It is, of course, highly positive that President Trump is concentrating on the so-called “day after” for Gaza, even though that day might be a lot further into the future than many commentators think it is.
Hamas is far from beaten, with substantial resources in Gaza City.
The world, on the whole, wants a ceasefire now, and does not care if Hamas’s forces are left intact. Indeed, some world leaders positively want Hamas to survive as a means to attack Israel in the future. Israel, for its part, has no intention of stopping the war until Hamas is totally defeated.
Nor do the large-scale rallies in Israel do anything to hasten matters. They call for a hostage deal. What hostage deal?
Perhaps Hamas might agree to release a few hostages in exchange for a long ceasefire and hundreds of terrorists released from Israeli prisons, so that they can rebuild their forces again, but there is no chance that they will release all of the hostages, not for any realistic price, as if they did, they would have no more bargaining ability.
Why on earth should we take advice from Tony Blair on a post-war Gaza? The irony is Shakespearian - Gary Mond
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So President Trump’s initiative has to be based on the assumption that Israel will succeed in wiping out Hamas, otherwise, the “day after” will never be reached.
This brings us to ideas and the personalities involved. Standing out like a sore thumb is the familiar face of Sir Tony Blair.
At this point, a well-known saying comes to mind. Those who fail to learn the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat the same mistakes.
Sir Tony has been working on “Middle East peace” for decades, including an eight-year stint as Middle East envoy from 2007 -15, and has achieved precisely nothing.
He is an advocate of the much-derided two-state solution and, unlike President Trump, is unwilling to think outside the box for solutions to the impasse.
The two-state solution is like a religion for Sir Tony and many who think like him. The fact that it is impossible to achieve without placing the state of Israel in existential danger is, for him, a minor technical point. So why is he involved?
President Trump at least has some humanitarian concerns. He is examining the possibilities of a major flood of aid to swamp Gaza as soon as possible, and a rebuilding project to take place.
Of course, the latter will take years. Furthermore, for it even to begin, all terrorist militant forces in Gaza must be eradicated, as otherwise, whatever building work is completed will simply be destroyed again by Israel.
With this in mind, the idea of relocating the bulk of the Gazan population to other countries has to at least be considered, especially as much of Gaza is now uninhabitable and will remain so for many years. Will such a radical solution be something that Sir Tony might wish to help with? I very much doubt it.
His years as a Middle East envoy coincided with the years that Hamas developed as a fighting force, training children to hate and murder Jews. He is hardly the right person for any such discussion about projects that might save Gaza.