Gaza and the Board of Peace feat. Dana El Kurd

Summary

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Podcast Summary: It Could Happen Here

Episode: Gaza and the Board of Peace feat. Dana El Kurd

Date: January 26, 2026
Host/Speaker: Dana Al Kurd (with reporting by Hind Khadari; quotes from Special Envoy Steve Witkoff)
Theme: A critical breakdown of the aftermath of the Gaza ceasefire, the Trump administration’s “peace plan,” and the rise of global neocolonial conflict management.

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Episode Overview

This episode, hosted by political science professor and Palestinian politics researcher Dana Al Kurd, explores the deteriorating situation in Gaza following the so-called ceasefire, the implementation of the Trump administration’s multi-phase "peace plan," and the rollout of the controversial “Board of Peace.” The discussion illustrates how recent U.S.-backed policies in Gaza—managed by international billionaires and politicians—epitomize a new global doctrine of authoritarian conflict management, ethnic cleansing, and the commodification of war-torn regions for business interests. Dana Al Kurd provides a detailed update and critique, with input from on-the-ground journalist Hind Khadari.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Escalating Repression and Gaza's Reality (00:36–03:41)

• Context Update: Al Kurd sets the global scene, referencing ongoing crises worldwide, and notes that “what's happening in Palestine has largely slipped out of most people's feeds and certainly the media headlines.”
• Ceasefire Consequences: In the three months following the declared ceasefire:
  • 449 Palestinians killed, 1,246 injured (over 100 children).
  • Israeli military pushes further into Gaza, marking new restricted zones with physical yellow barriers.
  • Over 50% of the Gaza Strip remains inaccessible to Palestinians and humanitarian aid ([01:20]–[02:40]).

“It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident. I will never not squeeze in an Andor reference when I can, given that this is the state of the world.” — Dana Al Kurd (00:52)

The U.S. "Peace Plan" and the Board of Peace (03:02–07:52)

• Phase Two Launch: U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff announces the next phase, emphasizing reconstruction, demilitarization, and the creation of a "technocratic" Palestinian administration (the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza).
• Board of Peace Formation:
  • Chaired by Donald Trump, administered by Tony Blair.
  • Members include Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, Mark Rowan, Yakir Gabay, with invites extended to Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban.
  • Described by Reuters as "a Trump United Nations that ignores the fundamentals of the UN Charter" ([05:30]).

“Trump declared himself the chair of this Board of Peace that's supposed to bring peace to the Middle east, and Tony Blair was tapped to run it, much to the outrage of anyone who witnessed Blair's cooperation in the destruction of Iraq.” — Dana Al Kurd (04:30)

• Business Opportunity Masked as Peace: Participation in the Board requires a "$1 billion price tag" per country. The plan aims to transform Gaza into the "riviera of the Middle East."
• Underlying Motives: Al Kurd critiques the Board and the GREAT (Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation) plan as instruments for ethnic cleansing, forced migration, and real estate development under the guise of reconstruction ([07:12]).

“This oversight board is intended to manage conflict because let's be clear, this isn't about solving conflict at the expense of the people who have been facing the brunt of this conflict.” — Dana Al Kurd (06:49)

“Might is right. Ethnic cleansing is okay. And war is a prime real estate development opportunity.” — Dana Al Kurd (07:38)

Authoritarian Management: The Role of the Director General (10:59–15:00)

• Appointment of Nikolay Mladinov: Former Bulgarian politician/diplomat and Abraham Accords advocate is named "Director General," and will oversee the technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza.
  • Mladinov has a history in authoritarian politics, and now represents the US-Israeli-UAE vision for the region—a model centered on control, compliance, and suppression of dissent.
• Regional “Vision”: The intended Middle East is described as “modern, developed, tolerant,” but in reality is defined by authoritarian rule where citizens are mere subjects, social freedoms are limited, and mass displacements are normalized.
• Paradigm Shift: The era of pretense about international law is over; now, conquest and ethnic cleansing are explicit policy.

“Their vision of the Middle east is one that is authoritarian and contained — more citizens are subjects. ... This is a vision where states like the UAE ... and Israel can get away with ethnic cleansing ... because ethnic cleansing and genocide are apparently a perfectly reasonable way of getting rid of undesirables.” — Dana Al Kurd (12:12)

The Don Road Doctrine and Global Repercussions (15:00–16:38)

• Doctrine Explained: The Trump administration’s global stance is that “each powerful state gets to do what it wants in its own sphere of influence,” with conquest and territorial aggression openly encouraged.
  • Example cited: Stephen Miller justifying the invasion of Greenland.

“‘Under every understanding of law that has existed about territorial control for 500 years, to control a territory, you have to be able to defend ... improve ... inhabit a territory. Denmark has failed on every single one of these tests.’” — Quoting Stephen Miller (14:58)

• Gaza as a Blueprint: The policy towards Gaza is presented as a test case for managing weaker states or stateless peoples globally through authoritarian means.

Palestinian Perspectives & On-the-Ground Reality (16:38–18:34)

• Official Statements: Palestinian Authority and Hamas issue cautiously positive statements about the administrative changes, seeking a seat at the table or calm, but with little influence.

• Israeli Response: Israel rejects any Palestinian involvement, even at the technocratic level.

• Gazan Response (Reporter Hind Khadari’s Testimony):

“Palestinians did not see anything on the ground. There is no change. ... Palestinians are frustrated. They're very disappointed. They thought that phase two would give them the freedom of movement, that would give them reconstruction of Gaza, would also give them a little bit of what they lost. But on the ground, nothing happened, nothing changed.” — Hind Khadari ([16:44])

• Humanitarian Failure: Demolitions, drones, and explosions continue. Livelihood, freedom, and access to reconstruction remain out of reach for ordinary Gazans.

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Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• On Obfuscation:
  “It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident.”
  — Dana Al Kurd ([00:52])

• On the Board of Peace:
  “Trump declared himself the chair of this Board of Peace ... and Tony Blair was tapped to run it, much to the outrage of anyone who witnessed Blair's cooperation in the destruction of Iraq.”
  — Dana Al Kurd ([04:30])

• Distilling the Plan:
  “Might is right. Ethnic cleansing is okay. And war is a prime real estate development opportunity.”
  — Dana Al Kurd ([07:38])

• On Authoritarian Vision:
  “This is a vision where ... Israel can get away with ethnic cleansing in Palestine, because ethnic cleansing and genocide are apparently a perfectly reasonable way of getting rid of undesirables.”
  — Dana Al Kurd ([12:12])

• Palestinian Frustration:
  "There is no change. ... On the ground, nothing happened, nothing changed. ... mainly there is a lot of frustration because there's nothing changing on the ground."
  — Hind Khadari ([16:44])

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Important Timestamps

• 00:36 – Dana Al Kurd opens with a reality check on the state of Gaza post-ceasefire.
• 03:02 – U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announces phase two of the peace plan.
• 04:30 – Detailed breakdown of the Board of Peace and its controversial membership.
• 07:12 – Critique of the plan’s real motives: forced migration, business profiteering.
• 10:59 – Introduction of Nikolay Mladinov as Director General, background and implications.
• 12:12-14:50 – Discussion of regional authoritarianism and abandonment of pretense in international law.
• 16:38 – Hind Khadari’s testimony from Gaza; direct account of ground-level conditions.
• 18:02 – Closing reflections: the world’s powerful “peacemakers” rewriting reality while Gazans remain trapped.

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Tone & Style

Dana Al Kurd’s narrative is informed, incisive, and skeptical—mixing personal observation, academic insight, and sharp political critique. The tone is urgent and candid, underscoring the human stakes while illuminating the geopolitical game at play.

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Conclusion

This episode of It Could Happen Here exposes how the American-led reconstruction of Gaza is, in practice, a smokescreen for dispossession, authoritarian management, and profit-seeking, offering a chilling vision of future global order. In the end, as both Al Kurd and Hind Khadari highlight, for Palestinians in Gaza, “on the ground, nothing happened, nothing changed”—and the self-proclaimed “peacemakers” write the narrative while Gazans remain in limbo.

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Transcript

[Podcast Host (iHeart Podcast Announcer)]

This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.

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[Dana Al Kurd]

Coal Zone Media hello everyone, and welcome to It Could Happen Here. My name is Dana Al Kurd. I'm a professor of political science and a researcher of Arab and Palestinian politics. Since I last recorded an episode, those in power have been very busy. The world looks different from a month ago, what with the assault on Minneapolis, the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro, the as of this recording, possible invasion of Greenland. It's been hard for even the best of us to keep up. As Nemec from the series andor would say, the pace of repression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident. I will never not squeeze in an andor reference when I can, given that this is the state of the world. What's happening in Palestine has largely slipped out of most people's feeds and certainly the media headlines. But lots is happening. Lots of dangerous things are happening, and I'm going to take this episode to give an update about what's been going on since the ceasefire was announced three months ago. 449 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks and another 1,246 have been injured. Over 100 of those killed were children. According to UNICEF. The Gaza Strip has been reduced even further with a new yellow line demarcating where Israeli troops will remain and where Palestinians are not allowed to go. They literally placed concrete yellow blocks on the ground in Gaza, and as the BBC notes from a report January 16th of this year, Israel continues to push the yellow line further and further into what remains of Gaza. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs notes the Israeli military remains deployed in over 50% of the Gaza Strip beyond the yellow line, where access to humanitarian facilities and assets, public infrastructure and agricultural land are either restricted or prohibited. In this context, and despite this context, the Trump administration has declared that phase one of the ceasefire agreement is now over and that phase Two will commence.

[Special Envoy Steve Witkoff / Interviewer]

The US has announced the launch of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire Agreement. Special envoy Steve Witkoff shared the news in a social media post, writing that phase two establishes a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. He also wrote that it begins the full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza, primarily the disarmament of all unauthorised personnel. Witkoff says the US Expects Hamas to comply fully with its obligations, including the immediate return of the final deceased hostage, and warns that the failure to do so will bring serious consequences.

[Dana Al Kurd]

Now, this is the declaration, even though really, aside from the return of Israeli hostages, no part of the 20 point plan that the Trump administration put forward as the peace plan was realized on the ground, aid is being let in, but not at the levels that it's needed. Attacks against Palestinians haven't stopped. Nonetheless, phase two is apparently starting with the naming of members of the Board of Peace. Now, if listeners will recall from a previous episode, Trump declared himself the chair of this Board of Peace that's supposed to bring peace to the Middle east, and Tony Blair was tapped to run it, much to the outrage of anyone who witnessed Blair's cooperation in the destruction of Iraq. Now, this Board of Peace is going to run the Gaza Strip and its quote, unquote, technocratic government, and it's going to make sure Hamas demilitarizes and that Palestinians don't step out of line. The Board of Peace is one aspect of the great plan, great standing for Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation plan, a plan that apparently will turn Gaza into the, quote, riviera of the Middle East. The Huffington Post reported Jan. 17 that Trump is setting a billion dollar price tag for any country that wants to participate on this. Board members so far include Tony Blair, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, son in law Jared Kushner, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, Mark Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management, Israeli billionaire Yakir Gabay, and a number of others along the same vein. Among those Trump has invited include Vladimir Putin, famously very interested in peace and not at all in eradicating Ukrainian existence. Trump also sent a letter to Viktor Orban, far right wing president of Hungary, to join the Board of Peace. Orban has apparently accepted this invitation to remind listeners Orban is one of Trump's models for authoritarian takeover of democratic institutions. Orban has also very close ties with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel, despite his anti Semitic politics. Now, I thought the letter he sent to Orban and to every other right wing politician he's been inviting was quite telling. In the letter, Trump invites Orban to join, presumably with the billion dollar pay to play, and calls the Board of Peace a quote, bold new approach to resolving global conflict. Reuters, reporting on this issue, quoted an anonymous diplomat saying it's a Trump United nations that ignores the fundamentals of the UN Charter. In fact, the charter of the Board of Peace doesn't even mention Gaza. So what is this bold new approach to resolving global conflict? It's apparently a resolution to conflict that includes a neocolonial oversight board run by white men to make sure the natives don't get too excited. Now, this oversight board is intended to manage conflict because let's be clear, this isn't about solving conflict at the expense of the people who have been facing the brunt of this conflict. So we should take them at their word that this is going to be the way that global conflict is going to be resolved from now on. This is the blueprint. Gaza is only the test case. And in this new form of authoritarian conflict management, the world will operate without any pretensions under the premise of might is right. And if the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Plan is any indication, this plan is predicated on encouraging Palestinians to ultimately leave Gaza, at least some significant segment of them. So not only might is right, but ethnic cleansing is a more than fine way to resolve a dispute. And finally, the plan is predicated on the idea that reconstruction is a business opportunity. So to review, might is right. Ethnic cleansing is a. Okay. And war is a prime real estate development opportunity.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Narrator]

You know Roald Dahl? The writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda and the bfg. But did you know he was also a spy?

[Podcast Host (iHeart Podcast Announcer)]

Was this before he wrote his stories?

[Dana Al Kurd]

It must have been.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Narrator]

Our new podcast series, the Secret World of Roald Dahlia is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans.

[Podcast Host (iHeart Podcast Announcer)]

What?

[Roald Dahl Podcast Narrator]

And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either.

[Dana Al Kurd]

Okay, I don't think that's true.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Narrator]

I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelts, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true Story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the secret world of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryder Strong]

This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called the Red Weather.

[Podcast Host (iHeart Podcast Announcer)]

It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea.

[Ryder Strong]

In 1995, my neighbor Anna Traynor disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs.

[Dana Al Kurd]

So, no, I am not your guru.

[Ryder Strong]

And back then, I lied to my parents, I lied to police, I lied to everybody.

[Dana Al Kurd]

There were years, Ryder, where I could.

[Special Envoy Steve Witkoff / Interviewer]

Not say your name.

[Ryder Strong]

I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, police, journalists, whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Narrator]

Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend?

[Dana Al Kurd]

They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Narrator]

Come around here with my wife. Boom, boom.

[Ryder Strong]

This is the red weather. Listen to the red weather starting on January 28th at the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Host (iHeart Podcast Announcer)]

You can accomplish a lot in a decade. You could earn a bachelor's degree and a master's degree back to back. You could compete in two separate consecutive Olympic Games. Well, we made my favorite murder. It's been 10 years of true crime, 10 years of conversation, and 100 years of swearing. Here's the thing, everyone, politeness. Go yourself. As much as someone sneezes, from now on, we have something for everyone. Advice, support, and a safe space for your feelings. This is terrible. Keep going. Triflers need not apply. Stay out of the forest. You're in a cult. Call your dad. Don't worry, it gets worse. Toxic masculinity ruins the party again. I said, dad, what the hell? What are we gonna do? And he goes, what the hell? I don't know. We're gonna sally forth, Sally. We're gonna sally forth. You guys stay sexy. Don't get murdered. Elvis, do you want a cookie?

[Dana Al Kurd]

A cookie?

[Podcast Host (iHeart Podcast Announcer)]

Listen to my favorite murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Goodbye.

[Dana Al Kurd]

Now. Things get even worse when we bring in the guy who's been tapped to be the Director General of this board. Nikolay Mladinov is a Bulgarian politician, an ex UN envoy who has been tasked with, quote, disarming Gaza. According to a report by Al Jazeera published January 15, he's the guy who's going to oversee the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the technocratic government which is run by Palestinian bureaucrats, and make sure that they stay in line during the reconstruction phase. Somehow these bureaucrats are supposed to reconstruct Gaza while not being able to operate in most of it Anyway. Madanov, this guy is really something. He's a Bulgarian diplomat that worked as a minister for one of the most corrupt governments in Bulgaria, a government that faced mass protest pretty persistently. He is part of a right wing populist party in Bulgaria. His father was also involved in politics, specifically in the Bulgarian version of the KGB before the transition from the communist regime. Since 2021, he's been working in an Emirati institution, the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy, where he came out as a vocal proponent of the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states. Now, it all checks out honestly that this is the guy who's going to be the Director General. The fact that this person is the one being chosen for phase two of the ceasefire and the fact that he has this kind of political background should make clear that the plan for Gaza isn't just a blueprint for the world new levels of authoritarian conflict management with no pretense, but also part and parcel of the US Israeli Emirati vision for the region. Now, this vision is one where Arab authoritarian regimes and Israel, with the US supporting, remake the Middle east into a, quote, modern, developed, tolerant Middle east, essentially by pouring concrete over graves and building mega cities on top of rubble. Their vision of the Middle east is one that is authoritarian and contained more citizens are subjects. These subjects can have some social freedoms and maybe some economic opportunities, but should never think that they can have an opinion on anything that happens to them. This is a vision where states like the uae, the United Arab Emirates can arm militias to conduct ethnic cleansing in Sudan, and Israel can get away with ethnic cleansing in Palestine, because ethnic cleansing and genocide are apparently a perfectly reasonable way to, of getting rid of undesirables. Now, I'm not saying that this isn't how these states operated even before the genocide in Gaza, and I'm not saying it wasn't how the US allowed certain allies to operate even before Trump. Perhaps the writing was on the wall when Palestinians were indefinitely occupied and no one cared, or when Artsakh was ethnically cleansed and Azerbaijan got away with it. President Biden gave his blessing to the destruction of Gaza after October 7, after all. But there used to be a pretense, a pretense of international law and a liberal international order. There also used to be variation on these issues. This type of authoritarian conflict management wasn't always tolerated. In fact, Arab liberals who advocated for democracy would often say that the US is different from China or Russia in that at least it was committed to democracy and international law and human rights. Rhetorically, even if there was hypocrisy, they thought that that space between reality and rhetoric could be leveraged and exploited. But now there's nothing to be leveraged. Authoritarian conflict management is the modus operandi of powerful states. And according to Donald Trump's new doctrine, the Don Road doctrine, each powerful state gets to do what it wants in its own sphere of influence. In fact, not only is territorial aggression valid, it's actually the way the world should work. According to all of Trump's spokespeople and parts of his administration, conquest is totally fine. Here's Stephen Miller on Greenland, for example. Under every understanding of law that has existed about territorial control for 500 years, to control a territory, you have to be able to defend a territory, improve a territory, inhabit a territory. Denmark has failed on every single one of these tests. So Gaza is indeed the blueprint for what happens to weaker states in war, or what happens in this case to stateless people deemed undesirable and expendable. Now, what are the Palestinians saying about all this? The technocratic government made up of Palestinian bureaucrats is saying it's committed to a reconstruction of Gaza that is rooted in, quote, peace, democracy and justice. The Palestinian Authority, the largely illegitimate and undemocratic governance body that apparently governs the west bank somehow and represents Palestinians. They're putting out statements welcoming the Board of Peace and Trump's vision, maybe because they think this will earn them a seat at the table, or maybe it's a way to sideline their main opposition, Hamas, in whatever crumbs of Palestine they're allowed to control in the future. Hamas has said in a statement that they also welcome the formation of the Administrative Committee for the Gaza Strip to, quote, achieve calm in Gaza, while noting that they are working with mediators to get to the next stage of the ceasefire. And they accuse Israel of trying to break the ceasefire agreement. The Israeli government ironically rejects any Palestinian involvement, even at the technocratic level, and have vowed to take it up with their friend Trump and the Palestinian people. Well, here is Gazan journalist Hind Khadari of Al Jazeera.

[Special Envoy Steve Witkoff / Interviewer]

English Hind, what has been the reaction in Gaza to that announcement of a move to Phase Two?

[Hind Khadari]

Well, just like you said it, an announcement, a symbolic announcement to phase two, Palestinians did not see anything on the ground. There is no change. And despite all of that, we're still hearing drones as you can hear in the background. We also heard a couple of extra explosions since the early hours of the morning where demolishings are still going on across the Gaza Strip, especially after the yellow line. But Palestinians are frustrated. They're very disappointed. They thought that phase two would give them the freedom of movement, that would give them reconstruction of Gaza, would also give them a little bit of what they lost. But on the ground, nothing happened, nothing changed. What we know so far is there are 15 members that have been approved on to be ruling Gaza. But there are a lot of questions and concerns. How is this going to happen? What is going to happen to the people here, the reconstruction, the Rafah crossing, thousands who need to get education and also people who need to travel abroad to either get their treatment, to get to reunite with their families, to. So there's a lot of questions, but mainly there is a lot of frustration because there's nothing changing on the ground.

[Dana Al Kurd]

People in Gaza are beyond exhaustion. Everyone wants some path forward out of this nightmare. But I really don't think, for all the reasons I described here today, that this is it. And we shouldn't let them, the Trumps and Orbans and billionaires of the world, get away with the narrative that they're peacemakers and that apparently this is all in the name of tolerance and peace. That's it for me today. Thank you for listening and hope you're all staying safe.

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[Dana Al Kurd]

Out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts you.

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Can now find sources for it could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions.

[Dana Al Kurd]

Thanks for listening.

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