There were joyous celebrations on the streets of Gaza after the ceasefire was finally approved by the Israeli Knesset, though mixed with trepidation for the future and grief on returning to their destroyed homes.
Amir Al-Ashi, a Gazan in the crossfire of the bombardment, told The New Arab newspaper that “I feel joy, sadness, oppression, pain and anger all at the same time… We have lost everything. I wanted my mother, my brothers and my relatives to be alive, but all I have left is my brother so we can suffer the pain forever.”
However, this pain and suffering that Al-Ashi and many Palestinians have had to endure is not over, since the ceasefire only offers an unstable truce, leaving oppression of the Palestinian people in place.
The scale of the destruction means this agreement cannot be claimed as a victory for anyone. But Gazans are finally able to move without being shot at, and sleep without being bombed. It is testament to the tenacity of Palestinian resistance that Israel’s overwhelming and genocidal bombing campaign could not achieve the goals of removing Palestinians from the strip, or eliminating Hamas.
The Agreement
The ceasefire agreement is in three parts; this first part ends in 42 days. Though a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops is specified, they will not all be taken out of Gaza. The first in a proposed series of prisoner swaps has already happened. This war in Gaza is not supposed to end till somewhere in the second part of the agreement, but these details remain to be negotiated, with Netanyahu still insisting on the dismantling of Hamas, and it could easily fall apart.
The ex-National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of the neo-fascist Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) party has left Netanyahu’s cabinet in opposition to the ceasefire, but the similarly far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich (of the “Religious Zionist” party) remained, saying the ceasefire can not be permanent, and that troops should go back after the 42 days.
Netanyahu is known for reneging on international agreements; the Wye River Memorandum of 1998, during his first term as prime minister, agreed to a partial withdrawal from the West Bank that Israel ignored.
The agreement comes after more than a year of bombardment, death, and atrocities committed by Israel. At least 47,107 Palestinians were killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and the Lancet medical journal estimated the actual toll may be 40% higher. The assault has displaced nearly all of Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population. For the past 15 months, Israel seemed fully intent on removing all Palestinians from their own lands, their actions excused and supported by President Biden and Kamala Harris.
The text of the three-part agreement is almost identical to that proposed in May of last year, which Netanyahu repeatedly scuttled. Reportedly, it was Trump’s desire for good news on a “ceasefire deal” by his inauguration that led his envoy to make the hard push no one in Biden’s administration would. Biden could have pushed this through at any time with a credible threat to withdraw support, but instead repeatedly let Israel pass “red lines” and continued to provide the weapons used in the ongoing genocide. Over 10 thousand were killed during that delay.
Between October 2023 and the end of 2024, The US spent $22 billion supporting Israel’s military, providing ¾ of arms used. As ceasefire talks were underway, Biden’s State Department announced an additional $8 billion weapons sale to Israel, including artillery shells, missiles, and 500-pound bombs.
Everytime Netanyahu pulled back from a deal, Biden’s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken would repeat the lie that it was the fault of Hammas. When pressed on this by Sam Husseini during a white house press briefing, Anthony Blinken ordered the removal of Husseini, who was brutally carried out of the press room, arrested and handcuffed. He was asking provocative questions to get more of a genuine response from the Biden administration. He got one: an intervention by police silencing genuine free speech and freedom of the press. This is the leadership of the United States of America.
Israel and Palestine Under Trump
Netanyahu was undoubtedly counting on even more vehement backing by the new administration under Donald Trump. But reports from the American left to the Israeli right show how Trump used pressure by Israel’s biggest backer to force Netanyahu’s to back down and sign the ceasefire agreement, in a way Biden never would. This is consistent with Trump’s “America First” more transactional view of all American allies, looking for immediate positive publicity whereas Biden pursued longer range alliances in the interest of American imperialism, even when unpopular. But this does not mean Trump will be any more friendly to the Palestinian cause, quite the opposite.
Trump’s cabinet is filled with pro-Israel hawks, and his ambassador to Isreal, Mike Huckabee, is a bloodthirsty Christian Zionist who has said there is no such thing as a Palestinian people, or the “West Bank.” He would be happy to have the US oversee a renewed Israeli Nakba / genocide in the remaining Palestinian territory, no matter how much it alienated the rest of the world. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick to be ambassador to the United Nations joined him in agreeing Israel has the “biblical right to the entire West Bank.” Mike Waltz, Trump’s proposed national security advisor, made it clear the US will back Israel if it goes back into Gaza, and the pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, told senators in his confirmation hearing, “I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas.”
A Trump administration will also want to build on the repression of pro-Palestinian speech here in the US, begun under Biden and other Democrats (plans detailed in Project Esther). This can only be countered by a militant continuation of the Palestinian Solidarity movement that does not let news of a “cease-fire” dampen down our education and activism against US support for Israel.
On January 16th, an article by socialist Brian Kelly speculated that given the ideology of the second Trump administration, “Netanyahu and his supporters have settled for ceasefire now as an easy and cost-free gesture to Biden, well aware that the imminent shift in Washington is likely to hand them carte blanche not only to resume genocide in Gaza, but to embark on full-scale annexation of the West Bank, with all the carnage that entails.”
Indeed, even before the ink had dried on the ceasefire agreement, Israeli military vehicles and planes made another attack on Jenin in the West Bank, opening fire on civilians and security forces, killing at least twelve, arresting many more, and displacing hundreds. In addition, after the release of Palestinian prisoners through the ceasefire deal, violent Zionist settlers set fires in the West Bank villages they returned to, injuring at least 21 Palestinians, all under the watch of the Israeli military. On taking office Monday, Trump had canceled the very limited sanctions passed under Biden on violent far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals “undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.”
The Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement reports that, already, more West Bank acres have been annexed since Oct. 7 than in 30 years, along with destruction of Palestinian homes and funding for illegal Jewish settlements.
Palestinian Liberation:
It has become absolutely clear that Palestine will never be free as long as it is occupied by a regime “bent on the eradication of Palestinian life.” The idea of a two-state solution, which had never had a chance, has finally been shown to be completely hollow. The genocidal conclusion of Zionism has been laid bare: as Ilan Pappé suggests, a “dangerous conjuncture” but perhaps the beginnings of the “downfall of Zionism.”
Whatever the outcome of the cease-fire, Palestinians will continue to resist occupation and oppression, and this will include armed struggle. Anyone wanting justice and a better world will support the oppressed Palestinians against the Zionist state. But that does not mean all tactics and strategies are equally useful. Lessons need to be learned from the military devastation waged by Israel as well as its political defeats. The Palestinian struggle cannot depend on the surrounding Arab (or Turkish or Iranian) leaders, who often have their own economic ties to Israel, and always fear unleashing forces beyond their control. A revolutionary strategy for Palestinian liberation is needed. In this, the true allies are the working people of the region, including Jordan (many of them Palestinians) and the powerful Egyptian working class, who are livid at Israel and have the power to overthrow their own oppressive and equivocating leaders. This will all be made easier by an anti-imperialist movement in the West in solidarity with the oppressed and fighting against US intervention. Today, millions have become radicalized by the Palestinian cause, with the growing understanding of the central role that a colonial settler state like Israel plays in enforcing the imperialist world order.
In the United States, we cannot let news of a “cease-fire” diminish the movement to end the traditional bipartisan US military, economic, and diplomatic support for Israel. The emancipation of the Palestinian people will be led by the Palestinians themselves. We have an important job here in weakening, and ultimately destroying US imperialism.
-Nathanial Hort
Marx21 US 