Even a limited pause in the unspeakable suffering that residents of the Gaza Strip have endured for two years is welcome, and thus it is unsurprising that the deal on Gaza that was reached in early October was widely and mistakenly termed a “peace agreement.”
The deal was instead a prisoner exchange and limited ceasefire. It came about because the slaughter and starvation of Gazans had gone so far that Hamas was willing to give up its scant leverage in the form of the remaining Israeli hostages. With their release, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu removed the main immediate domestic source of opposition to his policies, while the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) got a needed break before resuming operations.
No agreement appears close to being reached on most of President Trump’s 20-point “peace plan.” Even less attention is being given to the fundamental causes of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian violence, which involve Israel’s territorial aggrandizement and denial of Palestinian self-determination…..more