The contrast is almost surreal: Jared Kushner’s Davos slides showing a gleaming Gaza with coastal tourism, data centers, and industrial zones — set against the actual Gaza of rubble, displacement, and humanitarian deprivation where two million people are trying to survive. The distance between the vision and the current void is the central challenge facing Trump’s Board of Peace.
The vision is not inherently implausible. Gaza has a Mediterranean coastline and a young, educated population. Before the conflict escalated, it had economic potential that was never fully realized. The idea of rebuilding it as a modern, prosperous territory — if the political conditions could be created — is not fantasy. It is an aspiration that Gazans themselves might embrace if given the choice.
The void, however, is profound. Infrastructure has been devastated. Hamas has not disarmed. The governance transition has not begun. International stabilization forces have not deployed. The $70 billion needed for reconstruction has not been raised. The transitional governing committee is in Egypt. Daily strikes continue. Two million people are in conditions of acute need.
Moving from void to vision requires a sequence of steps that begins with disarmament and governance transition — neither of which has occurred. It requires funding at a scale that has not been mobilized. It requires political agreements that have not been reached. And it requires time — far more than the three years Kushner suggested in Davos.
Trump’s Board of Peace is the institutional vehicle for narrowing the distance between vision and void. Its first meeting Thursday was an opening step in what will be a long journey. The measure of its success will not be found in Davos slides but in whether, years from now, Gaza looks more like a thriving territory than a conflict zone.