League for the Fifth International
Donald Trump claims his 20 point plan will not only end the war in Gaza but bring stability to the Middle East and win him a Nobel Peace Prize into the bargain. It would also enthrone him at the head of a “board of peace” that would include Iraq War criminal Tony Blair. It demands the disarmament of the entire forces of self-defence and resistance in Gaza.
The plan demands the resistance forces forced to surrender hostages, disarm and be expelled from whilst leaving Israeli occupation forces inside parts of the Strip including in a continuous belt around its borders. With Netanyahu and his fascist ministers like Smotrich and Ben Gvir in power the there is no guarantee that the Gaza genocide will be more than paused. It would impose a technocratic administration with a board chaired by Trump himself and figures like the pro-Zionist war criminal Tony Blair. In short the Gaza Strip would be a colony in all but name of US imperialism and its compliant Arab and Western European allies.
Those in solidarity with Palestine must denounce this fraudulent peace plan and continue, indeed step up actions to isolate Israel whether or not Hamas and its allies reject the plan or not. Trump has already threatened Hamas that if it did not respond in ‘three or four days’ there was “going to be a very sad end” i.e. Netanyahu will have a green light to complete his ‚final solution’ with full American support. In short, the “peace deal” is not up for negotiation, but an ultimatum to surrender. The world movement needs to take its inspiration from the Italian workers and youth with their general strikes and port blockades. If the labour movements in Europe and North America fail to turn from words to deed in the face of a historic atrocity its leaders must be branded with infamy.
The plan was put together without any say by political representatives of the Palestinians – but with the agreement of the reactionary monarchs and military dictators of neighbouring Arab states, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey. And even if Hamas were to accept the plan Netanyahu is a past master at signing up to ceasefires and, when some hostages were released, resuming the genocide as he did in February-March.
Though Israel’s response to October 7 temporarily put the Accords on hold Israel’s role since then in breaking the back of the so-called Axis of Resistance. Attacking seven states, decapitating Hezbollah in Lebanon and attacking Hamas leaders in Qatar has demonstrated the power of the Zionist regional gendarme to imperialist America. This explains why not only MAGA Trump but ‘genocide Joe’ Biden and the Democrats are unstinting in their support for Israel.
It is already clear from a series of briefings of Netanyahu and his fascist minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself engaged in clearing West Bank villages and farms of their inhabitants, that they reject the parts of the plan inserted to pacify the Arab states. The plan says there may be a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people”.
Netanyahu, in a video posted on Telegram, was asked whether he had “agreed to a Palestinian state”. “No, absolutely not” was his response. Elsewhere he has repeated that Israel will “forcibly resist” Palestinian statehood.
Fascist Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister, in charge of settlement policy in the West Bank has said that if the peace plan for Gaza was as a “historic missed opportunity” to free Isarel of the shackles of the Oslo Process. Though it has been a dead letter for a quarter of the century, it makes a ghostly appearance in the speeches of Arab and European leaders and in the 20 point plan.
A senior Hamas figure has told the BBC that the group is likely to reject Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, saying it „serves Israel’s interests“ and „ignores those of the Palestinian people“ and that Hamas is unlikely to agree to disarming and handing over their weapons. Other reports suggest that Hamas might aim to renegotiate some of the demands or even see itself forced to sign up to the deal. Clearly Hamas is subject to immense pressure from the regional powers, but the worldwide solidarity movement should not add its voice to this but rather condemn the deal as a trap laid by Trump and Netanyahu.
Whether it breaks down or is accepted the international movement, which has grown to proportions unprecedented since the Afghan and Iraq wars. This is testified by the September 22 general strike in Italy and another planned October 3, the Livorno and Marseilles dockers bans on unloading Israeli cargos and the courageous activists on the over 50 ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla now being arrested by the piratical Israeli warships. Our solidarity movement needs as an urgent priority to defend all those seeking to bring aid to Gaza – hands off the Sumud Flotilla, as well as to demand.
- An immediate and total end to the IDF’s bombardment of Gaza
- The complete opening of Gaza’s land crossings and seaports and airports to food and medical aid, free of Israeli inspections
- An end to the blockade of Gaza’s territorial waters.
- The total withdrawal of the IDF beyond Gaza’s borders and an end to all overflights by warplanes and drones
- The opening of links to Jerusalem and the West Bank and an end to the expansion of settlements and the murder of Palestinians there.
- Emergency reconstruction of housing for those made homeless by the IDF
As long as the racist settler state exists and the Palestinian people are denied the right to a sovereign state in their entire historic homeland, there will be no peace there or in the entire Middle East. We demand to break all ties to the genocidal state. Around the world we must urge workers and youth to blockade Israel economically, to stop all arms devilries, trade and financial transactions.
- Free Gaza – Free Palestine – Down with the Racist Israeli State! For the right of return!
- For a united, democratic, socialist Palestine with equality for all as part of a socialist federation of the Middle East!