by Jeff Klein
It was always hard to be optimistic that the Trump “peace plan” would permanently end Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza – never mind offer a path to self-determination and justice for Palestinians. Still, any respite, even a temporary one, from Israeli bombardment and the forced starvation of Gaza’s two million beleaguered people is welcome and long overdue. A ceasefire similar to what was agreed upon this month was possible at many times during the two years of the Gaza genocide, but Israel always refused or broke whatever temporary ceasefires were agreed to.
However, as Israel’s actions have demonstrated, even a full pause on the current genocidal assault may be out of reach. During the brief period after the “ceasefire” was agreed upon but not officially ratified, Israel continued its ferocious attacks on Gaza and stepped up the destruction of homes and infrastructure. This included the demolition of Gaza’s last remaining sewage treatment plant. Even if the large-scale bombing does halt, Israel is raising the specter of catastrophic health consequences for the Gaza population. Since then, Israel has continued to break the ceasefire agreement with daily violations slaughtering Palestinians, though at a lower rate than during its full-on genocidal assault.
The Trump Peace Agreement was first presented as a virtual ultimatum. The 20-point plan was hammered out in negotiations with regional powers — all of them US allies or dependents — that excluded meaningful Palestinian involvement. Turkey is a NATO member with aspirations to expand its influence in the Middle East; Egypt and Jordan are recipients of massive U.S. financial support; Qatar hosts a huge US air base; the Saudi and UAE autocracies rely on U.S. weaponry to maintain their regimes. The proposed agreement was modified even further in Israel’s interest during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington. The Israelis likely anticipated that the Gaza resistance would reject the deal and thus provide a pretext for the genocide to continue without pause.
Instead, Hamas took the calculated step of accepting the plan’s provisions calling for a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners, leaving the other points open for further negotiations. They gambled that this would be acceptable to Trump and they were ultimately correct. Even so, it was a painful concession by Hamas and its resistance allies. They gave up the leverage of holding Israeli prisoners, while leaving Israel in direct control of more than half of Gaza. It was a risk, but perhaps a necessary one, given that Israel was detaining and abusing more than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners — many of them held without any charge — and in effect was holding the entire surviving population of Gaza as hostage to its relentless attacks.
Almost 70,000 Palestinians — most of them women and children — are already documented to have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza, with many more missing or unrecoverable under the ruins of their obliterated neighborhoods. Hundreds of thousands more are suffering from wounds, disease or malnutrition. The interim agreement obligates Israel to allow the full resumption of vital food and other relief supplies into Gaza under UN and international humanitarian supervision. After the release of the Palestinian prisoners — many of them showing signs of torture under Israel detention — more than 9,000 Palestinians will remain imprisoned in Israel’s inhumane detention camps.
It is unlikely that the rest of Trump’s plan will ever fully come into effect. The agreement calls for the complete disarmament of the resistance and an international occupation force by outside military contingents. The plan would then establish a colonial administration as a replay of the century-old British mandate for Palestine, with the thoroughly discredited Tony Blair as the new colonial high commissioner. Palestinian interests and a commitment to real self-determination are left as vague aspirations. Israel has no real accountability under the plan. A completely disarmed resistance would leave the Palestinians in Gaza at the mercy of Israel and the armed gangs in Gaza that it backs. Hamas, which is deeply embedded in Gaza, cannot be eradicated without the destruction or removal of the entire population.
What can we expect going forward?
The new developments present some challenges to the Palestine solidarity movement. Of course, if Israel quickly resumes its full-scale assault on Gaza, then it will be clear that our efforts to oppose the genocide and restrict U.S. arms to Israel will have to be re-intensified. But that is unlikely in the short run because of Trump’s opposition. Ironically, the president’s obsession with his legacy as a “peacemaker” and the influence from his and his circle’s corrupt ties with the Arab petro-monarchies may serve as a restraining force on Israel’s ambitions.
Instead, Israel will likely continue regular ceasefire violations without consequence, as in Lebanon, while it looks for a pretense to resume its genocide and possible ethnic cleansing of Gaza. This has been the pattern of Israel’s non-compliance with agreements — or international law — since its foundation. Negotiations will likely drag out inconclusively. Meanwhile, Israel will intensify its propaganda efforts to blame Palestinians for violations of the ceasefire and other provisions of the agreement. The claim that Hamas has been withholding the remains of the dead Israelis in Gaza, for example, are completely bogus. The implementation protocols signed in Egypt recognized how difficult it would be to locate all of the bodies in the devastated landscape of rubble caused by Israel itself. The Palestinian bodies returned by Israel show signs of abuse and likely summary executions.
The Israelis may hope that the drawn-out negotiations and semi-ceasefire will take the steam out of the international peace and solidarity movements. This could allow the U.S. and its allies to return to business as usual. Meanwhile, there will be a renewed effort to repress pro-Palestinian opinion on and off college campuses, while seizing tighter control of strategic media resources. Already, pro-Israel billionaires are moving to take control CBS, CNN and Tik Tok, which, along with Elon Musk’s X and much of the mainstream press, already function largely as Israel apologists.
We cannot allow that to succeed. Whatever happens in Gaza, Israel has shown a commitment to intensifying its violence and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank. It has no intention of allowing the Palestinians any sort of self-determination. The massive international solidarity movement must continue to press governments in the U.S. and Europe to stop arming and financing Israel and to enact serious sanctions against its ongoing war crimes and apartheid.
People in the U.S. and Europe — along with the rest of the global community — are increasingly and decisively opposed to Israel’s genocide. But their governments are all maintaining a commitment to preserving the status quo of unconditional support for Israel. Symbolic statements or recognition of a so-called Palestinian state under the administration of a deeply unpopular and collaborationist authority is no real solution.
Our movement faces the daunting opposition of billionaire oligarchs, an electoral system flooded with pro-Israel money and pliant, unaccountable elected government officials. In that sense, the struggle for Palestinian rights is also a struggle for democracy at home.