Donald Trump claims his 20-point ‘peace plan’ will end the war in Gaza and bring stability to the Middle East. The proposal, whose essential element is the disarming of the Palestinian resistance forces in Gaza, would transform the strip into a colony of the US and its regional allies. It should be condemned and rejected by all forces fighting for Palestinian liberation.
Trump has given Hamas a ‘few days’ to accept the deal or he will allow Netanyahu to ‘do what he needs to do’, i.e. complete the Gaza genocide, with the backing of the United States. It is not a proposal for peace, it is an ultimatum demanding the unilateral surrender of the Palestinian resistance.
Insofar as any deal leads to an end to the bombing and the entry of aid into the strip, it would provide desperately needed respite. But disarming the population and leaving the strip at the mercy of the genocidal IDF is no guarantee of security.
The plan was drawn up between the US and the reactionary despots who rule Turkey and the surrounding Arab states—without any input whatsoever from Palestinian representatives.
Netanyahu has form agreeing to ceasefires and then reneging on them. The last ceasefire was broken by Israel which went on to intensify its genocidal onslaught. Netanyahu has openly admitted that he reserves the right to break any new ceasefire on the slightest pretext, because he knows that, with Trump behind him, there is no force that will stop him.
For Trump, the overriding purpose of the plan is to get the Abraham Accords back on track. This 2020 agreement to ‘normalise’ relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, has as its aim persuading the Arab world to accept a Middle East under US hegemony, with Israel a pre-eminent regional power acting as unchallenged gendarme of US interests.
If October 7 and Israel’s genocidal response, put the Accords on ice, then Israel’s blitzkrieg against Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, demolished the so-called ‘Axis of Resistance’. In proving their indispensability to US imperialism, Israel secured license from the US to wage its genocide in Gaza and extend its campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
The cynical nature of the so-called ‘peace plan’ is exposed by the words of Isarael’s leaders themselves. When asked whether he agreed with the plan’s provision for a ‘credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood’, Netanyahu replied ‘No, absolutely not’, and has elsewhere claimed Israel will ‘forcibly resist’ Palestinian statehood—as if there could be any doubt!
The fascist settlement minister Bezalel Smotrich has denounced the plan as a ‘historic missed opportunity’ to free Israel from the shackles of Oslo. This previous peace plan has been a dead letter for a quarter of a century except for ghostly appearances in the speeches of Arab and European leaders.
A senior Hamas figure told the BBC the group is likely to reject the plan, saying it ‘serves Israel’s interests’ and ‘ignores those of the Palestinian people’, and that the organisation is unlikely to agree to disarmament—a critical element of the plan.
Hamas will inevitably be subject to immense pressure from the regional powers and understandably by many Gazans, but the worldwide Gaza movement must find the strength to condemn the deal as a trap laid by Trump and Netanyahu.
Whatever the immediate prospects of Trump’s deal, the international solidarity movement has entered a new phase of development as demonstrated by the 22 September general strike in Italy and the courageous activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla. Our urgent task is to defend those challenging Israel’s criminal blockade and demand an immediate end to the genocide:
- Immediate and unconditional end to the war in Gaza!
- Immediate end to the land, sea and air blockade!
- Total withdrawal of the IDF and western military forces in Gaza!
- End the ethnic cleansing campaign in the West Bank!
- Massive provision of food, medical aid and reconstruction under Palestinian and UN control!
- Immediate recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state!
- Boycott all military, trade and cultural links with Israel!