admin
Carl Higbie made a clear and unapologetic case on his FRONTLINE show that the United States should refuse to become Gaza’s rebuilding contractor after President Trump’s plan moved into implementation. Higbie argued that American blood and treasure should not be spent papering over a problem that began with Islamist terror and bad local governance, and he urged conservatives to demand a narrow, security-first U.S. role.
President Trump’s Gaza peace plan was signed in early October and its first phase came into effect on October 10, 2025, followed by an international summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025 to marshal support and donors. That sequence of events shifted the conversation from endless war to who will pay, who will govern, and whether Gaza can be rebuilt without importing fresh instability.
The U.S.-backed framework envisions demilitarization, an international stabilization force and a technocratic transitional authority to run Gaza’s day-to-day affairs, while Arab partners and the Palestinian Authority have been floated as participants in reconstruction. The projected rebuilding tab is staggering, with estimates in the tens of billions, and Arab states are being courted to shoulder parts of the burden—hard realities that should make any sensible American taxpayer pause.
Higbie’s warning that America should “stay out” of the rebuilding is not isolationism so much as realism: nation-building abroad has a long track record of mission creep, cost overruns and blowback, especially where local institutions are weak or hostile. Conservatives should insist that any U.S. assistance be narrowly tailored to humanitarian relief and strictly conditioned on verifiable security and governance reforms, not open-ended reconstruction promises.
Even as Trump pressed the pause button on the fighting, reports surfaced that Hamas or local security actors were already reasserting control on the ground in parts of Gaza, a messy handoff that proves Higbie’s point about the dangers of trusting fragile, untested authorities with a massive rebuild. If the territory is left to lawlessness or quasi-official militias, U.S. money and American technical expertise will quickly be swallowed by corruption and used to fund the next generation of terror.
Patriots should also be skeptical of handing reconstruction over to globalist technocrats and career diplomats who love grand infrastructure projects but ignore culture and security. The last thing we need is a multinational boondoggle that ties American taxpayers to an open-ended social experiment while our own veterans, rural towns and border communities go begging for support.
Washington must demand ironclad guarantees: verifiable demilitarization, independent audits, and a firm timeline before any U.S. involvement is even discussed. If foreign partners and Arab states want to rebuild Gaza, let them put their money where their mouths are; the American people have priority claims on our resources and our sacrifice.
Higbie spoke for many Americans who are tired of being sold the same failed playbook: hurry overseas to rebuild what never learned to defend itself. Conservatives should turn that frustration into policy — insist on security first, strict accountability, and absolute limits on U.S. exposure — and refuse to be the heavy wallet for other nations’ failures.
