It is outrageous, immoral and obscene to suggest that Gaza is a gone case, but Gaza is a gone case. Peace comes from justice, not Trump-style razzmatazz.
Donald Trump, the reality TV maestro, has never met a spotlight he didn’t love. Presidency is temporary. Showmanship is permanent. So, when he unveiled his grand “Middle East Peace Plan” in Sharm El-Sheikh, it was less a diplomatic summit and more a glittering episode of The Apprentice: Geopolitics Edition.
World leaders, unable to resist an RSVP from the impresario himself, turned up to clap like trained seals. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif didn’t just attend; he slathered Trump’s ego with syrupy praise so thick it made Dutch dearie Mark Rutte’s gushing texts look restrained.
India’s Narendra Modi stayed home but lobbed compliments via social media, dispatching a junior minister to ensure Trump’s feathers remained unruffled. Clever move, denying Trump the chance to orchestrate a Modi-Sharif hug and claim credit for the May ceasefire between India and Pakistan for the nth time.
The Sharm El-Sheikh shindig was less a peace summit and more a Trump fan convention. A ceasefire, paired with a hostage swap (20 Israelis for 17,000 Palestinians) was branded “Peace in the Middle East” and celebrated with resort-town razzmatazz. This author previously called it a delulu Trump peddled as solulu to snag that elusive Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee didn’t bite.
So, Trump leaned on Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who, ever reliant on Uncle Sam, reluctantly declared the nothingburger the finest gourmet patty in town. With hostages marking two years in Gaza’s tunnels and a battered Hamas agreeing to terms, Trump turned a modest deal into a global spectacle, complete with a dozen heads of state serenading his “genuine” peacemaking prowess. The Peace President. The Greatest Deal-Maker. Huge. Colossal. Nobel-worthy, naturally.
But let’s pop the champagne cork and face the sobering facts. This ceasefire isn’t some diplomatic piece de resistance. In the past two years, we’ve seen two similar ceasefires between Hamas and Israel, complete with hostage swaps for Palestinian prisoners. Same old, same old, just with extra Trumpian flair. A couple of Israeli hard knocks to Doha’s financiers hurried Hamas along, especially with Iran crippled, the Houthis pummelled, Hezbollah reduced to a memory, and Syria’s Assad out of the picture. Israel’s victories over the past two years are awe-inspiring, except where it counts: Gaza.
Hamas, though heavily battered, still rules the strip with an iron hand, its capacity to strike Israel remains an enduring enigma. For Hamas, a ceasefire is a plot twist that keeps the suspense alive. Why wouldn’t they sign up for a “win” like that?
But, but, but Hamas hasn’t agreed to disarm. As this author argued, Trump’s solulu is a delulu in disguise. Even if Hamas fades, a fiercer, deadlier successor will rise from Gaza’s 55 million tonnes of rubble. The strip’s population, radicalised by relentless bombing and steeped in religious zeal, is a tinderbox for the next century of incursions into Israel. The seeds of vengeance are sown daily, nourished by perceived injustice. This isn’t peace; it’s a timeout in a tragedy.
Trump’s truce demands the impossible: Palestinians must swallow their pride, and Israelis must coexist with neighbours who wish them dead. That’s not fertile ground for harmony. Another gem from the Trump plan: Gaza will be ruled by international administrators, with Arab peacekeepers patrolling. Sounds neat, but it’s a fantasy that keeps Palestinians, who are ready to die for self-determination, off the determination table. They had no say in this deal. It’s Trump and his Arab allies, start to finish.
So, what’s the solution? The much-vaunted two-state solution is the holy grail, but it’s a distant mirage. Israel sees it as a death sentence; Hamas and its ilk reject Israel’s existence. If you are optimistic, you can say a majority of Palestinians and Israelis would accept a pragmatic coexistence. But the majority doesn’t run a country, the vocal and zealous minority does.
Since everyone has a solution, here are my two bits to add to the crisis. Bit One: Egypt annexes Gaza, Jordan takes the West Bank. After all, Jordan was carved from the British Mandate of Palestine. But Jordan won’t welcome more Palestinians, and Egypt won’t touch Gazans with a bargepole.
So, Bit Two, then: Israel takes Gaza, relocates Gazans to the West Bank into vacated Israeli settlements, and Israeli settlers pack up, leaving East Jerusalem behind. The West Bank becomes a demilitarised Palestine, with Jordan guaranteeing its territorial sovereignty. Both Jordan and Israel keep a hawk’s eye on terrorist activities because there will be enough Palestinians dying for revenge.
