Jared Kushner’s slides at Davos painted a remarkable picture: a rebuilt Gaza with a coastal tourism strip, industrial zones, and data centers, transformed from rubble into a modern metropolis within three years. It was a vision that captured imaginations and drew mockery in roughly equal measure. As Trump’s Board of Peace held its inaugural meeting Thursday, that vision faced its first serious collision with reality.
The UN, European Union, and World Bank estimate reconstruction will cost approximately $70 billion. That figure alone dwarfs the $5 billion in pledges Trump claimed this week — pledges that were not documented or made public. Clearing rubble and demining Gaza, UN forecasters suggest, would take far longer than three years even before a single building could be constructed.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has added another obstacle: he says there will be no reconstruction until Hamas fully disarms, including surrendering an estimated 60,000 automatic rifles. Hamas has made only vague and conditional disarmament commitments, linking them to the establishment of a Palestinian state — a goal Israel’s current government explicitly opposes.
The board itself faces credibility challenges. Palestinians were not invited to participate, despite the fact that their homeland is the subject of its deliberations. Key US allies including France, Norway, and Sweden have declined to join. Arab and Muslim members have accused Israel of undermining the ceasefire through daily strikes and are pressing the US to exercise greater restraint on its ally.
Trump called the board the most consequential ever assembled. To prove that claim, it will need to move from futuristic slides to tangible humanitarian improvements — and quickly. Expert observers have made clear that the board’s credibility will be measured not in architectural renderings but in conditions on the ground in Gaza.