Gaza Peace Deal: A Withered, Freshly-Gilded Olive Branch
Press conference with PM Netanyahu and President Trump. Source: PBS.
When addressing the buildup to the genocide in Gaza, it is imperative to distinguish between justification and contextualization. There is absolutely no justification for the humanitarian atrocities Hamas committed on October 7th, 2023. However, it takes a severe case of geopolitical myopia to claim that the attack was totally out of the blue. After all, it takes a less-than-exhaustive glance at the history of the region to conclude that the Israeli government (and its allies) abetted in manufacturing the circumstances necessary for the October 7th massacre to occur. There was the Nakba, during which around 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed. There was the Six-Day War of 1967, after which the Naksa, the displacement of about 300,000 more Palestinians, and the military occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank began. There were the Israeli settlements, which blatantly broke international law. And finally, there were the reports that “Netanyahu’s plan to continue allowing aid to reach Gaza through Qatar was in the hope that it might make Hamas an effective counterweight to the PA and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.” (This “aid” was in the form of cash-filled suitcases.)
Yet, there is now an opportunity for a “New Gaza” — Israelis and Palestinians will soon hold hands and sing Kumbaya! President Trump, Peacemaker-In-Chief and Settler of Seven Wars (a false claim), has a perfect plan to end the conflict, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already approved. If the deal were to fall through, it would be irrefutable evidence of Netanyahu’s claim that “Palestinian rejection of a Jewish state … is what has driven this conflict for over a century … It’s not the absence of a Palestinian state, it’s the presence of a Jewish state.”
As much as we may hope that this naive fantasy comes true, historical patterns should bury expectations, regardless of the negotiation results. The sobering reality is that Israel, beyond the aforementioned cruelties, has broken countless promises of peace. But if America were to (yet again) give Israel the benefit of the doubt, the deal itself still seems suspect.
Firstly, it is eerily similar to the failed Oslo Accords, particularly in one area: Palestinian statehood; they are both deliberately vague. The Oslo Accords stated that Palestine could have “5-year interim self-rule, to be followed by talks on permanent status issues.” Trump's deal stipulates, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” In other words, a Palestinian state could, maybe, potentially, possibly be recognized soon, later, and sometime in the future. In other words, it’s highly unlikely. It is improbable that, with Netanyahu maintaining his rejection of a two-state solution and a pitiful 21% of Israelis believing in a peaceful coexistence with a Palestinian state, the pathway to recognition can ever be explored through this plan. In fact, history demonstrates that any hint of pro-Palestine compromise could cause turmoil. Yitzhak Rabin, the center-left prime minister of Israel when the Oslo Accords were instituted, was murdered by Yigal Amir, an Israeli who abhorred the concessions made to Palestinians “on religious grounds.” (Further proof of the dangers of religion in politics.) Unsurprisingly, the candidate of the far-right won the following election: Benjamin Netanyahu.
Secondly, this peace arrangement prescribes a governing committee over Gaza “with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the ‘Board of Peace,’ which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with … Former Prime Minister Tony Blair.” Another shortcoming this deal has in common with the Oslo Accords that has, hitherto, gone unmentioned is America’s enduring, stubborn alliance with Israel. Indeed, it has only grown in its intransigence. The reason for this can be traced back to political donations. Specifically, Track AIPAC uncovered over “$230 MILLION in spending by pro-Israel interest groups benefiting President Donald Trump since 2020.” When the Oslo Accords deteriorated partially due to American failures in acting as an unbiased mediator between Israel and Palestine, the aforementioned statistic inspires little hope.
And to deliver one final blow to that hope, Tony Blair’s involvement, as Mehdi Hasan succinctly put it, “is like making the arsonist the head firefighter; the burglar the chief detective.” Laboring under the same delusion as the Bush Administration (coaxed by Netanyahu) regarding Iraq’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” Blair’s “time in office was perhaps most indelibly marked by his decision to lead the U.K. into war in Iraq.” Not only that, but Blair has already been “tasked with forging a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians in 2007,” but failed “to achieve much of note in that role.” President Trump, in his infinite, SuperPAC-driven wisdom, is putting this man, whose experience in the Middle East is one of exacerbating an unnecessary war in Iraq and failing to secure peace in Palestine, in charge of a post-genocide Gaza Strip. Since they still haven’t announced the full roster of ineptitude, the Trump Administration might as well hire Dick Cheney to work alongside Blair. Or perhaps the President could resurrect Henry Kissinger for the role?
Finally, it is necessary to debunk the notion that most Palestinians support violence. Some apologists of Israel cite statistics about the lack of Palestinian support for a lasting peace to justify their own opposition to one. Once again, context matters. One must keep in mind that, historically, people’s optimism for a peaceful coexistence with a state that is actively exterminating them hasn’t tended to be sky-high. Admittedly, Hamas, the elected power in Palestine, advocates for the obliteration of Jews (needless to say, this is vile). However, taking into account the Palestinian perspective, Hamas’ election in 2006 was a response to — more than the over 50 years of oppression — the polled 91% perceived corruption of the incumbent Fatah Party. Nevertheless, “Gazans increasingly back a two-state solution, as support for Hamas drops,” according to NBC News. Pair that with the fact that the majority of Israelis back the total ethnic cleansing (a literal crime against humanity) of Gazans, and it’s not hard to see where the peace is getting held up.
The harsh truth is this: without immediate Palestinian statehood (or at least a much more specific pathway towards it with people who are actually qualified to govern in Gaza — to be clear, not Hamas) with international military backing, the likelihood of another October 7th and consequent Zionist retaliation is far greater. This deal, as currently structured, is a sham and ludicrously ignorant of the past (whether intentionally so is arguable). Unless a thorough overhaul of this plan occurs, another Oslo debacle is likely imminent: history unfolds, “once as tragedy, and again as farce.”