A Test of Wills
Inside President Trump’s Bold Attempt to Broker a Real Deal and Netanyahu’s Efforts to Derail It.
I’ve been looking at this new ceasefire plan from The Honorable President Donald Trump, and honestly, the more I read about it, the more I’m left with this gnawing feeling. It’s presented as this huge, historic step, but when you peel back the layers, it looks like a one-sided deal with almost nothing in it for the Palestinians.
It’s a shocking lack of guarantees, and it’s something that analysts from all over are pointing out.
The whole situation is infuriating.
We’re talking about a plan to end a war that’s killed more than 66,000 people and wounded over 168,000. Yet, the people who have been through the absolute worst of it are being told what their future will look like by the very people who carried out and funded the conflict.
As the Palestinian lawyer and analyst Diana Buttu once put it, Palestinians are being “forced to negotiate an end to their own genocide“. This has been true for the Palestinian people in almost every proposed solution.
The thing that really gets me is the power dynamic. It just feels so backwards. How can the prime minister of a small nation (Israel) seem to be dictating the rules for the biggest democracy in the world?
You see our President making promises, and then Israel does something that completely undermines them.
Just this week, Netanyahu had to call the Qatari Leadership and apologize for the Israeli airstrike that killed a Qatari serviceman and risked upending peace talks. He made that call from the White House, under pressure from President Trump, who needed to clean up the diplomatic mess to keep his own deal on track.
It all comes down to a complicated game. Netanyahu’s governing coalition is “more fragile than ever“, so he has to show his far-right partners he’s being tough on Gaza. Meanwhile, Trump has shown signs of impatience with Netanyahu after the failed strike on Hamas officials in Qatar, but he also wants to be the one to get this deal done. It’s this strange push-and-pull, and it’s why the situation feels so confusing from the outside.
This is a familiar pattern, too. Analysts say Netanyahu has a history of outplaying Trump and getting what he wants, whether it’s US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or getting the US to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
The Details Behind the Plan
On the surface, the plan seems to offer some hope. It calls for fighting to stop, an exchange of captives, and aid to resume.
But the details are where things get murky. The plan demands that Hamas disarm and hand over control of Gaza to a “Board of Peace” chaired by President Trump himself, and it offers amnesty only to those who promise “peaceful coexistence“.
Here’s the thing that gets me: the plan doesn’t offer a clear timeline or enforcement mechanism. Israeli troops are supposed to withdraw, but it’s not clear who would make sure they actually do.
Even the Palestinian Authority (PA) isn’t given an immediate role in governing Gaza. They have to first complete a reform program that’s vaguely defined, which means their ability to rule could be delayed indefinitely.
A State That Is Being Erased
I’ve been thinking about the “two-state solution” and how much we’ve heard that phrase over the years. This plan brings up a question that’s been on my mind: What shape would a Palestinian state even be in now?
As Buttu points out, the international community is “recognising the state of Palestine as it is being erased“.
It makes me wonder if this is an even worse deal than the Oslo Accords. I mean, back then, at least there was a Palestinian voice at the table, even if the progress was slow. This time around, Trump met with leaders from Arab and Islamic countries, but no Palestinian leaders.
The plan puts the entire burden of ending the war on the Palestinians themselves. If they don’t accept a deal with so few guarantees, the war continue.
The recent international recognition from countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK should feel like progress, but honestly, it feels hollow. I can’t help but see it as a cynical move from countries that simply don’t want to be seen as complicit in the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians.
Yes you (EU) were complicit in it. At least President Trump has taken the initiative himself.
Very recently I remember hearing, one leader telling the EU that Israel is doing their “dirty work”.
Dirty work?
What did the Palestinians ever do to Europe to have their genocide described in such a way? The whole idea is pathetic, and it makes this so-called “recognition” feel less about justice and more about easing a guilty conscience long after the damage has been done.
-M