AS some of the world’s most powerful leaders gathered in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, geopolitical theatre and hyperbole replaced substance, as the assembled luminaries celebrated ‘peace’ in the Middle East. Leading the pack was US President Donald Trump, as he declared, in a moment of self-congratulation, with reference to the Palestine-Israel conflict and his Gaza peace plan, that the “long and painful nightmare is finally over”.
While the genocide in Gaza has certainly stopped, achieving a just and permanent peace in occupied Palestine is still a very distant goal. Despite the effusive praise Mr Trump has received over the Gaza plan, including from Pakistan’s prime minister, who again called for giving the Nobel Prize to the US leader, and declared that he had “saved millions of lives”, there is little of substance in the Trumpian scheme.
For one, there is no clear path towards a sovereign Palestinian state, even though Egypt’s president claimed that the deal paves the way for the two-state solution. We must remember that the Oslo Accords of 1993 — which offered a much more detailed, if flawed, framework for peace — collapsed in the chaos of the Second Intifada, mainly because of Israel’s insincerity towards genuine peace.
Moreover, the idea of a foreign-administered, colonial-style administration to oversee Gaza, including the deployment of foreign troops, sounds deeply flawed. Those familiar with the region should remember the involvement of American and European ‘peacekeepers’ during the Lebanese civil war; that experiment ended in disaster. The ‘nation-building’ debacle in Iraq should also not be forgotten.
In short, neither Gaza nor the West Bank should be ruled by foreign forces. Palestinian factions of all persuasions should come together and manage their land till the conditions are created for credible elections.
It is also a fact that amidst the celebrations of ‘peace’ in Sharm el-Sheikh, there was no mention of accountability for Israel’s crimes during the Gaza genocide. Unfortunately, the Zionist state has for decades acted as if it is above the law, killing, maiming and stealing from the Palestinians since the time of the Nakba. It is because Israel was not punished for its past impunity that it felt confident enough to carry out the Gaza slaughter.
If there is to be genuine peace in the region, two things are essential. First, those in Tel Aviv responsible for the murder and starvation of tens of thousands of Gazans must be held to account. The world must pledge that ‘never again’ will there be another genocide like Gaza. Secondly, a firm roadmap towards a sovereign and viable Palestinian state must be drawn up. Anything less than this will only perpetuate the cycle of violence, as Israel continues to deny the Palestinians their legitimate rights.
Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2025
