VIDEO: Will the Gaza Peace Deal Last?
President Trump claims that he’s “ended the war in Gaza” and brought peace to the region, but IPS Middle East expert Phyllis Bennis says we should take these claims with a grain of salt.
“What we’ve seen before is once the Israelis get the custody of some hostages, or in this case maybe all of them, they will walk away,” she explained in an October 8 interview with Al Jazeera. “This is a very dangerous moment. The people that are engaged in the negotiations — particularly the Trump team of Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner — those two families have been looking to make a profit out of the suffering in Gaza: to turn Gaza into some kind of beach resort,” she adds.
During the negotiations for the deal, Phyllis joined TRT News to underscore concerns about the lack of enforcement that the deal could create: “What happens if the implementation of [the hostage deal] doesn’t work? If Hamas, for example, turns over all the hostages, then Israel walks away as they have done before and said we’re not going to go any further with this: we wanted the hostages, that’s all we care about, we’re back to war. What happens then?” she wonders. “What happens to the food, and water, and shelter and medicine that is supposed to get in and doesn’t? Who enforces that?”
Following the announcement of President Trump’s 20-point plan, Phyllis joined Al Jazeera to caution against heralding the plan as a true peace deal. “I don’t think we know yet. I think this could be the start of the beginning of the end, if you will, of Israel’s genocide that has gone on for almost two years against Palestine,” she explains. “But I don’t think we can say yet that that is really going to happen.”
“There is every indication that if, at any point, Israel decides that it wants to go back to the war, it will do so,” she warned in another appearance. “There are no guarantees here to protect Palestinian interests.”
During an interview with KPFA Law & Disorder, fellow IPS Middle East expert Khury Petersen-Smith also weighed in about the prospects for a “two-state solution” for Israel and Palestine. “It has to be said, the so-called ‘two-state solution’ has been stated U.S. policy for a long time, and the U.S.’s actions — and certainly Israel’s actions of course — contradict it,” he says. “So, the idea that you can on paper, or in words, say we’re for a Palestinian state, but in practice arm and defend the entity that is committing genocide and settling the land to prevent that kind of state from happening, that is something — I think you’re right to know that there’s something there.”
Watch, listen, and read all of interviews below:
