The New Balfour: How Trump's 20-Point 'Peace' Plan Embodies Modern Imperialism

In recent days, we have witnessed the introduction of Trump's 20-article peace plan for the Gaza war in the media. The U.S. government introduces this plan as the final effort for peace and stopping the war in Gaza, while Arab heads of state view it with suspicion and doubt. According to some media reports, even before its unveiling, this peace plan was accompanied by modifications by Arab countries. In the following, we will examine the nature of the U.S. government's 20-article peace plan to stop the war in Gaza.


Eliminating Palestinians from the Decision-Making Process:

This plan has been presented without the presence and participation of Palestinians, reminiscent of imperialist tactics like the Balfour Declaration. The absence of the Palestinian side from participating in this plan stems from the politicized view of its designers. The Western axis, led by the United States, is still operating within the framework of dictating power to the world's countries. The fact that the ambitions of these governments are designed in the capitals of Western countries and sent to West Asian actors as an executable peace roadmap is the very essence of imperialist actions in today's modern world.


Imposing Surrender on the Palestinian Resistance:

According to the plan, Hamas must hand over its weapons, step aside from administering Gaza, and in return, the security of Palestinians will be entrusted to Israel; this means depriving them of the right to legitimate self-defense. In the aforementioned plan, the strategic assets of the resistance, such as tunnels, weapons, and other tools of power, must be handed over, which signifies 100% surrender. Countries that claim to believe in democracy do not even tolerate the peaceful presence of resistance groups in Gaza's administrative structure.


Establishing Permanent Foreign Oversight:

The transitional government of Gaza will not be formed based on democratic elections, but rather under the management of a non-political technical committee with international supervision (Trump and Tony Blair), which signifies the continuation of external domination. The plan for administering Gaza by foreigners was once implemented in Iraq and had disastrous results. The insistence of the peace plan's designers on administering Gaza through a non-native technical committee is designed to perpetuate the overt interference of Western countries in the Gaza Strip. With the implementation of this plan, Gaza will effectively be placed entirely at the disposal of the Zionist side.


Ambiguity and Preconditions for Establishing a Palestinian State:

The realization of an independent Palestinian state is only possible after implementing reforms desired by the Zionist regime and based on criteria set by Netanyahu, without guarantees for borders or real independence. The implementation of clauses related to the future of Gaza lacks specific executive features and may never be operationalized due to Zionist interpretations. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he does not believe in a two-state solution for Palestine. In this plan, there are ambiguous and interpretable clauses regarding the future of Palestinians in Gaza, while the clauses related to the demands of the Zionists from the resistance have clear executive and operational characteristics and are explicit and non-interpretable. The Trump-Netanyahu peace plan, with the mentioned points, is designed one-sidedly in favor of the Zionists.

Ignoring Historical Justice:

This plan imposes a halt to Palestine's legal pursuits at the International Criminal Court and effectively sidelines the issue of the West Bank. By accepting this plan, Palestinian institutions will officially hand over all their power to the Gaza Administrative Council, and the Palestinian side will lose the ability to pursue the rights of the Palestinian people for an indefinite period. The issue of the West Bank has also been left without any specific mention, which means a free hand for Netanyahu in the West Asia region.

In summary, it must be said that the Trump administration's plan to create peace through power means eliminating Palestinians from governing their own country. The Netanyahu government, which has not achieved any particular success in the war against the people of Gaza, also desires an end to the war because the pressure from Jewish settlers in the occupied territories to end the war has put significant pressure on his government. Trump, who has been in power in the United States for nearly a year, also wants to make a display of establishing peace in Palestine. However, according to many analysts, the U.S. 20-article peace plan signifies the flow of historical Western imperialist rules into today's modern era and clearly and explicitly evokes the historical-colonial processes of Western countries for modern colonialism towards other countries of the world. It remains to be seen whether the aforementioned peace plan will be implemented or if regional countries and the Palestinian resistance will oppose this plan.

Translated by Ashraf Hemmati from the original Persian article written by Amirali Yeganeh

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/29/heres-the-full-text-of-trumps-20-point-plan-to-end-israels-war-on-gaza
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/02/hamas-likely-to-accept-trump-peace-plan-with-key-revisions-experts-say
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/10/1/trumps-gaza-board-of-peace-promises-tony-blair-yet-another-payday