\n<\/p>\n
United States President Donald Trump styles himself as a peacemaker. In his rhetoric, he claims credit for his efforts to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Yet beneath the grandstanding lies an absence of substance, at least to date.<\/p>\n
The problem is not Trump\u2019s lack of effort, but his lack of proper concepts. Trump confuses \u201cpeace\u201d with \u201cceasefires,\u201d which sooner or later revert to war (typically sooner). In fact, American presidents from Lyndon Johnson onward have been subservient to the military-industrial complex, which profits from endless war. Trump is merely following in that line by avoiding a genuine resolution to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Peace is not a ceasefire. Lasting peace is achieved by resolving the underlying political disputes that led to the war. This requires grappling with history, international law and political interests that fuel conflicts. Without addressing the root causes of war, ceasefires are a mere intermission between rounds of slaughter.<\/p>\n
Trump has proposed what he calls a \u201cpeace plan<\/a>\u201d for Gaza. However, what he outlines amounts to nothing more than a ceasefire. His plan fails to address the core political issue of Palestinian statehood. A true peace plan would tie together four outcomes: the end of Israel\u2019s genocide, Hamas\u2019s disarmament, Palestine\u2019s membership in the United Nations, and the normalisation of diplomatic ties with Israel and Palestine throughout the world. These foundational principles are absent from Trump\u2019s plan, which is why no country has signed off on it despite White House insinuations to the contrary.\u00a0 At most, some countries have backed the \u201cDeclaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity<\/a>,\u201d a temporising gesture.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s peace plan was presented to Arab and Muslim countries to deflect attention from the global momentum for Palestinian statehood. The US plan is designed to undercut that momentum, allowing Israel to continue its de facto annexation of the West Bank and its ongoing bombardment of Gaza and restrictions of emergency relief under the ruse of security. Israel\u2019s ambitions are to eradicate the possibility of a Palestinian state, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made explicit<\/a> at the UN in September.\u00a0 So far, Trump and his associates have simply been advancing Netanyahu\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s \u201cplan\u201d is already unravelling, much like the Oslo Accords, the Camp David Summit, and every other \u201cpeace process\u201d that treated Palestinian statehood as a distant aspiration rather than the solution to the conflict.\u00a0 If Trump really wants to end the war \u2013 a somewhat doubtful proposition \u2013 he\u2019d have to break with Big Tech and the rest of the military-industrial complex (recipients of vast arms contracts<\/a> funded by the US).\u00a0 Since October 2023, the US has spent $21.7bn on military aid<\/a> to Israel, much of it returning to Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n Trump would also have to break with his donor-in-chief, Miriam Adelson, and the Zionist lobby.\u00a0 In doing so, he would at least represent the American people (who support a state<\/a> of Palestine) and uphold American strategic interests. The US would join the overwhelming global consensus, which endorses the implementation of the two-state solution, rooted in UN Security Council<\/a> resolutions and ICJ opinions<\/a>.<\/p>\n