With Europe completely absent from efforts to resolve the major and extremely dangerous outstanding issues on the international stage, Donald Trump — known for his generally controversial decisions both within the United States and on sensitive foreign policy matters — appears to have convinced himself that he is the only one who can claim the Nobel Peace Prize. He is presenting one proposal after another for solving first the Middle East issue and then the Ukraine crisis. And while, in the case of Ukraine, he simply seeks the satisfaction of almost all the territorial claims and other unacceptable terms set by Moscow, in the matter of Gaza he managed to secure the approval of the Security Council for his latest plan, with only Russia and China abstaining. This allowed him, with his characteristic arrogance, to declare that “this will go down as one of the greatest decisions in the history of the United Nations and will strengthen peace around the world because it is truly an event of historic proportions.”

And all this pompous rhetoric at the very moment when Hamas issued a statement making clear that it will not disarm as long as Israeli forces remain in Gaza and there is no firm commitment to a Palestinian state. Meanwhile, Netanyahu declared unequivocally that he will never accept the establishment of a Palestinian state and launched a new barrage of attacks in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon. Netanyahu, who is clearly held hostage by his extremist governing partners, continually manages to postpone his court appearances — where he faces charges related to past financial scandals — under the pretext that the country is at war. Enough said. And now we must see how, in such an atmosphere of ongoing open confrontation, the much-lauded second phase of the plan can proceed — the phase that provides for the demilitarization, political administration, and reconstruction of the Palestinian Gaza Strip, as well as the establishment of an “International Stability Force” under Trump’s leadership, which Hamas has already rejected.

Meanwhile, the proposal for the creation of a Palestinian state remains extremely vague. It was precisely this vagueness that the Saudi crown prince emphasized during his visit to Washington, where he was received with great honors by Trump (who even absolved him of responsibility for the Khashoggi murder), while refusing to join the group of Arab countries that have already recognized Israel through the well-known “Abraham Accords.” He did, however, accept the lure of acquiring F-35 fighter jets, which Israel already possesses. But what mattered most for Trump and his business ventures, now rapidly expanding in the Middle East, was the crown prince’s pledge to increase Saudi investments in the United States to $1 trillion. Which means that everything else may be going badly, but the Trump family’s business dealings in this unstable region are flourishing. And that, of course, is what matters most to him.