EDITORIAL: It’s becoming increasingly clear that US President Joe Biden was perhaps the only person who thought his mysterious peace plan – to end the Gaza war, get all hostages released, and make way for reconstruction – would really work.
It was, however, surprising that Netanyahu’s office signalled an initial agreement, despite calling it a “bad plan”. But it was no surprise at all to see the Israeli armed forces still press ahead with their genocide, which just flew in the face of the White House’s latest efforts.
It is, in fact, quite shocking that the United States, the only country with any sort of leverage over Israel, is still floating peace plans that are bound to fail. Given the on-ground situation, surely Washington understands very well – just like everybody else does – that no such plan will ever get off the ground till the merciless killing of innocent civilians stops first.
And there’s no way Hamas will ever agree to prisoner release without a guaranteed permanent end to the fighting. Yet they keep hashing out proposal after proposal on the same lines that are unacceptable to all principal parties to the conflict. So, we go round in circles and the only thing that changes every day is the number of souls lost to this madness.
This issue is a lot more complicated than it seems. Ordinarily, there would be no problem with silencing the guns and returning the hostages. That is how the cycle of most conflicts reaches its end. But Netanyahu will never go for it because peace will seriously compromise his position, and his political future, at home.
Even his war cabinet is now divided, and hundreds of thousands protest against him on the streets every week, calling for his scalp; which will lead to a prompt corruption trial, long pending, and a most likely jail sentence. This is not just idle speculation from the outside; it is a very clear, very divisive issue inside Israel as well.
The other half of his extreme-right coalition government is threatening to quit, and effectively hang him out to dry, if he accepts peace without first completely destroying Hamas. Therefore, even as headlines speak of an imminent implementation of the “first phase of the ceasefire”, nothing has really changed on the ground as far as Israel’s plans are concerned.
All this makes America’s position even more unforgivable. It continues to support and arm Israel, despite the catastrophic human cost that has now alienated some of the Jewish state’s closest friends and defenders. And even on Rafah, Washington’s initial warnings and displeasure have somehow turned into acceptance, with the US president himself saying that the rocket attack on refugees in open tents did not cross a US red line.
To float hollow plans while supporting Israel even at this stage, when pressure is mounting on Netanyahu from across the world including inside Israel, betrays a disturbing divorce from reality in the world’s sole superpower; which ought to be a moment of reckoning for the whole world. From the Palestinians’ point of view, at least, these plans are designed to be non-starters.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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