Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write:

Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza demands atonement from Palestinians for the horrific acts of 7 October, not from Israel for the barbarity that followed. It calls for Gaza’s deradicalization but not an end to Israel’s messianism. It micromanages the future of Palestinian governance while saying nothing about the future of Israel’s occupation.

It is riddled with ambiguities, devoid of timetables, arbiters or consequences for inevitable eventual violations. If all goes according to plan – if the deal’s vagueness is not exploited to torpedo it; unavoidable clashes over subsequent phases do not get in the way of the first stage; Arab and Muslim states maintain pressure on the United States and the United States gets Israel to comply – life for Gazans will transition from utter hell to mere nightmare. Their condition will shift from defenceless prey to twice-dispossessed refugees in their own land. And still, it would be a momentous achievement.

Israel seldom has enjoyed such unrivalled regional military dominance and has never been more isolated. The Palestinians have rarely benefited from such widespread support, and their national movement hardly ever been more adrift. Neither side managed to convert the tremendous assets they accumulated into tangible political gains.

It took an American president unbound by traditional domestic constraints, immune to laws of political gravity, willing to break with convention, engage with Hamas and tackle Israel, to get this done and provide the parties with what they could accept. For Israel, the return of hostages, a continued military presence in Gaza, and the end of a war that was sapping domestic resources and draining global support. For Hamas, a halt to the brutal slaughter, an influx of humanitarian aid, release of prisoners, ruling out deporting Gazans and annexing the West Bank, and a de facto recognition of the movement as chief Palestinian interlocutor on matters of war and peace.

For both, this was validation for an imperfect deal. Little of the plan’s provisions mattered beyond those. As it has in the past, progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict depended less on textual details, about which Trump knew nothing, or on intellectual contortions, which he disdains, than on the exercise of raw power – which he relishes. That this ought to have happened long ago, that so many lives could and should have been spared, is beyond dispute. It is a burden those responsible must bear and for which they ought to be held accountable. [Continue reading…]