President Trump’s latest notion is a Board of Peace that he is inviting much of the world to join. He may hold a signing ceremony as early as this week when he holds court at the World Economic Forum in Davos. We’re all for peace-making, but this idea could use some fleshing out.
Mr. Trump’s original idea for the board was to supervise the later phases of his Gaza peace plan. Various countries with an interest in Gaza would send representatives to rebuild the territory into a livable place, if not a new Riviera.
The board will have its hands full disarming Hamas even before it gets to rebuilding Gaza. But inviting Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, as a member of the executive committee was an inspired choice. Mr. Trump would be the chairman, and the board was approved in November by the United Nations Security Council.
Yet as the invitations to join have rolled out, Mr. Trump seems to view its mandate as going far beyond Gaza. Countries around the world with little direct interest in Gaza have received an invitation. They include Canada, Australia, India, Hungary and Argentina, which are far afield from Gaza.
Even Russia has received an invitation to join. And so has Belarus, Vladimir Putin’s partner in imperialism. Maybe Mr. Putin should have to stop waging a hot war in Ukraine, and a cold war against Western Europe, before he joins anything with the word peace in the title. Moscow “is studying all the details of the proposal and hopes to contact Washington to clarify all the nuances,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. So war is now peace?
A draft of the board’s charter posted by the Times of Israel says there is “the need for a more nimble and effective international peace-building body” and calls for “a coalition of willing States committed to practical cooperation and effective action.” Is Mr. Trump thinking about an alternative to the U.N.?
A coalition of democracies unrestrained by Russian or Chinese vetoes at the U.N. Security Council could do some good. But then there already is such a coalition of the willing. It’s called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has kept the peace in Europe for 75 years and has also helped in the Middle East and in antiterror efforts. Maybe Mr. Trump should try to preserve NATO rather than blowing it up over Greenland.
