On October 9, Hamas and Israel signed a “peace” agreement involving the release of all remaining Israeli hostages and the permanent occupation of Gaza by Israel. The agreement, spearheaded by US President Trump, was hailed by all factions of the US and European imperialism, along with the capitalist regimes in the Middle East, without exception, as a step toward “peace.”
The Financial Times called it “A rare moment of hope in the Middle East,” declaring that “Trump should be applauded for his push to end the catastrophe.” The New York Times called it “promising.” New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, peddled illusions in the agreement, declaring, “If the genocide ends, then I think that’s something worthy to be praised,” and Trump would deserve credit.
The capitalist regimes in the Middle East and Asia fawned over the agreement and its architect, Trump. Turkey declared that “a window of opportunity has opened for lasting peace in our region.” A joint statement by the foreign ministers of Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt said that the governments “welcome President Donald J. Trump’s leadership and his sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza, and assert their confidence in his ability to find a path to peace.”
In contrast to the ridiculous claims that Trump, a genocidal warmonger and would-be dictator, is seeking “peace” in the Middle East, the World Socialist Web Site explained that the agreement “creates an imperialist protectorate that tramples on the rights of the Palestinians and strengthens American control over the energy-rich Middle East.”
Nearly two weeks since the signing of the agreement, the correctness of this assessment is undeniable. The “peace” agreement has sanctified the permanent Israeli occupation and annexation of a large portion of Gaza, coupled with daily mass killing and the deliberate starvation of the population.
The absurd lie that “peace” has been achieved has allowed the US and international media to once again stop reporting on the genocide, despite the fact that Israel is still occupying, killing and starving the people of Gaza.
Since the signing of the “ceasefire” agreement, Israel has carried out over 80 separate violations of the deal, killing over 100 Palestinians and injuring over 230. On Sunday, the deadliest day so far, the Israeli military killed 45 Palestinians in dozens of separate attacks.
Israel, which promised to allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza every day, allowed half that number before announcing that it was shutting down aid distribution altogether amid a deepening famine.
The “peace” agreement has also left Israel in control of the majority of Gaza, setting the stage for making the US-Israeli occupation permanent.
On Wednesday, US Vice President JD Vance traveled to Israel, where he said that the visit was “not about monitoring [the cease fire] in the sense of, you know, you monitor a toddler.” That is, Israel has the administration’s green light to continue murdering Palestinians.
Vance also made clear the real plan motivating the “ceasefire.” He said, “There are considerations happening now in the area that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] controls, as long as that can be secured, to start the construction of a new Gaza.”
In other words, there is no conflict between the “peace” agreement announced by Trump and his plans for a US/Israeli-occupied Gaza and the construction of his “Gaza Riviera.” Rather, the “peace” agreement will merely solidify and make permanent the Israeli occupation of Gaza, and create the conditions for the killing, starvation and forcible displacement of the population living there.
An article in the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday, “A U.S. Plan Splits Gaza in Two—One Zone Controlled by Israel, One by Hamas,” makes clear that the Israeli occupation of Gaza is the foundation of a long-term project of annexation. It outlines a US-backed plan to divide Gaza into two zones, with reconstruction aid flowing only to areas labeled “safe zones.” Jared Kushner and Vice President JD Vance told reporters that the aim was to build a “new Gaza” under Israeli military protection.
In reality, the plan is a blueprint for the permanent partition and conquest of Gaza. As the Journal bluntly states, “Over time, Israel could take more territory from Hamas’s control.” The so-called expansion of “safe areas” means incremental annexation through killing, starvation and displacement. The proposal thus codifies the destruction of Gaza and the transformation of what remains into an occupied, militarized colony serving the interests of Israeli and American imperialism.
The Israeli annexation of portions of Gaza is to be accompanied, within the framework of the agreement, by an openly colonial arrangement for the government of Gaza. Under the proposal, Gaza is to be governed by a “Board of Peace” that will be “headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump” and include “former [UK] Prime Minister Tony Blair.”
This arrangement is a flagrant violation of international law, trampling underfoot the internationally recognized right of all people to self-determination.
The “peace” deal in Gaza has furthered the conditions for Israel to move forward with the annexation of the West Bank. This week, Israeli lawmakers voted 25-24 to advance a bill declaring that “the laws, judicial system, administration, and sovereignty of the State of Israel shall apply to all areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria.”
The fraud of the Gaza agreement carries far-reaching lessons for workers and young people fighting to stop the Gaza genocide and oppose imperialist war and neo-colonialism. Every government and political tendency that supports or excuses this crime—whether in Tel Aviv, Washington or the capitals in the Middle East—stands exposed as an enemy of the working class. They have given their stamp of approval to an agreement that makes permanent the colonial subjugation of the Palestinian masses and gives a fig leaf of legality to the ongoing genocide.
After two years of mass killing, all protests directed at pressuring the US or European political establishment into opposing the genocide have shown themselves to be totally ineffective.
The only way to stop the ongoing genocide is to build a mass movement of workers and young people against war based on a socialist perspective.
As the World Socialist Web Site wrote in its response to the “peace” agreement:
The tragedy of the Palestinians has been that they are deprived of the support of the working class due to the absence of a revolutionary movement in the advanced countries. The only way to realize the democratic and social rights of the long-suffering masses of the Middle East and establish a genuine basis for peaceful coexistence is through the fight for the perspective of the Permanent Revolution. Arab, Jewish, Iranian, Turkish and Kurdish workers must unite in a common struggle against the imperialist domination of the region and for the creation of the United Socialist States of the Middle East as part of a world socialist federation. In this struggle, their allies are not to be found in the pro-imperialist and corrupt Zionist and Arab ruling classes, but in the working class in the imperialist centres of North America and Europe.
Forging this alliance into an independent political and industrial movement of the international working class capable of putting an end to capitalism—the root cause of genocide, imperialist war and all forms of colonial-style oppression—is possible only on the basis of the revolutionary socialist program fought for by the International Committee of the Fourth International and its daily organ, the World Socialist Web Site.
The task now is to transform the outrage of millions into a conscious, organized struggle to end the system that produces genocide and war. The Socialist Equality Party and the International Committee of the Fourth International call on workers and youth in every country to take up this fight—to build sections of the ICFI, unite across national and religious lines and fight for the socialist reorganization of the world.