Daily Herald opinion: A hope for peace?: There is room to dare it in Trump proposal and Hamas response
If we’ve learned anything over the decades of Middle East turmoil, it is that no promise of peace is certain. So, we can greet only with hesitant optimism Friday’s announcement that Hamas may be ready to capitulate to at least two of the top demands of the Trump peace proposal — returning hostages and relinquishing political control over Gaza.
But surely we must take hope where we can find it.
At this point, of course, it is only hope, but rooted in a kind of rhetoric we have not heard before from either side.
In President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan — which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has endorsed — we hear phrases like:
• “Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference” and under the auspices of “international institutions not associated in any manner with either party.”
• “Gaza will be governed (by) a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” that will be “made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts.”
• A plan will be developed “to rebuild and energize Gaza.”
• “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.”
• “An interfaith dialogue process will be established …”
And much more, all on a stated foundation that “Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough.”
From the Hamas side, we see phrases like:
• “The movement announces its agreement to release all Israeli hostages, both living and dead, according to the exchange formula outlined in President Trump’s proposal …”
• “The movement also reiterates its agreement to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents …” with other issues “linked to a unified national position, based on relevant international laws and resolutions.”
There are ambiguities and uncertainties in both statements, to be sure. Hamas makes no promise to disarm or end its longstanding pledge to eliminate the Jewish state. Many steps in the Trump plan, including hints at “a credible pathway toward Palestinian self-determination,” remain vague or open to interpretation. And both sides acknowledge that much will still remain to be negotiated.
But it is also obvious that what’s happening here is not nothing. There is a framework, however shaky, for the first meaningful breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian relations since at least the 1993 handshake on the White House lawn between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. We may not yet be ready to celebrate a new era of peace in the region, but we can at least envision an end to the horrific suffering that has been imposed on the people of Gaza following the horrific suffering Hamas unleashed on unarmed Israeli families and concertgoers almost exactly two years ago on Oct. 7, 2023.
We can with some justification hope for the realization of that vision, and, if both sides and all interested parties approach the coming days, weeks, months and years with the same spirit expressed in their statements of the past few days, perhaps a clearer and more long-lasting one as well.