Peace pieces

To the editor:

Watching news coverage of the Oct. 10 Gaza ceasefire deal made me wonder if the world suffers from mass amnesia. Everyone fawned over Donald Trump’s incredible foreign policy “achievement” — an end to Israeli bombardment of Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

However, I seem to recall that Joe Biden secured a very similar ceasefire-for-hostages deal just prior to leaving office. I also remember Biden’s deal unraveled shortly after Trump took office.  On Feb. 4, Trump emerged from a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu and announced “the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip” and the 1.8 million Palestinians who call Gaza home “should go to other countries.” 

Israel broke the two-month ceasefire and resumed its genocidal campaign on March 18. The estimated death toll in Gaza was approximately 45,000 at that time. More than 20,000 additional deaths have been recorded since mid-March, making the post Biden-ceasefire period the bloodiest of the two-year war.

I wonder what Trump would have done had Netanyahu not bombed Qatar on Sept. 9? Or, one week later, had the U.N. Commission of Inquiry not found Israel guilty of committing genocide?  Or, the following week had Western democracies not recognized the Palestinian State? Or, had polling not shown that the vast majority of Americans no longer supported Israel’s campaign of destruction?

To my mind, Trump did nothing extraordinary. He simply corrected course once it became clear which way the political winds were blowing. Trump claims he delivered a “long-term beautiful peace,” “real peace — not fake peace, not political fool’s peace.” That remains to be seen, given that the Knesset advanced a bill annexing the West Bank at the same time that Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio visited Israel to shore up the already fragile ceasefire.

Joseph Cannisi