Even a cursory examination of this ‘peace plan’ reveals that it is but a fragile pause amid Gaza’s enduring carnage offering no genuine relief but only a fleeting ceasefire veiling deeper injustice.
Yet as Jeffrey Sachs observed, there is at least one reason for cautious hope: “Maybe the fighting is going to stop.” After Israel has “murdered 67,000 people” and “starved hundreds of thousands,” with “many children dying just on a daily basis right now because of starvation,” any cessation of violence offers desperately needed respite. The total death toll, both direct and indirect, may have reached 700,000 people. This temporary halt in killing is not genuine peace.
It is clear that President Trump’s so-called “Gaza peace plan” is neither a breakthrough nor a viable peace because it merely recycles a blueprint of occupation designed to enshrine Israeli control, absolve the architects of violence, and compel complicity from Muslim leaders while simultaneously sidelining the Palestinian right to sovereignty and justice.
It didn’t take long for Israel to break the ceasefire as it informed the United Nations it will permit only 300 aid trucks into Gaza daily, not the 600 mandated by the ceasefire it just signed. Israel’s excuse was Hamas has been slow to return the bodies of captives killed by their own bombing of civilians in Gaza even though Hamas has explained the difficulties.
Then Israeli occupation forces murdered five more Christian and Muslim Palestinians in Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighbourhood plus another 3 in Khan Younis. Israeli soldiers conducted “arson sprees” burning civilian infrastructure including sanitation plants as they withdrew, shelled Jabalia and continued drone strikes
The illusion of peace beneath a façade of reconstruction
Cloaked in the language of reconstruction, disarmament, and international oversight, the 20-point plan demands Palestinian submission without reciprocal guarantees. Palestinians are told to disarm before any meaningful sovereignty or reparations are secured without any timeline or implementation mechanism. Meanwhile, Israel still retains control over Gaza’s borders, airspace, and trade routes that de facto perpetuates occupation.
As Sachs bluntly observed, beyond the immediate ceasefire, “all the rest of the so-called peace plan is not agreed.” He added ominously “It will never be agreed.” The plan contains “a lot of gobbledygook, but there’s no resolution of the core political issues,” in particular whether there will be a genuine state of Palestine.
Corporate annexation and imperial control
Yanis Varoufakis exposes the plan’s most sinister dimension: “Donald Trump will annex personally—personally—the Gaza Strip.” This represents what he calls “a bizarre mix of colonialism, neoliberalism, capitalism, some sort of dystopia” where Trump becomes “the supreme leader of Gaza,” with no accountability to the United Nations.
The appointment of war criminal Tony Blair to the “Board of Peace” compounds this betrayal. The inclusion of a man whose lies about weapons of mass destruction helped unleash the Iraq war symbolises how impunity is rewarded with consultancy, reducing Palestinians to voiceless spectators within a colonial framework that prioritises image management over justice.
Muslim leadership between complicity and constraint
The charade extends into the Muslim world, where Gulf regimes that are dependent on American military and financial patronage parade as partners for “stability.” Indonesia and Pakistan, the world’s two largest Muslim democracies, as well as Türkiye faced intense pressure to endorse the plan, risking transforming them into accessories to dispossession.
Malaysia was not invited to the US-organised peace summit precisely because it offered only conditional support, as its PM insisted that any peace initiative had to recognise Palestinian sovereignty and guarantee the right of return.
The plan has deliberately omitted these principles exposing a diplomatic environment where only unconditional endorsement is rewarded.
Shadows of Dayton: Forced peace and its perils
The historical parallel with Bosnia’s Dayton Agreement is sobering. Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović reluctantly signed that deal to halt genocide against Bosnian Muslims, in spite of knowing it was deeply flawed. The agreement institutionalised ethnic partition, granting Republika Srpska nearly half the country and permanent veto power, effectively rewarding ethnic cleansing.
What makes this parallel disturbing is the underlying animus against Muslim populations in both contexts. Both Bosnia and Palestine historically embodied interfaith coexistence before exclusionist ideologies took root. Yet both “peace” processes have targeted Muslim populations specifically. Dayton legitimised anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing, and Trump’s plan demands Palestinian disarmament while preserving Israeli control.
Economic recolonisation disguised as development
Trump’s plan promises Gaza’s transformation into a “Riviera of the Middle East” through foreign-run special economic zones governed by billionaires and technocrats. This reveals economic recolonisation, not liberation. Public assets become investment commodities; Palestinians reduced to supervised labour.
Sachs exposes the cynical reality: “Lots of American companies have gotten quite rich… selling cloud services and AI and genocidal targeting to the Israeli defence forces. So this has been a good year for Silicon Valley, which is all over this mass murder in Gaza.” The same technology used to facilitate killing now promises to manage the “peace.” Trump was captured on a hot mike talking about business opportunities with the President of Indonesia.
The grim calculus of violence
Very disturbing is the calculated nature of Israel’s violence. A former head of Israeli military intelligence declared that “for every Israeli that died, 50 Palestinians should be killed.” “Maybe they calculate that their mass bloodletting has been accomplished,” Sachs observed.
This chilling arithmetic reveals the plan not as genuine peace-making but as the conclusion of a predetermined campaign of collective punishment, a “ceasefire” that is declared only after the desired level of destruction has been achieved.
Justice as the foundation of peace
No durable peace can grow from denial. To rebuild Gaza without ending occupation is to pour concrete over a mass grave. A just peace must rest on five non-negotiable principles: full withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlements; recognition of Palestinian self-determination, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem; legal accountability for war crimes; regional solidarity grounded in justice; and a Palestinian-led governance of reconstruction.
Without these, the Trump-Netanyahu plan is a blueprint for administering occupation, neutering resistance, and outsourcing complicity to fragile regimes and international businessmen.
This plan seeks Palestinian elimination through different means. It would result in a disarmed Palestine stripped of agency and dignity. Let us hope that the world does not leave Gaza to this ominous fate but take it as a dire warning and act to ensure better future.
The ruins of Gaza may be silent, but the graves of its victims still speak and demand to know where the world stands. Will we choose the difficult path of justice, or will we once again accept the comfortable lie of “peace” without liberation?
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