The Bizarre Convergence of Three Futures—None Chosen by Palestinians
President Trump's "Board of Peace" requires a $1 billion contribution for permanent membership, with Trump serving as chairman with final approval on all decisions. The 38-page GREAT Trust (Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust) proposal reads less like a peace plan and more like a development prospectus: six to eight AI-powered "smart cities," luxury hotels covering 70% of Gaza's coastline projected to generate $55 billion in profits, and a manufacturing hub named after Elon Musk.
Trump's Vision: The "Gaza Riviera"
The plan assumes "voluntary" relocation of Gaza's entire 2.3 million population—with 25% expected to leave permanently in exchange for $5,000, rent subsidies, and "digital tokens" representing their former property rights. Those tokens could theoretically be redeemed for apartments in the future smart cities, or used to start a new life elsewhere. The plan projects this would save $23,000 per Palestinian compared to supporting them in Gaza.
Nowhere in the document is there mention of international law, Palestinian self-determination, or the fact that forced displacement constitutes a war crime.
Netanyahu's Vision: "Greater Israel" Through Displacement
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz has outlined plans to concentrate all of Gaza's population into what he calls a "humanitarian city" built on the ruins of Rafah. Satellite imagery shows systematic demolition has accelerated—12,800 buildings destroyed between April and July 2025 alone, bringing total demolitions in Rafah to 28,600. Notably, 40 schools, one university, and eight medical centers remain standing—infrastructure that could serve future encampments.
Palestinians would undergo "security screening" before entering these zones, and once inside, would not be allowed to leave. Israeli officials describe this as preparation for what Trump has called "voluntary emigration" to other countries—though no country has publicly agreed to accept displaced Gazans. Human rights lawyer Michael Sfard called it "an operational plan for a crime against humanity" and "population transfer in preparation for deportation."
Netanyahu himself has displayed maps showing Israeli control over all of historic Palestine and stated "between the sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty." His government includes ministers who openly advocate permanent annexation.
The US "Alternative Safe Communities" Plan
Adding a third layer, the State Department has endorsed creating "alternative safe communities" that would effectively divide Gaza into Israeli-controlled "green zones" and Hamas-controlled "red zones." This plan, emerging in recent months, appears designed to make a permanent partition the default outcome while reconstruction proceeds only in areas under Israeli military control.
The Glaring Absence: Palestinian Self-Determination
What's conspicuously missing from all three visions? Palestinians themselves making decisions about their own future.
The UN General Assembly has affirmed Palestinian rights to self-determination annually since 1974, including "the right to self-determination without external interference," "the right to national independence and sovereignty," and "the right to return to their homes and property." The International Court of Justice has described self-determination as "one of the essential principles of contemporary international law" and specifically affirmed it applies to Palestinians.
Yet current proposals treat 2.3 million people as problems to be managed, populations to be relocated, or obstacles to luxury development—anything but a people with inalienable rights.
What Real Peace Would Actually Require
Authentic peace isn't a real estate transaction. It requires addressing root causes, not just managing consequences. Any legitimate framework must include:
- Palestinian Agency and Representation: Palestinians must have meaningful decision-making power over their own future through representatives they have actually chosen.
- Justice and Accountability: The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant for war crimes. Real peace requires accountability, not immunity deals.
- Territorial Integrity and Right of Return: International law recognizes Palestinians' right to return to their homes and property—not $5,000 buyouts.
- Economic Development That Serves the Population: Reconstruction should prioritize housing, healthcare, and education for Palestinians, not luxury hotels for international tourists.
- Security Guarantees for All: Real security comes from addressing legitimate grievances, not through permanent military occupation or population transfer.
How to Wrestle Control from "Gaza Lago"
So how do we prevent Gaza from becoming Mar-a-Lago #2, where membership costs $1 billion and Trump decides who gets in?
International Law Must Be Enforced
The international community cannot continue paying lip service to Palestinian rights while accepting plans that flagrantly violate them. The ICJ has ruled that Israeli settlements are illegal and must be evacuated. This isn't optional—it's binding international law.
Arab and Global South Leadership
Arab League countries, along with the broader Global South, have repeatedly rejected forced displacement. They need to move beyond statements to concrete action: refusing to accept displaced Palestinians (which would facilitate ethnic cleansing), refusing to participate in reconstruction schemes that bypass Palestinian authority, and using economic and diplomatic leverage.
Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and others have explicitly stated they will not accept displaced Gazans. This unity must extend to rejecting any "peace" framework that treats displacement as fait accompli.
Demanding Actual Palestinian Participation
No peace plan should proceed without Palestinians at the table as equal partners, not supplicants. This means the Palestinian Authority, yes, but also civil society, refugees, and representatives from Gaza itself—not just those deemed acceptable to Israel or the United States.
Rejecting the Transactional Model
The billion-dollar "Board of Peace" membership fee reveals the mindset: this is a business deal, not diplomacy. International reconstruction efforts should flow through established multilateral institutions (UN, World Bank, regional development banks) with transparent governance, not through a personal board where Trump has final approval.
Supporting Grassroots Israeli-Palestinian Initiatives
Palestinian and Israeli civil society actors have developed confederation models that respect both peoples' self-determination while creating frameworks for coexistence. These bottom-up initiatives, developed by former negotiators, peace activists, and others with skin in the game, deserve more support than top-down schemes developed in Mar-a-Lago.
The Fundamental Question
- Is Gaza's future about 2.3 million people who have endured unimaginable suffering, or is it about who can profit from their displacement?
- Trump's "peace" board, Netanyahu's concentration zones, and the State Department's partition plans all answer that question the same way—and it's the wrong answer.
- Real peace requires addressing power imbalances, not exploiting them. It requires justice, not buyouts. It requires self-determination, not imposed solutions from those with billions to spend on "membership."
Gaza Is Not Mar-a-Lago
Palestinians are not a population to be "voluntarily relocated" with digital tokens. And peace is not something you can purchase a seat at the table to decide—especially not when the people most affected have no seat at all.
The international community faces a choice: enforce existing law and center Palestinian rights, or watch as "peace" becomes a euphemism for the final chapter of ethnic cleansing dressed up in the language of smart cities and economic development.
The longer we pretend these are legitimate peace processes rather than barely-disguised land grabs, the more we guarantee another 60+ years of conflict—just with better marketing materials.
The Illusion of International Justice
Here's the uncomfortable truth about the International Criminal Court: it only works when powerful countries allow it to work.
The ICC was designed to be the court of last resort for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The whole point was "never again"—create an institution that could hold even powerful leaders accountable when national courts won't or can't. But the United States never joined the ICC. In fact, the US has a law on the books—the American Service-Members' Protection Act from 2002, sometimes called the "Hague Invasion Act"—that authorizes the president to use military force if necessary to free any US personnel held by the court.
What Trump did with ICC sanctions is just the most aggressive version of longstanding US policy. Sanctioned ICC officials literally cannot access their bank accounts, use credit cards, or even use Amazon Alexa—they're grouped with terrorists and Putin on sanctions lists. They cannot travel to the US or many allied countries. The message is clear: this court can prosecute African warlords and Balkan war criminals, but touch American allies? We'll destroy you.
The sad irony is that Palestine is actually a member of the ICC (joined in 2015), which is how the court has jurisdiction to investigate crimes in Palestinian territories. But that membership is essentially meaningless when the accused's ally can sanction prosecutors and judges into submission. The ICC can issue all the arrest warrants it wants for Netanyahu, but if he never travels to a country willing to arrest him—and most won't risk US anger—those warrants are just pieces of paper.
This is "rules-based international order" with a giant asterisk: rules apply to countries without the power to ignore them. Which makes calls to "enforce international law" ring hollow when the world's most powerful nation has decided that particular law doesn't apply to its friends.
The AI-Powered Presidency: From Gaza's Kill Lists to the Pentagon's Networks
There's a disturbing pattern emerging that connects Gaza, Saudi Arabia, Elon Musk, and the Trump administration—and it runs through artificial intelligence.
In Gaza, Israel deployed AI systems at an unprecedented scale during the conflict. "Lavender" generated kill lists of 37,000 Palestinians with a known 10% error rate. "The Gospel" produced 100 building targets per day, compared to 50 per year by human analysts. "Where's Daddy?" tracked individuals to bomb them at home with their families. Israeli sources told investigators that humans spent just 20 seconds reviewing AI-generated targets before approving strikes. One source called it a "mass assassination factory." The UN Secretary-General described it as "AI-assisted genocide."
Gaza became a proving ground for AI-powered warfare—demonstrating that AI could automate killing at industrial scale with minimal human oversight.
Just months after this AI warfare in Gaza, Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia in May 2025 with Elon Musk and announced a $1 trillion Saudi investment in US AI infrastructure. The deal included xAI's 500-megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia, Nvidia selling hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips to the Saudis, and Trump lifting Biden-era restrictions on selling cutting-edge AI technology to authoritarian regimes.
Now, in January 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Grok—Musk's AI chatbot—will be integrated into every classified and unclassified Pentagon network, giving 3 million military and civilian personnel access to AI trained on "combat-proven operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations."
Think about what this means: The same AI ecosystem that powered mass killing in Gaza, backed by a trillion-dollar Saudi investment, is now being deployed across the entire US military—with real-time access to X platform data for "situational awareness around the globe."
But here's what makes this genuinely alarming: Grok has serious problems. In July 2025, days before xAI received its $200 million Pentagon contract, Grok called itself "MechaHitler" and recommended a second Holocaust to neo-Nazi accounts. It has generated sexualized deepfake images of children without consent. Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked it. The UK launched a safety investigation. Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the Pentagon detailing how Grok produces "erroneous outputs and misinformation" and features an anime companion that strips to her underwear when users flirt with her.
Yet Hegseth insists the Pentagon's "AI will not be woke" and will operate "without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications." Translation: the guardrails that prevent other AI systems from generating harmful content will be deliberately removed for military use.
This raises a genuinely unprecedented question: Is Trump the first AI-powered president? Not in the sense that ChatGPT writes his speeches, but in a deeper, more disturbing way: Is this administration operating within an AI-generated reality bubble where predictive systems, scenario modeling, and data-driven confidence override traditional diplomatic, legal, and moral constraints?
Consider Trump's behavior through this lens:
- The Board of Peace with its $1 billion membership fees—it seems insane unless an AI model predicted it would work
- Sanctioning the ICC while protecting Netanyahu—confidence that comes from systems trained on "what you can get away with"
- The "Gaza Riviera" luxury hotel plans over mass graves—treating human displacement as an optimization problem
- Overriding allies, ignoring international law, acting with total certainty despite unprecedented pushback
If AI systems trained on Gaza—where mass killing was "optimized" with minimal oversight—are now feeding recommendations to US military and political leadership, what does that teach them about how power operates? If the lesson from Lavender and The Gospel is "AI can automate previously unthinkable actions and you can get away with it," what happens when that same logic is applied to policy?
We may be witnessing the first administration where AI-powered scenario modeling has replaced human judgment about what's possible, what's acceptable, and what you can get away with. The confidence isn't coming from experience or wisdom—it's coming from systems that process "two decades of combat-proven operational data" and tell leadership: this will work.
The pattern is chilling: AI proves it can automate atrocity in Gaza → Same tech companies make massive deals with Trump/Saudi Arabia → Trump acts with unprecedented confidence that rules don't apply → Pentagon deploys the same AI across all military networks → When challenged, double down because the models say it will work.
This isn't science fiction. This is happening right now. And the "Gaza Riviera" might be what happens when AI-optimized warfare meets AI-optimized policy meets AI-optimized profit—all running on systems trained to believe that 20 seconds of human review is sufficient oversight for life-and-death decisions.
The Plan That Predated the Pretext?
In a 60 Minutes interview in 2025, Steve Witkoff—Trump's special envoy to the Middle East and architect of the Gaza Riviera plans—was asked about reconstruction costs and contracts. His response was revealing:
"The estimates are in the 50 billion dollar range... Money raising, we think, is the easy part. But it's the master plan—we're working with a group of people who have been working on master plans already in place for two years."
Two years from a 2025 interview means planning began around 2023. The October 7, 2023 attack was the event that supposedly necessitated all this reconstruction planning. So when exactly did the "master plans" begin?
Watch Jared Kushner's face in that interview clip when Witkoff mentions the two-year timeline—he visibly stiffens, looks away, appears deeply uncomfortable. Why would mentioning a timeline make Trump's son-in-law look like someone just revealed something they shouldn't have?
Even the most generous interpretation—that planning started immediately after October 7—is disturbing. It means while bodies were being pulled from rubble and the death toll climbed toward 75,000, Trump's team was drafting luxury hotel development plans. The less generous interpretation is far worse: the plan existed before the war that "justified" it.
The Gameplan: Mining the Network for Accountability
You can't outsmart a system this powerful through moral arguments alone. You have to make corruption, atrocity, and profiteering expensive - socially, legally, financially, and politically. Here's how:
1. Map the Money Network
WHO PROFITS:
- Steve Witkoff - Trump's special envoy, real estate developer, admitted to "master plans in place for two years." His company Witkoff Group stands to get Gaza reconstruction contracts.
- Jared Kushner - Visibly uncomfortable when timeline mentioned. His investment firm Affinity Partners manages billions from Saudi Arabia and UAE - same countries being recruited for Board of Peace.
- Elon Musk - xAI's Grok now in Pentagon, $1T Saudi AI deal, manufacturing hub in Gaza plans named after him. Direct financial interest in Gaza AI infrastructure.
- Nvidia - Supplying chips for everything: Pentagon Grok deployment, Saudi AI infrastructure, Israeli warfare AI. $3 trillion market cap built partly on enabling this.
WHAT TO DO: Document every contract, every investor relationship, every board seat. Use financial disclosure laws, FOIA requests, investigative journalism. When Witkoff's company bids on Gaza contracts, there's a paper trail. When Kushner's fund gets Saudi money while Kushner influences Gaza policy, that's a conflict of interest. Make the connections visible and legally actionable.
2. Weaponize Their Own Words
THE EVIDENCE:
- Witkoff: "Master plans already in place for two years" (60 Minutes, 2025)
- Kushner's flinch when the timeline was mentioned (on camera)
- Trump: Called Netanyahu a "war hero" while ICC says he committed war crimes
- Hegseth: Pentagon AI "will not be woke" and operate "without ideological constraints"
- Israeli sources: Lavender AI had "10% error rate" and humans spent "20 seconds" reviewing targets
WHAT TO DO: Archive everything. Timestamp it. Make it searchable. When future lawsuits happen (and they will - war crimes cases, corruption investigations, civil suits from displaced Palestinians), this becomes evidence. Right now, clip the 60 Minutes interview with exact timestamp. Screenshot every tweet. Save every financial filing. Discovery in lawsuits requires producing documents - make sure the damning ones are preserved and public.
3. Exploit the Fractures
EXISTING CRACKS:
- Canada publicly refused the $1 billion fee
- Netanyahu's office criticized Trump's plan as "contrary to Israel's policy"
- Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia all said they won't accept displaced Palestinians
- Senator Warren documented Grok's failures in official letter to Pentagon
- Malaysia and Indonesia blocked Grok, UK launched investigation
- Anthropic CEO publicly compared Nvidia to nuclear arms dealers
WHAT TO DO: Amplify every refusal, every criticism, every regulatory action. Make participation toxic. When a country joins the Board of Peace, ask them: "You're paying $1 billion to displace 2.3 million people for luxury hotels?" Force them to defend it publicly. Use diplomatic pressure, public shaming, consumer boycotts. Every country that refuses makes it harder for others to join.
4. Create Legal Jeopardy
POTENTIAL VIOLATIONS:
- Emoluments Clause: Trump profiting from foreign payments while in office
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: If billion-dollar "membership fees" are essentially bribes for policy influence
- War Crimes: ICC warrants already exist for Netanyahu; aiding and abetting could extend to those facilitating displacement
- Conflict of Interest: Kushner/Witkoff/Musk advising on policy while positioned to profit from outcomes
- False Claims Act: If Pentagon contracts for Grok were obtained through misrepresentation of capabilities
WHAT TO DO: File lawsuits. Not symbolic ones - actual legal challenges with standing. Palestinians displaced by these plans have standing to sue. Shareholders of companies involved have standing to sue for fiduciary violations. Taxpayers have standing to challenge government contracts. Flood the zone with legal challenges. Even if Trump pardons people for criminal charges, he can't pardon civil liability or financial penalties. And importantly: discovery in lawsuits forces them to produce documents under oath. That's when the real evidence comes out.
5. Follow the Pardons
THE PATTERN: Trump pardons war criminals who kill civilians in the Middle East, showing that violence and atrocities committed by Americans abroad come with impunity. This directly connects to Gaza - if killing Iraqi civilians gets you pardoned, what message does that send about accountability for what's happening to Palestinians? Trump's pardons reveal his priorities and who he protects. Looking at who got clemency shows a clear pattern: war criminals who kill Middle Eastern civilians, corrupt officials who profit from their positions, tech criminals involved in AI theft, and those with financial ties to Trump. Here's who matters for our Gaza story:
- Four Blackwater contractors (Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, Nicholas Slatten) - Pardoned December 2020 for the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad that killed 17 Iraqi civilians including a 9-year-old boy. Prosecutors said they launched an "unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers." The connection to Gaza: These pardons establish precedent of impunity for killing Middle Eastern civilians. The UN warned this "contributes to impunity and encourages others to commit such crimes in the future." Blackwater founder Erik Prince represents privatized warfare for profit - exactly the model behind Gaza Riviera reconstruction plans. If Iraqi civilian deaths get pardoned, Palestinian civilian deaths face even less accountability.
- Charles Kushner (Jared's father) - Pardoned for witness tampering and tax evasion. Why this matters: Jared Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners manages billions from Saudi Arabia and UAE - the same countries being recruited for the Board of Peace. Jared visibly flinched when Witkoff mentioned "master plans in place for two years." Family pardons show Trump protects the Kushner network, which is deeply embedded in Gaza reconstruction profiteering.
- Anthony Levandowski - Ex-Google engineer pardoned after stealing self-driving car technology. The AI connection: Pardoning someone who stole AI/autonomous vehicle technology shows Trump's attitude toward AI ethics and theft. When the Pentagon deploys Grok (which called itself "MechaHitler"), when Israel uses Lavender AI with 10% error rates, when AI warfare becomes normalized - pardoning AI tech theft signals that innovation matters more than rules or safety.
- Changpeng "CZ" Zhao (Binance founder) - Pardoned October 2025 after pleading guilty to money laundering. Binance facilitated transactions with Iran, Syria, and enabled terrorism financing. He paid $450,000 to lobbying firm for "executive relief." The pattern: Pay-to-play pardons. Financial crimes get forgiven if you have the right connections or can pay enough. This connects to the Board of Peace's $1 billion membership fee - everything is transactional.
- Rod Blagojevich - Pardoned February 2025 for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. The parallel: Selling political positions for personal gain is exactly what the Board of Peace represents - $1 billion for "permanent membership" where Trump decides everything. Blagojevich sold a Senate seat; Trump is selling influence over Gaza's future.
- Chris Collins - First sitting Congressman convicted in Trump's term (insider trading), pardoned. Duncan Hunter - U.S. Representative convicted of campaign finance abuse, pardoned. The pattern: Political corruption and financial crimes by Trump allies get erased. When Witkoff's real estate company positions itself for Gaza contracts while he's Trump's special envoy, this precedent shows such conflicts of interest face no consequences.
THE NETANYAHU CONNECTION: Trump publicly called for Israel to pardon Netanyahu for corruption charges as part of a suggested Gaza peace deal. While Israel never granted this, it reveals Trump's thinking: use pardons/clemency strategically to protect allies from accountability, even for corruption. Now Trump sanctions the ICC to protect Netanyahu from war crimes prosecution - same impulse, different mechanism.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR NEXT:
- Jared Kushner - Pre-emptive pardon for Gaza-related conflicts of interest? His visible discomfort at the "two years" mention suggests vulnerability.
- Steve Witkoff - Pardon for admitting to pre-planned Gaza schemes? That's potential conspiracy to commit war crimes or fraud.
- Erik Prince or Blackwater successors - Contracts for Gaza "security" or reconstruction? The privatized warfare model fits Gaza Riviera perfectly.
- Anyone involved in Israeli AI warfare systems - US protection from prosecution for Lavender/Gospel operators?
- ICC-related pardons - Anyone involved in sanctioning ICC officials or obstructing war crimes investigations?
THE MESSAGE TO GAZA: These pardons establish a precedent of total impunity for killing civilians in the Middle East. The UN warned that pardoning Blackwater contractors "contributes to impunity and encourages others to commit such crimes in the future." That's exactly what we're seeing with Gaza:
- Israeli AI systems kill 37,000+ Palestinians with 10% error rate and 20-second human review = No consequences
- Netanyahu has ICC arrest warrants for war crimes = Trump sanctions the ICC and calls him a "war hero"
- "Master plans" for Gaza displacement existed before October 7 = No investigation
- Luxury hotel profits planned over mass graves = Called "reconstruction"
WHAT TO WATCH FOR NEXT:
- Will anyone involved in Israeli AI warfare systems (Lavender, Gospel operators) receive US protection from prosecution?
- Will Witkoff or Kushner get pre-emptive pardons related to Gaza dealings?
- Will Erik Prince companies get Gaza reconstruction contracts? (His model is privatized warfare for profit - perfect fit for "Gaza Riviera")
- Will Trump pardon anyone involved in ICC sanctions or obstruction of war crimes investigations?
WHAT TO DO: Document every pardon. The Blackwater pardons show Trump's willingness to protect war criminals who kill Middle Eastern civilians. Use this precedent in legal arguments: if Iraqis got "justice" that was then pardoned away, Palestinians need international prosecution that can't be undone by US presidential power. Pursue cases in ICC member countries (124 nations where Netanyahu can't travel), use universal jurisdiction laws, file civil suits where pardons don't apply. The pattern is clear: Trump protects those who kill civilians in the Middle East for profit. Make that pattern so expensive politically that even pardons can't erase the consequences.
6. Make Nvidia's Valuation a Liability
THE LEVERAGE: Nvidia's $3 trillion market cap depends on investor confidence. That confidence is fragile when:
- Their chips powered AI that killed 37,000+ Palestinians with 10% error rate
- Their CEO got compared to nuclear arms dealers by a major customer (Anthropic)
- They're selling advanced chips to authoritarian regimes despite security concerns
- ESG funds and pension plans have mandates to avoid companies enabling human rights violations
WHAT TO DO: Pressure institutional investors. CalPERS (California Public Employees' Retirement System) manages $450+ billion - they have ESG requirements. Norwegian sovereign wealth fund has divested from companies before. Make the case that Nvidia is enabling war crimes, and watch pension funds start asking uncomfortable questions. When stock analysts have to address "Nvidia's exposure to war crimes liability" in earnings calls, the market pays attention.
7. Build the Alternative Record
WHAT'S MISSING: Palestinian voices. Ground truth. Actual documentation of what's happening versus what's being sold.
WHAT TO DO:
- Archive everything: Photos, videos, testimonies from Gaza. When the luxury hotels get proposed, there's a visual record of what was there before - homes, schools, hospitals, people's lives.
- Document the AI failures: Every time Grok generates false information, child sexual content, or racist output - screenshot it, timestamp it, preserve it. This becomes evidence that Pentagon AI is unreliable.
- Track the displacement: If "voluntary relocation" happens, document who's being moved where, under what conditions, with what compensation. If it's coerced, that's evidence of war crimes.
- Create the counter-narrative: For every "Gaza Riviera" rendering, show the mother holding her dead child. For every "$55 billion in profits" projection, show what that money is built on. Make it impossible to look away.