The next stages of a fragile peace plan are coming together, though many questions remain, after President Donald Trump’s historic trip to the Middle East.

Trump closed his whirlwind tour of the Middle East with a speech attended by dozens of world leaders in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. After the initial phase of his plan for peace in Gaza secured the release of the last 20 living hostages from Hamas, Trump in his Egypt speech declared that “now the rebuilding begins.”

The president stated throughout his trip that the “war is over,” but many details remain unsettled while a tenuous ceasefire holds between Israel and Hamas. The region must solve pressing questions before anything resembling Palestinian self-determination can be hoped for.

Under the Trump peace plan, the Gaza enclave is to be administered by a mix of Palestinian and international technocrats led by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Their work would be overseen by a board chaired by Trump.

But the Palestinians who join the administration of Gaza must be committed to peace, and Hamas can have no part in it, which the terror group has not committed to. Neither has Hamas committed to completely disarming. On the contrary, the terror group has reportedly started conducting public executions since the Israel Defense Forces pulled back from Gaza’s interior.

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Regardless of Hamas’ actions, the prerequisite for Israel to sanction Palestinian self-determination has been firm: Gaza can no longer represent any meaningful threat to the Jewish state or its citizens.

Trump championed the efforts to rebuild Gaza that have already begun, starting with aid flowing into the area.

“Humanitarian aid is now pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food, medical equipment, and other supplies – much of it paid for by people in this room,” Trump said in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The aid is needed and necessary to begin alleviating the worst conditions in Gaza, but the project of rebuilding the strip will likely take decades of work and investment. For much of that support, the president has turned to Arab and Muslim leaders in the region.

“Numerous countries of great wealth and power and dignity have come forward to me just today and over the last week to say they want to help in the reconstruction of Gaza, putting up whatever money is necessary,” the president said. “Of course, it’s a lot of money, but it’s not much compared to the value of the wealth of these tremendous countries, and they are ensuring stability and success in the Middle East.”

Security in Gaza will likely be led by an international force mostly supplied from Arab and Muslim countries. Indonesia has committed to sending 20,000 troops to Gaza to act as a security force. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said that Cairo was ready to commit forces as well, as long as the mission for such a force was made clear by the UN Security Council.

“We are in the process now, as we speak, [of] providing training and coordination with Jordan to train up to 5,000 Palestinians to be deployed in Gaza,” Abdelatty said on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday. “Deployment of international forces is on the table.”

Democrat Jay Jones’ texting scandal is threatening to sink Democrats’ chances in the gubernatorial race for the commonwealth of Virginia, according to pollster Brent Buchanan.

Buchanan, founder and president of the polling firm Cygnal, said Jones’ August 2022 texts, which wished harm against a state GOP lawmaker, have flipped typical election dynamics to drag down other Democrats on the ballot. The scandal, as well as Democrats’ failure to condemn transgender ideology, has given Republicans an edge in a couple of campaign fundamentals.

“There are some key fundamentals to any political campaign, and that is money, message, and messenger. The message and messenger is on the Republican side, but the money’s on the Democratic side right now,” Buchanan said in an interview with Morning Wire that aired on Monday.

Jones is running to be the state’s next attorney general, and since his texts were made public earlier this month, he has fallen behind Republican incumbent Jason Miyares. But over the same timeframe, the fallout has appeared to spread to other races as well, as former Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s lead over Republican Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears in the governor’s race has shrunk.

“Normally, governor’s races drive down-ballot races, and because of the scandal with Democrat Jay Jones and his text messages and the fact that no Democrats are coming out and saying that he should resign, drop out of the race, it’s really flipped the race on its head,” the pollster said.

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“The proof that it’s affecting the governor’s race is that, in September, we had Winsome Earle-Sears down by seven, and now have her only down by four-and-a-half,” said Buchanan. “I know that doesn’t sound huge, but when you consider how much money has been spent by the Democrats, and little in comparison by Sears, it’s essentially proof that the [attorney general] race is driving the governor’s race now.”

Spanberger may have much more to lose before the election, scheduled to take place on November 4.

“What’s fascinating is, we polled right after Labor Day,” Buchanan said, “one of the things we found in the survey is that there’s a huge swath of voters in Virginia who still have not heard about these text messages.”

In addition to the text messages, Spanberger may also suffer from her messaging around transgenderism. In a Virginia governor’s race debate last week, Spanberger evaded weighing in on debates over school bathroom and locker room policies regarding students who identify as transgender. Spanberger repeatedly said it was an issue to be taken up locally.

“The transgender issue is popping its head back up,” said Buchanan. “The culture wars are what won Donald Trump the 2024 election, and I think we’re seeing that play itself out again in 2025 as if Democrats just can’t learn the lesson.”

“Republicans are firing on all cylinders right now, making sure that this is the one issue being spoken about in paid advertising. The challenge is that Democrats still have a very large spending advantage,” he added.