Engineered Peace

Phase Two of the Gaza peace plan arrives wrapped in the language of reconstruction and technocracy, but it is built on political fault lines that have defeated far simpler initiatives.

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The promise is seductive: a ceasefire gives way to demilitarisation, a neutral administration takes charge, and cranes replace drones. For a war-weary region, the vision offers a clean break from cycles of siege and retaliation.

Yet the plan’s core assumption is that governance can be engineered before legitimacy is earned. Installing a technocratic committee may streamline aid, restore services, and reassure donors, but it cannot substitute for consent.

Gaza is not an empty spreadsheet waiting for rational management; it is a traumatised society with factions, memories, and claims that resist being tidied away. A government without a political horizon risks becoming a caretaker for other people's priorities.