Two weeks ago, in a desperate scramble to provide an alternative to President Trump’s plan for rebuilding Gaza, Arab leaders met in Egypt’s capital Cairo and conjured up their own half-baked plan—a 112-page document complete with detailed maps and fancy, AI-generated images.

Unfortunately, the plan ignores the gorilla in the room—why the Gaza war started and how it’s ending. If it were a college senior’s thesis, it would score a “D.” It’s as if a recovery plan for the U.S. Civil War failed to mention why the two sides fought and who would govern afterwards.

Rather, the Arab proposal confines itself to reconstructing the Gaza Strip. Most pointedly, it doesn’t mention the Oct. 7 massacre that Hamas employed to begin the devastating war, nor the group’s pronounced goal of destroying Israel and annihilating its Jewish population.

The Arab plan instead paints Israel as the aggressor, speaking of a “war on Gaza”—as if Israel, for no discernable reason, waged war on the people of Gaza. As if there were no Oct. 7 on which Hamas invaded Israel unprovoked, then murdered, raped, tortured, decapitated, burned and kidnapped 1,500 innocents, mostly Jewish civilians.

In a creative twist, the Arab plan also implies that the Gaza war occurred because the Palestinians lack a country of their own. No mention of Hamas’ religious mission to replace the Jewish state with an Islamist caliphate.

Finally, the Arabs do not address governance of the “new” Gaza. They apparently failed to notice that Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza and abroad were killed, as were some 20,000 terrorists, the main body of the group’s fighting force. They also seem to have missed declarations by both Israel and the U.S. that Hamas must be disarmed and banished. The plan jumps over this issue, assuming that some unspecified Palestinians will guide reconstruction and lead the Gazan people to a bright future filled with new buildings.

For this reason, Arab leaders are adamant that the Palestinians of Gaza not be allowed to move from the coastal enclave—and certainly not to immigrate to the fair lands of their Arab neighbors. Indeed, forcing the Palestinians to remain where they are is precisely what has fueled their conflict with Israel for nearly eight decades.

In a flight of further fantasy, the Arab proposal calls for a two-state solution, ignoring the fact that both the majority of Israelis and Arab Palestinians reject that moribund concept.

In short, the Arab Plan for Gaza is an insult to the intelligence of both American and Israeli administrations. Clearly, both will dismiss this proposal out of hand and proceed bearing the Palestinians’ genocidal ambitions firmly in mind.

Any Reconstruction Plan Must Address Hamas’ Culpability and Defeat

At a minimum, Arab leaders must acknowledge the basic facts of Gaza’s plight: It is Hamas that started and continued this war, not Israel. Most of Gaza has been reduced to rubble. In fact, the Hamas remnant alone can end this war—and more deaths of its people—if they want to, by freeing the remaining hostages, disarming and surrendering.

Instead, the Arab proposal embarrasses itself by not mentioning Hamas once, nor the savage Oct. 7 attack. The closest the Arab plan comes to acknowledging Hamas is a paragraph that understatedly notes, “The issue of multiple armed Palestinian factions remains challenging.” Did the Arab diplomats really think no one would notice these shameful omissions?

The Cause of the War Was Not the Palestinians’ Lack of an Independent State

The Arab proposal argues that the war is “undeniable evidence of the need to redouble efforts to achieve a just settlement that preserves the Palestinian people’s legitimate right to an independent state…” If anything, the war provides undeniable evidence that the Palestinians should not have a country of their own.

The Palestinians had de facto independence in Gaza since 2005, when Israel fully withdrew from the enclave. Not one Israeli civilian or soldier was left. The Palestinians could have turned Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East years before President Trump envisioned it. Instead, they turned it into a terrorist base to attack Israel. In short, this war happened precisely because the Palestinians did have an independent state.

Hamas Didn’t Attack Israel Because They Wanted a Two-State Solution

They attacked Israel because they want one single Palestinian Arab state encompassing all of Israel, governed under strict Islamic Sharia law. In fact, for Hamas and many, if not most Palestinians, the conflict with Israel is religious, not political. They believe no infidels (non-Muslims) can control an inch of what they view as Muslim land. No wonder the Palestinians have rejected every offer of a two-state solution since the 1947 UN partition plan.

Preventing Emigration From Gaza Tortures the Palestinians and Perpetuates the Conflict

The Arab plan is a recommitment to the decades-old Arab practice of using the Palestinians as pawns against Israel. The Arabs have historically wanted Palestinians to exercise their “right of return”—flooding Israel with Palestinian Arabs, eliminating Israel’s Jewish majority and therefore the Jewish state itself.

The Arab plan calls for the Palestinians of Gaza to remain perpetual refugees in what is now a wasteland, rather than seek a better life elsewhere. In fact, the main reason the Arabs opposed Trump’s plan initially is because it would allow Palestinians to leave Gaza, which would end their perpetual refugee status and prevent their exploitation as fodder to die fighting Israel.

The Arab Proposal for Gaza’s Reconstruction Is a Recipe for Continuing a Cycle of Disaster

Hamas attacks Israel, Israel defends itself, Gaza is devastated, the “international community” pours billions of dollars into rebuilding the enclave, Hamas uses this aid to rebuild its terrorist infrastructure and attack Israel anew. Rinse and repeat.

Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that the U.S., Israel and all Western allies are best served by opposing the Arab plan. It fails to address the root cause of Gaza’s destruction, let alone the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general—which is the obsessive determination of Palestinians to eliminate Israel and the Jewish people.

Jason Shvili is a contributing editor, Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).