WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 -- For the Palestinians living in what remains of Gaza City's Rimal neighborhood, where apartment blocks still list at severe angles eight months into a ceasefire, Jared Kushner's statement from Washington on Sunday offered something unexpected: an explicit acknowledgment that the rubble will stay where it is.

"We have a plan to rebuild Gaza," Kushner said, "but we will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until the demilitarisation occurs."

The sentence is worth sitting with. A ceasefire is in place. Hostages have been returned or negotiated. And the explicit position of the United States government is that it will not allow reconstruction to proceed while Hamas retains weapons. The peace plan, in other words, doubles as le...