No, it’s not serious. The first meeting of the Board of Peace, the organization created by Donald Trump to rebuild Gaza, guarantee a future of peace between Israelis and Palestinians and, in a broader sense, in the global world, it leaves open, indeed, it reinforces all the doubts about the usefulness and effectiveness of such an initiative.
As he summarized the New York Timesseveral things leave us perplexed: the location of the meeting (the headquarters of a non-profit organization for conflict resolution named after Donald Trump since December); the timing (Trump is meeting the Peace Council in the same hours in which he is moving ships and warplanes to the Gulf, in view of a possible attack on Iran) and finally the very nature of the initiative, which increasingly appears as a manifestation of Trump’s world order.
The American leader’s speech was a concentration of banalities, banter and jokes, aimed above all at pleasing his audience.
Trump reiterated his support for Hungarian Prime Minister Orban (“He’s doing an incredible job”) ahead of April’s parliamentary elections. He praised the Indonesian president because 240 million people live in his country. He welcomed the presence of “some very rich people”. He praised Romanians (“Romanian people are amazing, amazing people”). He addressed the president of Paraguay, Santiago Pena, with this embarrassing aside: “He’s young and charming. It’s always nice to be young and charming. But that doesn’t mean we have to like you. I don’t like charming young people. I like women, but not men, I’m not interested in them. Good. That’s right. That’s right. Thank you very much. You’re doing a great job too.”) He praised his real estate friend and chief negotiator Steve Witkoff (“Steve was incredible. Everyone likes him. Ukraine loves him. Europe loves him. Russia loves him.”). He praised his wife Melania (“she’s a great actress, a great movie star. And I always say it’s a problem because there’s no room for two stars in a family. I told her we can’t have two stars in a family. We’re proud of her. People in the United States love the first lady”). Words of praise also for the head of FIFA, the world football federation, Gianni Infantino, who has shamelessly entered Trump’s orbit for some time now, in spite of the neutrality of sport.
Finally a collective hug: “You are my friends. You are amazing, great leaders. You are amazing people. And, um, I can honestly say that you are strong leaders. In many cases you are tough leaders.”
There was no shortage of embarrassing moments, documented by videos and photographs. So we saw the cheerful Infantino wearing the red hat with the writing USA and the Argentine president Milei singing and laughing raucously next to the Hungarian prime minister Orban (the event was accompanied by a soundtrack and Trump entered the room to the tune of the cover of “Gloria”, the song by Umberto Tozzi).
As the Israeli newspaper points out Haaretzyesterday “the members of the Board had perfectly understood the mission of the day: to be present, make promises, praise the American president”. The rest mattered little.
Announcements on concrete initiatives and funding were diluted among the jokes of Trump’s long and rambling speech. “I wish to inform you that the United States will make a contribution of 10 billion dollars to the Peace Council,” announced the president.
“I am pleased to announce that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait have contributed more than $7 billion to the aid package, which is fantastic,” he added.
Of the pledge promised by his friend Infantino, Trump said: “I am also pleased to announce that FIFA will help raise a total of $75 million for projects in Gaza, which I believe are related to soccer, where they build fields and invite the biggest stars in the world, people who are more famous than you and me, Gianni.” Very generic ads, as you can see.
In another passage of his speech, Trump said: “Albania, Kosovo and Kazakhstan have sent troops and police forces to stabilize Gaza. Egypt and Jordan are also providing very substantial help, troops, training and support, to a very reliable Palestinian police force.”
Trump’s words regarding the Board’s relationship with the UN are disturbing. “The Peace Council will be responsible for overseeing the United Nations and making sure that they function properly. But we will strengthen the United Nations. We will make sure that their structures are adequate, they need help and they need help financially.” A mix of vagueness and veiled threats (what does “supervise” mean?).
For Italy (never mentioned by Trump), Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was present in Washington with the role of observer. “It is not a business board”, commented Tajani, “we cannot fail to take into account the importance of proposals that must lead to peace. After all, it is the only real proposal on the table, if there were others we would evaluate them”.
