Who Should NOT Play a Role in Post-War Gaza: The Foxes in Charge of the Chicken Coop?
by Khaled Abu Toameh • October 9, 2025 at 5:00 am
Qatar's rulers appear to see their mission -- with the aid of their Al Jazeera television empire, as well as big cheques -- as spreading radical Sunni Islam throughout the region and the world. Qatar has been Hamas's leading patron since 2007.
Trump seems to be looking toward Qatar as one of the main funders that will rebuild Gaza. If Qatar's ruling family accepts this role, they will doubtless expect a role just as important in governing it, which could well include appointing who else might share that privilege. Candidates include the Palestinian Authority, the 2,000 returning terrorists, and, if not precisely Qatar's longtime client, Hamas, then "Son of Hamas," or "Hamas 2.0," or "Hamas the Sequel." One could call the enclave the "Democratic Republic of Gaza," but it would still be home to genocidal terrorist groups...
How serious is Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas when he says that the Iran-backed Hamas terror group "will have no role in governance" of the Gaza Strip and it must hand over its weapons to the PA? Not even slightly.
Put bluntly, Abbas is not interested in returning to the negotiating table: he has been waiting for the UN and other international parties to impose a solution on Israel, just as French President Emmanuel Macron so helpfully offered to do just last month. The recent one-sided recognitions of a "Palestinian state" by France, Britain, Canada, Australia and other countries only reinforced Abbas's determination not to resume any peace process with Israel. After all, why should he negotiate with anyone when the West is handing him a state on a silver platter without even a single condition attached?
Trump's peace plan is peachy as long as Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Tony Blair are there to make sure everything stays in place. What, however, happens if and when they are not there anymore? A Middle East saying goes, "You have the watches, but we have the time."
Abbas, and whoever succeeds him, will always prefer peace with Hamas over peace with Israel. He knows that Hamas continues to enjoy widespread support among Palestinians, most of whom, according to public opinion polls, are passionately opposed to disarming the terror group.
Those who state that Hamas should not be permitted to play any role in governing Gaza after the war ends should also demand the exclusion of the PA and Qatar from such a process. Allowing either Qatar or Abbas's PA into the Gaza Strip will only pave the way for a new Hamas to enter through the back door.
How serious is US President Donald J. Trump about his peace plan? While everyone is eager to celebrate the successful completion of Phase One, with the return of the Israeli hostages in exchange for 2,000 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, the rest remains to be seen.
The Trump Peace Plan began as an ultimatum: If Hamas would not release all the hostages within 72 hours, Israel would have the blessing of the US to "finish the job" full blast.
It is admirable that Trump wants peace and that, in his first term, he astonishingly produced the Abraham Accords. Now, he has brilliantly secured an agreement for release of all the hostages by October 13. If, however, the negotiations continue to go in the direction they seem to be going in, peace is the last thing Trump will achieve.
