Donald Trump’s latest creation, the Board of Peace, has failed to garner much momentum in Davos, where the US president made himself look ridiculous. It did not prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from joining the board, showing the Israeli prime minister’s dependency on the American leader.
In the imperial approach that defines his second presidency, Trump has created the Board of Peace (BoP) with exactly what he wants: a new world order he would shape, presented as a club that can be joined for money, just like his club at Mar-a-Lago. Initially, this Board of Peace was designed to be for Gaza only, but Trump has decided to broaden its perimeter of action to become a tool to bypass the UN and avoid multilateralism.
Unsurprisingly, the countries that have joined the BoP are those aligned ideologically with Trump, defiant of international rules, and who know how to work around him by flattering or bribing him. Hungary’s Viktor Orban joined, unlike the rest of Europe, and so did Argentina’s Javier Milei, all the Gulf countries, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among others.
When it comes to Gaza, the first objective of this board, the presence of Qatar and Turkey, which are close to Hamas, are obvious redlines for Israel, and presented as such by Netanyahu. It did not, however, prevent the Israeli leader from officially joining it on January 21. Netanyahu did not change his mind about the two countries; he just needs, once again, to cave in to Trump, as illustrated by his praising tweet of the first anniversary of Trump’s second presidency.
This alignment with Trump is not only problematic for Israel’s security with regards to Gaza, Qatar, and Turkey. In the divided world that we saw in Davos, Israel has chosen to be in “Team Trump,” for better or for worse. It has thereby turned its back to the world of liberal democracy and embraced the illiberal one, in the new world disorder.
Why the Board of Peace is a gamble
This choice is a gamble, for various reasons. First, because Trump’s transactional nature does not guarantee his loyalty to any country or actor except himself. Second, because it confirms Israel’s alignment with Trump’s vision of America, furthering even deeper the gap with the Democrats and making Israel even more unpopular in the US, especially among the young generation.
Third, because this alliance for an illiberal world order goes against the opinions of the majority of American Jews, for whom the rule of law has been a bedrock of their safety, Israel’s standing will likely be further degraded among them. For all these reasons, this gamble may pay in the short term but is deeply dangerous in the longer term for the Jewish state.
Netanyahu is too smart to ignore the Faustian pact that he’s causing Israel to embark upon. On top of a Louis XV’s Après moi le déluge approach (“After me, the flood,” expressing indifference to the chaos or disaster that would follow his reign) that complements his Louis XIV’s L’Etat c’est moi vision (“I am the state”), Netanyahu is also aware that he has no other cards left.
After burning the bridges with the Democrats and the majority of American Jews over the past 20 years, and flattering Trump nonstop, he has no other choice but to go “all in” with him, as unhinged as the US president is, even when he acts against Israel’s interests.
Trump’s Board of Peace could not be more Trumpian: transactional, lawless, and narcissistic. Netanyahu’s joining it is Vintage Bibi: cynical and short-sighted – convenient for himself and reckless for the State of Israel.
Born and raised in France, the writer is the correspondent of French Jewish radio, Radio J, in the US, where he has been living for 16 years. He also holds US and Israeli citizenships. His opinions are his only.