Trump’s Gaza “Peace Plan” Was Never About Peace – It Was About Profit
When Donald Trump announced what he triumphantly called a “historic breakthrough” in Gaza — a ceasefire agreement and a promise to “rebuild” the war-torn enclave — the spectacle looked less like diplomacy and more like a business launch. At its centre stood Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and informal envoy to the Middle East, a man whose business empire and diplomatic ventures have long blurred into one another.
A Diplomat in Name, a Developer in Practice
With no official government role, Kushner nonetheless took centre stage in Tel Aviv’s ‘hostages square’, addressing a jubilant crowd celebrating the ceasefire. Dressed in a black T-shirt, he spoke movingly about peace, compassion, and rebuilding Gaza. But behind the emotive rhetoric, the outlines of a far more transactional plan were emerging — one in which Gaza’s future would be shaped not by humanitarian need, but by financial opportunity.
Kushner, who runs Affinity Partners, a $3bn investment fund heavily financed by Saudi and Qatari sovereign wealth funds, now finds himself at the nexus of politics and profit. His quiet influence within the Trump administration has been described by analysts as “open corruption”, where diplomatic decisions appear to dovetail neatly with private financial interests.
“Part of what’s bizarre,” said Matt Duss, vice-president at the Centre for International Policy, “is that the Trump organisation is so deeply leveraged in the Middle East that their corruption could actually sustain the ceasefire. Because they all stand to make so much money, there’s an incentive to stop the war — but for profit, not peace.”
Gaza’s Oil and the Myth of “Redevelopment”
Beneath the language of reconstruction lies a more lucrative layer: natural gas and oil reserves off Gaza’s coast, long coveted but largely inaccessible due to political instability. Trump’s so-called “Gaza redevelopment plan” reportedly includes exploration rights and energy deals that could open these reserves to Western and Gulf investors under a “joint governance” framework.
The plan’s environmental and ethical implications are staggering. Gaza’s reconstruction, presented as a humanitarian project, could in fact become the staging ground for a new form of resource extraction — cloaked in the language of aid.
A leaked outline of the Trump–Kushner proposal reportedly includes “energy corridor development” and “coastal infrastructure expansion” — code for a canal project through Gaza to rival Egypt’s Suez Canal. The scheme, touted as a shortcut connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, would dramatically alter regional trade dynamics, placing Trump-linked developers and Gulf investors at the heart of a multibillion-dollar enterprise.
Critics have called the plan a “fantasy of imperial capitalism”, one that treats Gaza not as a home for millions of displaced Palestinians but as “prime waterfront real estate”.
The “Deal Guys” and Their Vision
Kushner and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff — both New York real-estate magnates — boast of being “deal guys”, not diplomats. “It’s just a different sport,” Kushner said in an interview, dismissing career diplomats and historians as irrelevant.
That difference in approach is precisely what alarms many observers. Trump and Kushner view the Middle East less as a geopolitical landscape than as a development opportunity. Their plans for Gaza echo Trump’s broader pattern: turn crisis zones into profit zones, privatise reconstruction, and reward investors under the banner of peace.
Corruption by Design
The conflict of interest is glaring. While serving as Trump’s emissary, Kushner continues to manage billions in foreign investment — including from states directly involved in the Gaza negotiations. Trump’s allies insist there’s nothing improper in this arrangement. “Jared is donating his time and energy to secure world peace,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claimed. But few are convinced.
For many in Washington, Kushner’s dual role embodies the fusion of public office and private gain that defined Trump’s first presidency — and now his second. “They’ve essentially turned foreign policy into a commercial enterprise,” said one former diplomat. “The peace process is the business model.”
A Canal Through Gaza: The New Suez?
The most audacious element of the proposal — a Trump-backed canal through Gaza — is reportedly intended to bypass Egypt’s Suez Canal, offering a faster maritime route from Asia to Europe. For Trump, it would be a geopolitical coup and a business windfall, shifting global shipping routes under the influence of his allies.
Environmental experts warn that such a project would devastate Gaza’s already fragile ecosystem, displace tens of thousands, and militarise the region under the guise of “infrastructure security”.
From Empire to Enclave
Kushner’s rhetoric of compassion masks a cold calculus. His 2024 remarks at Harvard revealed his true vision: Gaza as “a beachfront opportunity”. The Palestinians, in this view, are simply in the way of development — a population to be moved or managed, not empowered.
Tony Blair’s involvement in postwar “governance planning” only deepened fears that Gaza’s reconstruction will echo the neoliberal experiments of Iraq and Libya, where private contractors and investors profited while local communities were left in ruin.
As one diplomat put it, “They call it rebuilding. But rebuilding for whom?”
The Price of “Peace”
Trump’s Gaza deal, hailed by his supporters as a triumph of pragmatism, is in reality a triumph of capitalist opportunism. The supposed peace is transactional, conditional, and self-serving — designed to open Gaza’s land, sea, and oil fields to global markets under the control of the Trump–Kushner network.
In this vision, Gaza’s suffering is not a tragedy to be healed, but a blank slate to be monetised. And for all the talk of peace, the only true beneficiaries of Trump’s Gaza plan may be those with the capital — and connections — to cash in on the chaos.
