Hamish McPherson says the end to daily slaughter is a relief and calls on Labor Friends of Palestine to keep the pressure on the Albanese government to sanction Israel.
A limited ceasefire deal has finally been struck to halt Israel’s carnage in Gaza. The hungry, injured and brave people of Gaza will certainly feel some relief to have survived the relentless and genocidal violence they have suffered for two long years.
This first phase of the Trump ‘Peace Plan’ offers only the bare minimum, an exchange of hostages and prisoners, free entry of humanitarian aid and the pull-back of the Israeli military to agreed lines whereby the IDF will still occupy 58 percent of Gaza.
The larger issues of an Israeli withdrawal to a ‘security perimeter’ inside Gaza, and the rebuilding, security and governance of Gaza are still being negotiated. There is genuine reason to fear that Israel, with hostages returned, will find a pretext to resume their war on the people of Gaza. This is exactly what occurred after the previous brief ceasefire in January-March 2025, which Israel broke with bombings and a siege of food supplies that has caused famine.
World leaders have rushed to welcome the deal and Trump’s plan. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, no doubt preparing for his visit to the White House on 20 October, described it as a “ray of light” for the Middle East and asserted that “President Trump’s plan also rejects the annexation or forced displacement of the Palestinian people because the only path to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East remains a two-state solution”.
This plan is more a ‘ray of light’ in a prison cell than anything resembling the sunlight of a new dawn for the Palestinian people. The plan essentially re-packages Israeli domination over historic Palestine, creating a colonial mandate or protectorate in Gaza without any commitment to end the occupation or create a unified Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
That former British prime minister Tony Blair, who along with George W. Bush led the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, will be given a leading role in the colonial governance of occupied Gaza is adding insult to injury.
The deal has been made on fundamentally unequal terms. Trump presented the Palestinian resistance with an ultimatum, agree to the terms or face complete destruction. To make this clear Israel had escalated its massacres and bombings of residential buildings in Gaza City, even attacking Palestinians fleeing south.
The Trump-led plan has been facilitated and warmly welcomed by both western governments and those of the leading Arab and Muslim states. They have been under intense pressure from their own people to end Israel’s brutal war, with mass street protests and popular organising on a scale not seen since the Vietnam era.
The Mediterranean has itself been a crucible of resistance, from the rubble strewn shores of Gaza city to the docks of Greece and Italy. Italy has witnessed two massive general strikes and actions by port workers banning shipments to the Zionist state and in support of the ‘Sumud’ flotilla of civilian ships attempting to deliver aid to besieged Gaza.
Western and Arab states used the recent UN General Assembly to adopt a plan for a two-state solution and sought to influence Trump’s plan. This recycles the false promise of the Oslo Accords for a ‘two-state solution’ that for three decades has been abused and trampled, with Gaza an open-air prison and the West Bank carved up into Palestinian ghettos behind concrete walls and military checkpoints.
After two years of intense war on the entire Gazan population, Hamas and the other resistance factions had few options left but to seek a deal. While at times they have inflicted losses on Israel through guerilla combat, its forces are greatly diminished and have effectively been militarily defeated.
Israel has not been able to achieve its genocidal objectives of mass expulsion and the complete annexation of Gaza. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that Israel intends to continue military dominance and the occupation of Gaza’s perimeter regions. He has also rejected accepting a unified Palestinian state, including a role for the Palestinian Authority in governing Gaza.
Responding to Canada, France, Britain and Australia recognising a Palestinian state (conditions apply) at the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu declared “there will be no Palestinian state … it’s not going to happen”.
Genocide enablers
The Trump ‘Peace Plan’ is designed by the same US state which has actively armed and directly funded and supported Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. This bloody alliance is motivated by US commitment to maintain Israel as the dominant military power in Middle East, including its domination over the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and capacity to wage war in Lebanon, Syria and against Iran.
This commitment to Israeli dominance is reflected in the specific terms of the ‘Peace Plan’, which impose greater conditions on the occupied Palestinians than it does on the occupying power. Israeli withdrawal is conditional on the ‘demilitarisation’ of Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and other factions and a guarantee that they play no role in governance. This provides Israel with a veto over progress and numerous opportunities to resume attacks and war on Gaza. At the time of publication, Hamas has not yet agreed to these terms.
Crucially, the plan does not allow the Palestinian people to democratically decide their own government, to have any sovereign powers or an armed force. Gaza is to be run by a temporary technocratic ‘apolitical’ Palestinian committee, overseen by an international ‘Board of Peace’ chaired by Trump and including Blair.
Trump’s earlier grotesque vision of creating a Gaza ‘Riveria’ of private real estate and development opportunities has not been abandoned. Apparently the ‘Board of Peace’ will “create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment”. A special economic zone is to be established, with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries.
This new arrangement is to be policed by an International Stabilisation Force composed of troops from other nations, with a leading role for Arab states such as Jordan and Egypt. The dynastic and military regimes of these nations can be relied on to act in the best interests of stability for the US and western powers, and to repress any potential political opposition or resistance by the Palestinian people.
Israel’s war on Gaza has exposed the self-interest, corruption and cowardice of the capitalist rulers of both the western liberal states and the Arab authoritarian regimes.
While the US directly funded and armed the destruction of Gaza, other western nations, including Australia, have maintained normal diplomatic relations with Israel, military trade, including parts for F-35 fighter jets and a steady flow of military intelligence, in Australia’s case via Pine Gap.
Complicit Arab regimes
The Arab regimes have been bystanders to the horrors on their doorstep. Between the regular summits and expressions of dismay, the oil, gas and supplies have continued to flow unimpeded to Isreal. Any real pan-Arab or Islamic solidarity has long been traded for economic integration with the capitalist market, including high-tech Israel.
For both sets of rulers Israel is a troublesome partner in a global system of capitalist and military trade and production. The western powers have spent decades turning a blind eye to the crimes of occupation because they value the partnership with Israel’s high-tech and military industries and because they identify with Israel as a fellow member of the pro-imperialist club and a counterweight to adversaries such as Iran.
However, the open cruelty and barbarity of Israel’s war on Gaza caused a shift in relations. Like the nightly TV broadcasts of US crimes in Vietnam, millions have watched the horrors of Gaza on their devices and been propelled into action. Governments have been forced to distance themselves from outward or total alignment with Israel and at least signal opposition.
An end to the daily massacres will probably lead to lowering of public focus and urgency propelling mass mobilisations. But we should counter moves to lessen political engagement and even to ‘move on’ from the matter, as is a tendency on the left. This is instead a time to develop politically and re-focus on the core issues of Israel’s occupation, apartheid and the structures of imperialism that sustain this.
Maintain our pressure
The global solidarity movement combined with the steadfast resistance of the Palestinian people has shown the potential for mass movements and political upheaval to end Israel’s colonial occupation and apartheid system.
While the ending of the daily slaughter will come as welcome relief to the people of Gaza, we should not trust or accept a limited neo-colonial ‘Peace Plan’ overseen by the same powers that have imposed a genocide on the people of Gaza.
Peace, like war, is merely the continuation of politics by other means: this will be a renewed ‘stability’ in the Middle East based on a combination of Israeli occupation, authoritarian regimes and US military power.
But make no mistake: the overarching goal of Zionism, from 1947 to today is to expel the Palestinian population to form a greater Israel from the sea to the river. This was made clear in Likud’s 1977 founding document: “Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”
As a movement we should stand firm in our demands for a complete end to Israel’s system of occupation and apartheid, and for the Australian government and private capital to end all political, military, economic and cultural relations with Israel that aid and abet their crimes of occupation.
Over the past two years in Australia people have built active, outward looking Palestine solidarity groups in cities, suburbs, regions, sectors such as health and education and in the labour movement. All groups, including Labor Friends of Palestine, can use the breathing space of a ceasefire to assemble, discuss the changing situation and re-focus on our core demands for sanctions against Israel.
We can expect that Israel will now accelerate its aggression and attempted ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Solidarity groups, including Labor Friends of Palestine, are well positioned to respond pro-actively, by educating and mobilising supporters against the continued reality of Israeli occupation and apartheid.
Within the broader movement socialists should continue to advocate and build permanent struggle against the existing capitalist system that created the genocide and for a mass democratic upheaval across both the Middle East and the west to upend the imperialist ‘peace’ and ‘stability’ that made it possible.