Column: New Jewish Narrative
May 4, 2026
Q. Changing, in the sense of “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” (the more it changes, the more it stays the same)?
A. This is certainly true of the Gaza Strip. Fully half a year after the relevant parties signed President Trump’s Twenty Points and launched a peace and rehabilitation process (and Trump took empty credit for ending yet another conflict), almost nothing has happened. The parties convened a couple of weeks ago in Cairo and took note of the depressing reality: Hamas has not been disarmed, there is no ‘technocrat government’ in place, the funding and troops for an international stabilization force are not yet fully committed, sporadic clashes have claimed another 800 or so Palestinian lives, and two million Gazans are now crammed into 47 percent of the Strip.
Nikolai Mladenov, the Bulgarian UN veteran who is responsible for the Strip on behalf of Trump’s Council of Peace, marked the six-month anniversary very pessimistically and critically toward Israel: “Trump’s plan has reached a sensitive historic crossroads. The end of the war has not brought the change the residents of Gaza had hoped for. The ongoing strikes and humanitarian shortages reflect a wide gap between the political understandings that were reached and the reality on the ground. Israel’s control over half the territory, alongside the destruction of infrastructure, constitute a major obstacle to implementing the plan.”
Behind it all is the Iran-Hezbollah war, which seems to have put a freeze on everything. Both the Netanyahu government and Hamas appear to have signed on to the Twenty Points with little intention of full implementation. Netanyahu’s messianic cabinet allies covet the 53 percent of the Strip east of the Yellow Line that Israel still holds. Hamas, backed by Turkey and Qatar with their Islamist leanings, has no intention of giving up either its weapons or its de facto control over the Gaza population.
And thus far neither Trump nor Mladenov nor any of the many dignitaries (remember Tony Blair?) who gave their blessing to the twenty-point document are doing anything about it.
Yossi Alpher's Death Tango: Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat and Three Fateful Days in March
"Anyone seeking to understand how Israelis and Palestinians traded the hopes of Oslo for something approaching hopelessness is well-advised to read this book. With penetrating analysis and elegant prose, Yossi Alpher has told the gripping story of three days nearly two decades ago that continue to haunt would-be peacemakers. Yossi’s faithful readers will not be disappointed with his latest effort."
Ambassador Frederic C. Hof, Bard College
"A riveting account of the crucial days in March 2002 when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was profoundly changed for the worse. The peace camp has never recovered from those wrenching days, and we live now without any hope of a just settlement. Alpher is a highly respected expert who has spent decades studying this conflict from both sides."
Bruce Riedel, Director of the Brookings Intelligence Project
"A critical assessment of a key period in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict never before presented in such detail. The best and most capable players at the executive and political levels proved unable to forge any resolution, final or partial, because both parties continued to maintain an insurmountable gulf between themselves. This is a MUST read for anyone daring to tackle the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of Israel-Arab relations in general."
Efraim Halevy, former Head of the Mossad (1998-2002)
Oraib Khader and Avi Bar-On are youngish Palestinian and Israeli bachelors with security experience, readiness to do business with one another, a shared fondness for women and money, and total cynicism about the lack of peace between their two peoples.
Oraib and Avi can never become true friends: the cultural and political gaps are too wide. But as they confront a failed peace process and a bleak peace future, they readily become business partners: shady business that exploits a lot of naïve international peace aspirations.
As Oraib sums up on a visit to Sarpsborg, Norway, where the ultimately-failed Oslo peace talks were held, “There is a lesson here for those who still doggedly and hopelessly pursue a two-state solution in the Middle East. Get smart. Get out of the Israeli-Palestinian peace business. Step back and let the Jews and Arabs screw one another while making money.”