When some of the world’s most powerful leaders gathered Monday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, geopolitical theater and hyperbole replaced substance, as the assembled luminaries celebrated “peace” in the Middle East. Leading the way was US President Donald Trump, who declared, in a moment of self-congratulation, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his Gaza peace plan, that “the long, painful nightmare is finally over.”
While the genocide in Gaza has certainly ceased, achieving a just and permanent peace in occupied Palestine remains a very distant goal. Despite the effusive praise Trump has received for the Gaza plan, including from Pakistan’s prime minister, who again called for the American leader to be awarded the Nobel Prize and declared that he had “saved millions of lives,” there is little of substance to Trump’s plan.
For one thing, there is no clear path to a sovereign Palestinian state, despite Egypt’s president stating that the deal paves the way for a two-state solution. We must remember that the 1993 Oslo Accords, which offered a much more detailed, if flawed, framework for peace, collapsed in the chaos of the Second Intifada, primarily due to Israel’s insincerity toward genuine peace.
Furthermore, the idea of a colonial-style administration run from abroad to oversee Gaza, including the deployment of foreign troops, sounds deeply flawed. Those familiar with the region should remember the involvement of American and European “peacekeepers” during the Lebanese civil war; That experiment ended in disaster. Nor should the “nation-building” debacle in Iraq be forgotten.
In short, neither Gaza nor the West Bank should be governed by foreign forces. Palestinian factions of all stripes should unite and manage their lands until the conditions for credible elections are created.
It is also a fact that amid the “peace” celebrations in Sharm el-Sheikh, there was no mention of accountability for Israel’s crimes during the Gaza genocide. Unfortunately, the Zionist state has acted for decades as if it were above the law, killing, maiming and robbing Palestinians since the time of the Nakba. Because Israel was not punished for its past impunity, it felt safe enough to carry out the massacre in Gaza.
For there to be genuine peace in the region, two things are essential. First, those responsible in Tel Aviv for the murder and starvation of tens of thousands of Gazans must be held accountable. The world must promise that there will “never again” be another genocide like that in Gaza. Second, a firm roadmap towards a sovereign and viable Palestinian state must be developed. Anything less than this will only perpetuate the cycle of violence, as Israel continues to deny Palestinians their legitimate rights.
Published in Dawn, October 15, 2025
