STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump's Board of Peace turns out to be more expansive and expensive than advertised.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Board of Peace was advertised as a way to help Gaza reconstruction. Trump would be the chairman, with representatives from other nations. We say it's more expansive because a copy of its charter obtained by NPR shows the board asserting power far beyond Gaza. It's more expensive because other nations are asked to pay for the privilege of permanent representation.
INSKEEP: NPR's Daniel Estrin has been reading the charter. He's in Tel Aviv. Hi there, Daniel.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: What's the document say?
ESTRIN: Well, first of all, the word Gaza is not mentioned once in this charter, even though the Board of Peace was created for the purpose of Gaza reconstruction. And instead, the language in this charter makes it seem that Trump is really trying to create a kind of rival U.N. Security Council to handle all kinds of world conflicts beyond Gaza. The language of this charter says there's a need for a more effective international peace-building body. So it sounds like a dig at the U.N. there.
It lists Trump as chairman in a permanent capacity, so potentially for life. He alone would get to designate his successor. And countries that would want to be a permanent member of the Board of Peace would need to pay at least $1 billion - billion with a B. So there's a lot of criticism among analysts saying Trump is really trying to undermine the U.N. here and even make world diplomacy transactional.
INSKEEP: Yeah, and the charter does not say the president of the United States is the chairman. It says Donald J. Trump would be...
ESTRIN: Right.
INSKEEP: ...The chairman. But with that said, where does Gaza come in at all here then?
ESTRIN: Well, Gaza would be the first test case of this Board of Peace. But if successful, Trump could apply the Board of Peace to other conflict zones around the world. One of the people involved in Trump's leadership committee in thinking through all of this is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He used to be involved in a group, called the Quartet, of peacemakers for the Middle East.
And I asked his former head of mission in the Middle East, Rob Danin, what he thought about all this. And he says that his impression is that Gaza is going to be put, basically, under a U.S.-led trusteeship, which is something completely new for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You know, Gaza has been, in the past, under Israeli occupation. It's been led by the Palestinian Authority. It's been under the control of the militant group Hamas. And now, after the war, the plan here is to put it under international leadership.
INSKEEP: OK. What do Israelis think now that this charter has become public?
ESTRIN: Well, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited to be on the Board of Peace. But under the Board of Peace is a leadership group that's going to be overseeing a day-to-day technocrat committee in Gaza, and Israel is actually objecting to Trump appointing the representatives of Turkey and Qatar to be part of that leadership group. Israel sees Turkey and Qatar as the primary backers of Hamas. So this is actually rare public disagreement by Israel to a part of Trump's peace plan.
INSKEEP: OK. Could Israel stop it if it doesn't like it?
ESTRIN: Well, not really. I mean, Qatar and Turkey are close allies of Trump. But Israeli leaders are skeptical of Trump's bigger plan for Gaza. They don't think that any international player can really get Hamas to disarm. And that's their key goal. So it's going to be a major test of Trump's ability to really push through his completely new approach in Gaza.
INSKEEP: NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thanks for your reporting.
ESTRIN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
