Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump said of Israel’s war against the governing Hamas faction in the Gaza Strip, “the war is over,” as he boarded Air Force One to fly to Israel to attend a signing today of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. And he said, “the ceasefire will hold.” Well, everyone hopes so, even Hamas. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said, “tomorrow is the beginning of a new path.”
Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire Plan Is Working
President Trump and his people have worked diligently with especially Netanyahu, but also leaders of Arab nations, to get accepted his 20-point proposal for this ceasefire and beyond. Many things happened to bring it about. For one, people involved were just plain getting war-weary. And despite world criticism against Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza, Hamas’ reputation among Palestinians, and throughout the Arab world, was in serious decline. Polling showed that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip no longer supported Hamas in governing them. That provides opportunity for the Palestinian Authority that governs Palestinians living in the West Bank. It, being a secular group, and Islamic radical Hamas had been opponents for nearly twenty years.
If this ceasefire holds, the first steps are Hamas releasing the twenty some living hostages and Israel releasing thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Next will be getting aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza as they trek their way back to their homes, if they are left standing. Israel practically wipe the place off the face of the map.
Trump Wants to Make Gaza Like the Riviera
Eventually, reconstruction will begin. I think President Trump has a lot in mind about that since he was a real estate tycoon builder in New York City. As soon as Trump took office, on February 5th this year, he said all Palestinians should be removed from the Gaza Strip to live somewhere else, and Gaza could then be made into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” That did not sit well with Arabs throughout the world, but especially Palestinians. And it endangered the Abraham Accords engineered by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The next month, the Arab League met in Cairo where Egypt offered a plan for ending the war, reconstructing Gaza, and governing it which the Arab League accepted. Parts of it may now be melded with the Trump plan.
Could This Be the Start of a Palestinian State?
If all of this happens, it is inconceivable to me that a serious, tremendous, and beautiful reconstruction of the Gaza Strip will occur without it being declared a Palestinian state. If that happens, or something like it, it will be one more step, and a huge one, taken toward what I say in my book published 35 years, with its thesis vividly shown in its front cover image and clearly stated in the book’s subtitle: Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In