In the past year, President Trump have often threatened or turned to military force. Yet he likes to present himself as a peacemaker, and that includes his new plan for a global Board of Peace.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In the past year, President Trump has often threatened or used military force abroad. Yet he also likes to present himself as the world’s leading peacemaker, and that includes his new plan for a Global Board of Peace. We’re going to talk through this apparent contradiction with two NPR correspondents. Daniel Estrin is in Tel Aviv. Hey, Daniel.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Hey. And Greg Myre is in Washington. Howdy, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Greg, you kick us off. Explain what we know – where things stand with Trump’s Board of Peace.
MYRE: So Trump presented this at a ceremony last Thursday in Davos, Switzerland. He invited around 50 countries or so. Twenty or thereabouts have agreed to join. Entry is not cheap. If you want a permanent membership, you’re being asked for a billion-dollar contribution. Here’s Trump speaking at the event.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do, and we’ll do it in conjunction with the United Nations. You know, I’ve always said the United Nations has got tremendous potential, has not used it.
MYRE: So Trump says he’ll work with the U.N., but the concern among many is that he’s looking either to rival or simply replace the U.N. He’s been a longtime critic of big, bureaucratic global institutions like the U.N., and he may want an alternative where he’d be at the center and have control. Lots of details are still fuzzy, but it seems Trump would have power indefinitely, and he may be thinking of how he can still play a prominent role in global affairs after his presidency is over.
KELLY: Right, because worth stressing that the way this is set up, it’s not the U.S. president who is running the board. It is Donald Trump personally. Who are the other members who have signed on?
MYRE: Yeah, the leaders who appeared with Trump last week include several autocrats whose countries lack democratic credentials and are accused of human rights abuses. We’re talking about Belarus, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Egypt. And they were happy to join. It seems this would give them a channel, or another channel, to Trump. But in contrast, many traditional U.S. allies in Europe and elsewhere have sounded deeply skeptical or just flat out refused to join. Two key countries, Russia and China, have been invited, but they haven’t decided whether they’ll take part.
The U.N. isn’t saying much so far, just noting that it works with many international organizations. But, again, we’re hearing from a lot of critics who see this as an extension of Trump’s effort to tear down the existing world order and remake it in his own image. Some are describing it as a vanity project for Trump and foreign leaders he likes – almost like a country club, a global Mar-a-Lago, with Trump at the head of the dinner table.
KELLY: Daniel Estrin, jump in with the view from the Middle East. How does this Board of Peace fit in? Does this Board of Peace fit with existing efforts to resolve the Israel-Hamas conflict?
ESTRIN: Well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually joined the Board of Peace. Trump invited him. He was hesitant at first because of Turkey and Qatar’s participation. They are seen in Israel as longtime backers of Hamas. But actually, Mary Louise, the Board of Peace was created and endorsed by the United Nations Security Council for one reason and one reason only, and it was to oversee Gaza reconstruction. So that is going to be the main test of this Board of Peace, and it’s part of a bigger structure. It’s going to be overseeing several other committees, but the whole goal is to take control from Hamas and to start rebuilding everything in Gaza, from education to policing to infrastructure.
And really the bigger dynamic at play here is that the White House wants to move forward with the Gaza ceasefire, and Israel has been very leery for a long time. That changed today. There was a huge development. Israel recovered the body of the last hostage taken in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The White House and Israel are both welcoming this as a huge sea change and the opening of a new chapter in the ceasefire.
KELLY: Daniel, just circling back to Gaza reconstruction, another development – Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, just introduced his vision for turning Gaza into something that appears to look like a glitzy beachfront enclave. Realistic?
ESTRIN: Yeah, that is the question. Last week, Jared Kushner presented a slideshow. There were illustrations of dazzling skyscrapers on the shores of Gaza, and there was a blueprint he presented that promised to even build an airport in Gaza. And Kushner is calling it New Gaza. We have asked Palestinians in Gaza what they make of all this, and we hear a lot of skepticism. For example, Kushner’s plan proposes only about a sixth of the housing units that Gaza used to have before the war. So Palestinians are saying, where are the rest of us going to be living? They don’t see themselves reflected in what they see as a real estate project.
It’s going to need a lot of funding. Kushner is promising a donor conference in Washington soon. It’s fundamentally going to be needing security because if you want to go in and clear rubble or begin building, you need security. So Kushner is calling for a phased demilitarization of Hamas. People involved in that issue are telling us that it’s still being negotiated. Nothing has been agreed upon yet.
Kushner is also calling for more aid and more temporary housing in Gaza in the next 100 days. But Prime Minister Netanyahu said today there will be no rebuilding of Gaza until Hamas is disarmed. So we’re going to be seeing that tug-of-war continue between the U.S. and Israel over really how to proceed in Gaza.
KELLY: Well, and staying with what is realistic or not in Gaza, I’m thinking back to the ceasefire, the big announcement in October. President Trump billed it as this huge breakthrough. Where does it stand?
ESTRIN: Well, despite the ceasefire that was declared, fire has not ceased, Mary Louise. There have been lethal Israeli attacks on basically a daily basis. And now that that last hostage body was recovered today from Israel – to Israel, Israel’s now willing to allow a new step – to open Gaza’s main border crossing with Egypt.
KELLY: Greg, last word to you. The U.S., in another development, is moving military assets to the Middle East for a possible strike against Iran. In about 30 seconds, what’s the latest there?
MYRE: Yeah, the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Lincoln has sailed into the Indian Ocean south of Iran, and it’s in a position where it could strike. And the U.S. has moved other ships and aircraft into the region. And Trump has been intentionally vague about military action. This is the real Trump contradiction. He’s bombed seven countries in the past year, but he’s also had some diplomatic successes, and now he’s pushing his Board of Peace to take a prominent role in other conflicts.
KELLY: NPR’s Greg Myre in Washington and Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, thanks to you both.
MYRE: Sure thing, Mary Louise.
ESTRIN: You’re welcome.
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