Just as Hamas announced its readiness to release all remaining hostages,US President Donald Trump pressed Israel to stop bombing Gaza. At the same time, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq dar were quick to distance themselves from Mr Trump’s 21-point peace plan, which he claimed they supported, saying that it differed from the draft they had presented, and the one they had agreed to with other Islamic countries in the recent meeting they had had with him in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Mr Dar, while distancing the country from the plan, told the National Assembly that the USA remained the best hope for peace in Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas asked for more time to consider the plan, but Mr Trump warned that they only had until Sunday, after which he warned that ‘all hell would break loose’ on them. It was good that Mr Dar did not forget the Pakistanis on the Samud flotilla who had been detained by Israel, though he did not detail what measures were being taken to get them released.
More important, perhaps, is how long Hamas will take to agree on its political suicide. In the context of what else is being asked of it, it has itself accepted that the Gaza Strip will be administered by Palestinian technocrats. It may be trying to fend off the condition that it disarm, and that arrangements be put in place to ensure that there is no future arming. That seems like the Israeli policy, joined by the USA, of bombing the Iranian nuclear programme: destined for failure.
What neither the USA nor Israel seem to realize is the visceral nature of Palestinians’ objection to being deprived of a homeland by having aliens superimposed on them, to form an artificial state. At the same time, as the last two years have shown, Israel is backed steadfastly by the USA, and is ruthless in its determination to avert the Palestinians getting their right of self-determination. The peace does not depend so much on anything as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s need for war. Stopping the slaughter of children is a wish for all Western governments, but it has been for a long time, and Mr Netanyahu, backed by Mr Trump, has kep the flames going because it suited his political convenience.
