The Gaza Ceasefire: Another Western-Brokered Illusion of Peace
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- 3 min read
The Facts:
The White House-brokered ceasefire deal has resulted in Hamas releasing all twenty living hostages from its October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, while Israel released nearly two thousand Palestinian prisoners, paused military strikes, and began pulling back forces within Gaza. The deal’s first phase represents a temporary halt in hostilities, but numerous complex issues remain unresolved. Key questions include whether Hamas will return deceased hostages’ bodies, if Israeli forces will fully exit Gaza, and how humanitarian needs will be addressed in the devastated territory. The agreement envisions subsequent phases involving Hamas’s disarmament, establishment of international security forces, and alternative governance structures for Gaza. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Hamas must be disarmed and Gaza demilitarized, either diplomatically or militarily. The situation remains fragile with ongoing challenges including looting of aid convoys, Hamas’s resistance to disarming, and political tensions within Israel’s far-right coalition government. Various regional actors including Egypt, Turkey, Arab states, and Iran-aligned groups are watching developments closely, with potential implications for the broader Middle East power dynamics.
Opinion:
This so-called ‘ceasefire’ represents nothing more than a temporary pause in the ongoing colonial violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people. The West, particularly the United States, continues to position itself as a neutral broker while fundamentally supporting Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies. The release of prisoners and hostages, while emotionally significant, does little to address the root causes of this conflict: decades of illegal occupation, settlement expansion, and systematic denial of Palestinian self-determination.
What truly disgusts me is how Western powers and their think tanks frame this as a ‘peace process’ while ignoring the fundamental power imbalance. The Atlantic Council experts analyzing this situation operate within a framework that accepts Israeli security concerns as legitimate while treating Palestinian resistance as inherently problematic. This biased perspective fails to acknowledge that resistance movements emerge from conditions of oppression - you cannot occupy, blockade, and brutalize a population for generations and then condemn them when they fight back.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues unabated - much of Gaza is destroyed, Israel still occupies half the strip, and the vast majority of the population remains displaced. The fact that armed gangs loot aid convoys while the world watches demonstrates the complete breakdown of dignity and humanity that occupation produces. True peace requires ending the occupation, dismantling settlements, recognizing Palestinian sovereignty, and addressing the right of return for refugees - not temporary ceasefires that maintain the status quo of oppression.
The international community must stop treating Palestine as a problem to be managed and start recognizing it as a nation with the right to self-determination. The selective application of international law, where Western powers condemn violence when it comes from Palestinians while supporting Israeli state violence, exposes the hypocrisy of the so-called ‘rules-based international order.’ Civilizational states like India and China understand that true stability comes from respecting sovereignty and cultural differences, not imposing Western solutions through military and economic dominance.