The US backed Resolution 2803 (Resolution) regarding Gaza was adopted by United Nations Security Council (UNSC), on November 17, 2025. The vote of 13 to 0 in favor is astounding. It included Arab and Muslim countries (and was supported by a host of others, as well). None of the 15 members of the UNSC voted against and only two abstained (Russia and China).
The Resolution is noteworthy not only because of what it says; but also because of what it doesn’t say. Thus, it fully endorses the 20-point Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict of September 29, 2025 (Plan), negotiated by US President Trump, with sign on from the parties, as well as the surrounding and other countries, which is annexed to the resolution.
The Plan also references President Trump’s peace plan in 2020, which, among things, requires complete demilitarization of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and expressly provides that borders will not be the pre-1967 ceasefire lines. It also explicitly disclaims that any part of Israel’s capital Jerusalem would become the PA’s capital.
The Board of Peace (Board) to be established under the Plan is recognized as the international legal governing authority of Gaza. The Board is vested with authority to establish its own international legal operational entities to perform its functions, including the governance, day-to-day administration and operations of Gaza, as well as implementation of the Plan. Implicitly excluded from these functions is the UN and its agencies, like UNRWA, as well as the PA, Hamas or any other actors.
The Board is also authorized to establish an International Stabilization Force, under a unified command acceptable to the Board and in close cooperation with Egypt and Israel, which is to be deployed to assure demilitarization of Gaza. This includes the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror and non-state armed groups and such additional tasks as may be necessary in support of the Plan.
Under the Plan:
- Hamas and other factions are not to have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly or in any form.
-All military, terror and offensive infrastructure, including, tunnels and weapon production facilities are to be destroyed and not rebuilt.
-A guarantee is to be provided by regional partners to ensure Hamas and the factions comply with the foregoing and that Gaza poses no threat to its neighbors or its people.
The PA has no role in this effort. It must first complete its reform program as outlined in the Plan. Indeed, only once the Gaza re-development advances under the Plan and after the PA reform program is faithfully carried out, may the conditions finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian Arab self-determination and statehood (which Israel emphatically opposes under any circumstances, ed.). Under the Plan, The US is to establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence.
The Resolution effectively negates any recognition of a Palestinian Arab state at the present time or otherwise outside of the terms of the Resolution. This includes the misguided efforts to recognize the PA as a state, by the UK and France, as well as other UN members, such as Canada and Australia; all of whom are bound by the Resolution.
Interestingly, there is no explicit legal obligation to create a Palestinian Arab state under the Resolution; it merely recites the threshold conditions that must be satisfied in order to have a pathway for self-determination and statehood.
Interestingly, although the PA welcomed the Resolution, Russia reportedly was not pleased with this outcome. It pointed out that the PA would not take part in governing Gaza, nor could it unilaterally become a state. It was also displeased that there was no requirement that the borders of any such Palestinian Arab state would be the pre-1967 ceasefire lines, nor that Jerusalem be the capital. Never mind that this was never a requirement under Resolution 242 and is contradicted by the Oslo Accords.
The Resolution, in effect, repudiates these myths propagated by malign actors and advocates. Indeed, Russia would do well to remember that while it urged Resolution 242 adopt the 1967 lines as borders, it was rejected by the UNSC. As Mr. Vasily Kuznetsov, the USSR representative to the UN, noted in the debate that preceded the adoption of Resolution 242:
“… Phrases such as ‘secure and recognized boundaries’. What does that mean? What boundaries are these? Secure, recognized - by whom, for what? Who is going to judge how secure they are? Who must recognize them? … There is certainly much leeway for different interpretations which retain for Israel the right to establish new boundaries and to withdraw its troops only as far as the lines which it judges convenient”.
The Resolution also does not recognize that there is or ever was any so-called ‘occupation’, ‘right of return’, ‘genocide’, ‘starvation’, ‘apartheid’, or ‘justifiable resistance’. Hamas and its cohorts are the wrongdoers and the Resolution is directed against them and in support of Israel’s just defensive war. Indeed, the Resolution explicitly notes that Gaza threatens the security of neighboring states.
It can well be asserted that all the libels against Israel relating to Gaza and the Palestinian Arabs have effectively been debunked as a matter of International Law by the Resolution. The Resolution is effectively a restatement of International Law that exonerates Israel and casts Hamas and its cohorts as the wrongdoers.
Hamas has been defeated militarily and politically. The Board and ISF have the clean-up job, with Israel there on-site until the job is fully completed. Thereafter, Israel is entitled to remain with a security perimeter presence until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.
Israel fought a just defensive war against belligerent, vicious, murderous and terrorist Hamas and its cohorts. The UNSC and those supporting the Plan recognize this and, by virtue thereof, the Resolution is designed to eliminate Hamas and its cohorts, as the wrongdoers, from having any role in the governance of Gaza, as well as to destroy their capacity to do any more harm to Israel and the neighboring countries.
The Chairman of the Board is President Donald J. Trump. The Board is independent and not under the control of the UN. Indeed, the Resolution only requests that the Board provide a written report on progress to the UNSC every six months.
The Resolution is an integral part of International Law and, with G-d’s help, it will hopefully usher in a new age of peace and prosperity to the region, for the US and Israel and the world.
Leonard Grunstein, retired attorney and banker, founded and served as Chairman of Metropolitan National Bank and then Israel Discount Bank of NY. He founded Project Ezrah and serves on the Board of Bernard Revel at Yeshiva Univ. and the AIPAC National Council. He has published articles in the Banking Law Journal, Real Estate Finance Journal and more and is the co-author of "Because It’s Just and Right: The Untold Back-Story of the U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem."