expected to undertake reforms. And after those conditions are met, the plan contemplates a credible pathway toward Palestinian self-determination and statehood. That last element is particularly important because it is now becoming the central point of Israeli resistance.
Point 19 of the plan says that once Gaza’s redevelopment has advanced and the Palestinian Authority’s reform program has been faithfully carried out, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” Point 20 then calls for a U.S.-established dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to establish a political horizon for peaceful coexistence. Those provisions were not added by critics of Israel. They are part of the plan that became Resolution 2803.
A Remarkable International........
