ON Monday, US president Donald Trump delivered his ‘peace deal’ which is an ultimatum to the Palestinian resistance groups to either accept his 20-point ‘peace plan’ or face the consequences. He was accompanied and supported by war criminal, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump and Netanyahu insisted that they were not offering any choice to Hamas and the Palestinians and it was either accept what amounts to complete surrender or, in Trump’s words, ‘Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.’
In fact, the Zionist regime already has the full backing of Trump and US imperialism but the plan shows that Netanyahu and his Israeli forces have failed to destroy the Palestinian resistance despite a genocidal war that has so far killed over 66,000 Palestinians.
At the press conference announcing this plan, Trump explained it included the release of all Israeli captives within 72 hours, demilitarisation of Gaza and a phased withdrawal of IOF (Israeli Occupation Force) troops from Gaza.
Trump’s plan demands the complete disarmament of Hamas which is to be excluded from any future role in governing Gaza.
The governance of Gaza is to be taken up ‘temporarily’ by a ‘Board of Peace’ with Trump as its Chairman, along with ex-UK Labour prime minster and arch war criminal Tony Blair.
An International Stabilisation Force (ISF), a multinational peacekeeping force, is proposed to oversee disarming Hamas.
In return for Hamas surrendering, Israel will, it is claimed, suspend military attacks and operate a phased withdrawal to unspecified lines. However since this was announced, Netanyahu has already stated that Israeli forces will not be leaving Gaza.
As for any future Palestinian state, which Netanyahu insists will never be agreed by the Zionist state, the plan merely offers a vague possibility of a ‘credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination’ some time in the very distant future.
He went on to reveal that behind the plan exposing the failure of the Zionist state to crush Hamas in Gaza, is the massive opposition from workers and masses across the world to the Israel’s imperialist-backed genocide which has left Israel isolated.
But what is clear in Trump’s plan is that the imperialists are planning to colonise the Gaza Strip, controlling it for their own interests.
Hamas had not received official notification of these plans prior to Monday and is now reported to be considering it ‘in good faith’.
The immediate reaction from Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi was to note that the plan is close to the Israeli vision and that it is an attempt to stifle the international momentum and growing recognition of the Palestinian state.
This was underlined by the wave of enthusiasm and support for Trump’s plan from the UK and EU countries that have been terrified by the wave of support amongst workers and youth in their countries, threatening revolutionary uprisings that has posed a serious threat to these governments.
Whatever is decided by Hamas, the Zionist regime, with the guaranteed backing of US imperialism, is determined to carry on with its plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and to use genocide to prevent the independent state of Palestine from being established.
The working class in the US, UK and Europe along with the masses of the world will not be taken in by Trump’s so-called peace plan that acts as a cover for complicity in genocide.
Now is the time for workers to turn their support for the independent state of Palestine into action by organising mass general strikes to bring down their governments and go forward to workers’ governments that will give support to the Palestinians to establish the independent state of Palestine of Gaza and the West Bank that will rightfully restore the land back to the Palestinians for good.