While Trump speaks of calm and reconstruction, Israeli
aggression continues almost daily, violating ceasefire understandings with
impunity. Washington, far from being an honest broker, remains the principal
enabler—arming, financing, and diplomatically shielding Israel while performing
concern for Palestinian suffering. Trump’s rhetoric cannot conceal this
contradiction. Peace cannot be brokered by those underwriting the war.
As large-scale bombing subsided, a new phase of pressure
emerged. Gaza became the subject of maps, crossings, donor conferences, and
discussions about “the day after.” Central to this discourse is the idea of a
“peace council,” international forces, and a transitional governing arrangement
imposed from outside. These proposals move slowly because they are designed not
to end occupation, but to recycle Western control while avoiding a frank
admission of failure.
Trump’s plan—Israeli withdrawal in exchange for Hamas’s
removal, followed by an internationally supervised administration—lays bare a
colonial mindset. Gaza is reduced to a problem to be solved, not a people with
rights. Palestinians are expected to accept a future negotiated in Washington,
as if sovereignty were a favor Trump can dispense. The voices of those who
endured siege and destruction are conspicuously absent.
What drives Trump’s sudden peace enthusiasm is not
compassion but damage control. After a prolonged and devastating war, Israel
failed to impose its will militarily, exposing the limits of US-backed force.
The myth of invincibility collapsed, and global opinion shifted sharply. Trump
now seeks to repackage defeat as diplomacy, positioning himself as a peacemaker
while rescuing a deeply tarnished ally.
Reconstruction, under this framework, becomes another
weapon. Aid is offered conditionally, tied to disarmament and political
submission. This transactional logic—treating freedom as a commodity—has failed
everywhere it has been tried, from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Gazans refuse to be reduced to property or a bargaining
chip. Their resistance has transformed from a marginal humanitarian case into a
global symbol exposing Western hypocrisy. Trump may imagine himself redesigning
the region, but Gaza stands as a reminder that peace imposed through power,
money, or arrogance is not peace at all.
