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If you want to understand why Bashar Masri is the man rebuilding Gaza, you must start in Rawabi, the city he built from scratch—the first planned Palestinian city, rising from the West Bank’s rocky terrain like an Arab version of Silicon Valley. Wide boulevards, luxury apartments, tech startups, a shopping mall—Rawabi was his bet on a modern Palestinian future.

Now, Masri has been handed an even bigger, riskier bet: Gaza.

The Strip is in ruins after years of war, blockades and political gridlock. Its people there don’t need skyscrapers; they need clean water, electricity and jobs. Yet, when Donald Trump’s team looked at the landscape of possible leaders for Gaza’s economic reconstruction, it didn’t pick a politician or an aid worker. It chose Bashar Masri, the Palestinian American billionaire who spent decades proving that business can be built, and rebuilt, even in the world’s most volatile region.

Trump thinks like a businessman. His approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about peace summits or diplomatic handshakes—it is about deals. His team believes that prosperity can substitute politics, and that Palestinians wouldn’t need to fight for a state if they were busy running businesses. That’s where Masri comes in.

Unlike the typical Palestinian political elite, Masri isn’t interested in speeches or symbolic victories. He’s interested in cranes, cement and balance sheets. He doesn’t just talk about economic development—he does it.

His company, PADICO, has invested millions in the Palestinian economy. When Israeli airstrikes leveled factories in Gaza’s industrial zone, Masri’s team was among the first to start rebuilding. While international donors hesitated, he brought in private capital. Where others saw destruction, he saw an opportunity.

For Trump, this made Masri the ideal candidate. Here was a man who could speak to US investors, navigate Israeli restrictions and still be credible on the Palestinian street. In short, someone who could take the broken pieces of Gaza’s economy and try to make something out of them.

But if this story sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen it before with Rafic Hariri.

There’s a reason Masri’s story echoes that of Rafic Hariri, the billionaire-turned-Prime Minister who rebuilt Beirut from the ashes of civil war. Like Masri, Hariri believed that economic development wasn’t just about money—it was a way to heal a fractured society. He poured billions into turning Beirut into a modern capital, just as Masri is now trying to create an economic engine for Palestine.

Both men shared a similar formula: bet on business, sidestep politics (as much as possible) and bring in international investors to do what local governments couldn’t or wouldn’t do. Hariri had deep ties to Saudi Arabia and the West, and Masri has connections with Washington, Tel Aviv and the Gulf. Both men saw themselves not just as developers, but as architects of a new reality—one where jobs and growth would drown out the forces of extremism and political dysfunction.

But here’s the problem: Gaza is not Rawabi, and it’s certainly not post-war Beirut. Hariri’s vision was ultimately undermined by sectarian politics and external interference, and it cost him his life. Masri is now stepping into a similar storm in Gaza, where the power struggles between Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Israel and outside players could choke his plans before they even start. Masri’s biggest challenge isn’t money or infrastructure—he’s built cities before–it is politics.

Hamas still runs Gaza, and they don’t trust billionaires—especially ones who do business with Israel. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank isn’t thrilled either. Masri has long been seen as too independent, too willing to sidestep the bureaucracy that runs Palestinian politics.

Then there’s Israel. Gaza’s economy depends on what Israel allows in and out, such as construction materials, fuel and basic goods. Even the best economic plan can collapse if Israel decides to tighten the screws.

In other words, Masri is walking into a minefield.

Years ago, when asked why he kept investing in Palestine despite the risks, he said, “Because somebody has to.” That mindset is what built Rawabi. It’s what kept him investing in Gaza when others pulled out.

Now, he’s taking on his biggest project yet. If he succeeds, he won’t just rebuild Gaza—he’ll change the entire trajectory of the Palestinian economy. If he fails, he’ll join the long list of people who tried and found Gaza impossible to fix.