A Gaza ceasefire means nothing unless Israel’s impunity comes to an end, too

Officials from the US, Israel, Gaza and elsewhere have claimed that a ceasefire deal to pause the genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory is nearing completion.

Gaza ceasefire: tentatively reached

Wanted war criminal and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, denied the finalisation of a Gaza ceasefire deal. Israel’s government will also need to vote on the agreement on Thursday 16 January. And the break in military action would possibly take days to go into effect.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Israeli attacks have killed 59 people in Gaza today alone, including two journalists, and Israel has also attacked Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The deal would include Hamas releasing hostages in phases, Israel releasing Palestinian hostages, the return of displaced Gazan civilians to what remains of their homes, a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and a significant increase in humanitarian aid into the occupied territory.

Israel was always reluctant to deal

Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other extremists in the apartheid state’s government still oppose reaching a Gaza ceasefire deal. And they claim to have been responsible for tanking previous deals, with Ben-Gvir saying:

In the last year, using our political power, we managed to prevent this deal from going ahead, time after time.

The New Arab also reports that US claims of Hamas holding responsibility for previous agreements collapsing was rubbish, and that Israel had “repeatedly torpedoed previous ceasefire deals with unrealistic demands”.

Trump’s role in pushing Israel to a Gaza ceasefire

US president Joe Biden was characteristically slow, but president-elect Donald Trump quickly tried to claim responsibility for the apparent Gaza ceasefire deal. He said:

We have achieved so much without even being in the White House.

According to Arab officials, this may be right. According to one Times of Israel article, they apparently stressed that:

Trump envoy swayed Netanyahu more in one meeting than Biden did all year

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s choice for Middle East envoy, apparently led to a “breakthrough”. He apparently pushed Netanyahu to meet on Saturday against his wishes. As the New Arab reported, the meeting with Witkoff may have revealed “a tougher approach toward the Israeli leader by Trump officials” with little interest in diplomatic niceties, but there were also reportedly “several enticements to sweeten the deal including the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank”.

Netanyahu needed US pressure to act. Biden was such a bootlicker to the pro-Israel lobby that he wasn’t going to put that pressure on. Trump is incredibly pro-Israel too, and probably more so. But his team’s aggressive pressure apparently made a difference, according to Israeli media:

It's not a surprise to anyone honest or clear-eyed, but it will make left-liberals utterly confused and lost:

Israeli media and Netanyahu's closest allies are adamant that Trump forced them into a cease-fire deal for Gaza they didn't want, something Biden never even tried: https://t.co/Q7XgEk1330

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 14, 2025

Without an end to Israel’s impunity, peace is still a faraway dream

The second stage of the Gaza ceasefire process would apparently be “a declaration of a permanent end to hostilities”. And there are many signs that Israel has no interest in ceasing hostilities. Many commentators were quick to point that out:

They’ve been reporting it all along, it’s Western media that pretends otherwise. https://t.co/a8DvQ4T3v9 pic.twitter.com/y725FF5y5J

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) January 15, 2025

Genocide doesn't end or disappear because of a ceasefire.

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) January 15, 2025

The Biden administration’s legacy is one of death and destruction. It could have stopped sending weapons, blocking UN resolutions, or undermining international institutions at any point. But it chose not to.

Why did @CBSNews hold onto, and not air, this footage for 8 months?? https://t.co/Bd8CUO9XVR

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 13, 2025

Biden's main legacy is paying for and fully arming Israel's destruction of Gaza, and isolating the US from the world to diplomatically protect it.

Yet somehow the GOP's attack on him is he's insufficiently pro-Israel. You can never do enough for that foreign country.🇮🇱🇺🇸👇 https://t.co/oQNQ1I7wZB

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 13, 2025

Donald Trump, meanwhile, is unlikely to do any of those things too. Nor will he advance towards ending Israeli apartheid, illegal settlements, or ethnic cleansing.

He just wanted a ceasefire before his inauguration.

But all things considered, if he can succeed in pushing Israel’s government to avoid a repeat of the worst excesses of the Gaza genocide, he will still walk away with cleaner hands than Biden. Because it would be near impossible to have more blood on his hands than Biden does.

Featured image via Al Jazeera – screengrab