The window President Donald Trump opened in the Middle East is narrow, but it is real. His intervention helped bring about a cease-fire that many thought impossible. In a region exhausted by endless war, that act alone deserves recognition. But ahead lies a task even more difficult than halting the gunfire: to repair what has been destroyed in Gaza, which is not only infrastructure but trust, both between and among Palestinians and Israelis.
Cranes and cement, together with time and money, can clear away physical rubble. But the moral and emotional debris will linger: fear, hatred, dehumanization. Reconciliation will have to advance in parallel with reconstruction. And for that, whatโs required is what I like to think of as the four Dโs.
First, for obvious reasons, demilitarization. But removing weapons alone does not remove the will to use them. Gaza will also need to deradicalize, which means healing minds poisoned by decades of hatred and fear; to democratize, which entails restori
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