The U.S. government continues to press its so-called peace plan for Gaza. It’s aimed at preventing Israel from carrying its defensive war through to a decisive conclusion, occupying the territory and dismantling Hamas, a Nazi-like group backed by Tehran that is already preparing new massacres of Jews.
Officials from the Donald Trump administration have been reaching out to the capitalist rulers of Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and beyond, looking to get help in cobbling together a transitional administration and police force for Gaza, ostensibly to replace Hamas.
But nothing is settled.
Hamas’ goal remains the same as the day it was founded — to destroy Israel and kill the Jews. Hamas is already rebuilding some of its tunnels and beating, torturing and arresting Palestinians it views as opponents as it reestablishes its brutal dictatorship in parts of Gaza.
In early November Hamas thugs brutally beat Waleed Abu Abed, a 16-year-old boy, breaking and shattering his legs. They later “apologized” to the teenager’s parents, claiming it was a “mistake”; they were looking for someone else.
Since Israeli troops pulled back to the “yellow line,” Hamas death squads have beaten or killed dozens of people, targeting anyone they see as a threat to their rule.
Aid distribution centers set up in collaboration with Israel, established to prevent Hamas from using control of food to maintain its power, have been dismantled. An Israeli proposal to set up new distribution centers along the yellow line, where it could prevent Hamas from entering and stealing the aid, has been blocked by the White House.
A U.S. drone flying over Gaza filmed Hamas thugs intercepting an aid caravan and looting its contents, just like they have been doing for years. Hamas steals food to ensure its operatives and their families don’t go hungry and resells some at a profit to use for weapons.
In violation of the ceasefire agreement, some 200 Hamas combatants are still inside the yellow line, the 53% of Gaza that is under Israeli control, unable to return to the Hamas-controlled side without emerging from their tunnels. They have carried out at least two attacks, killing three Israeli soldiers.
The Trump administration is pressing Israel to grant them safe passage out — including allowing them to keep firearms — supposedly to “stabilize” the ceasefire. So far, Israel has refused.
The Trump administration claims that its goal is “peace” in Gaza, but its real interest is in advancing U.S. imperialism’s plunder of oil, gas and other natural resources and labor in the Middle East, while putting together an alliance of governments there to achieve stability and as a political counter to its main rival, Beijing.
Trade between Middle East and North African countries with the United States is over $140 billion a year. But Beijing’s trade there has mushroomed to some $400 billion. In addition, Beijing advanced its influence by playing a key role in restoring diplomatic relations between the governments of Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023.
While U.S. military ties with Gulf and other regimes dominate the region, Beijing has made small inroads there as well. Egypt receives $1.3 billion of U.S. military aid a year, but Cairo has been holding some joint air and sea maneuvers with the Chinese military and buying some Chinese weapons.
White House says ‘America First’
Vice President JD Vance made it clear during a discussion with college students at a Turning Point event in Mississippi Oct. 29 that Washington’s actions in the Middle East have nothing to do with defending Jews or Israel.
Vance was asked two questions that echo reactionary theories of an “international Jewish conspiracy.” One student asked if it’s a “conflict of interest” for Trump to have accepted campaign contributions from Miriam Adelson, a well-known Jewish donor, and then to support “pro-Israeli policies.”
Another asked why “we have to support this multi-hundred-billion dollar foreign aid package to Israel,” which he claimed was used to carry out “ethnic cleansing in Gaza.”
Vance did not say one word answering these slanders against Jews and Israel. Instead, he said that Trump “pursues the interests of Americans first,” in reality the interests of the U.S. imperialist rulers.
“Sometimes they [Israel] have similar interests to the United States,” Vance said. “Sometimes they don’t.”
U.S. seeks to rein in Israel
The attempt to extend U.S. influence runs throughout Trump’s “peace” plan. It calls for a new “technocratic, apolitical” Palestinian committee to run Gaza, supposedly without Hamas. But with Hamas still armed and organized and many of its tunnels intact, that would just be a fig leaf for its continued dictatorial rule and future attacks on Jews.
In fact, Hamas, other groups involved in carrying out the Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom and the Palestinian Authority have been meeting in Cairo, at the invitation of the Egyptian government, to discuss who would be on the committee and ensure it would be a tool of Hamas, if it ever becomes reality.
Cairo more and more acts as a defender of Hamas to advance its own interests in the region. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the patron of an Oct. 25 event in Cairo titled “Egypt: Homeland of Peace” and one of the speakers. The event featured a platform of speakers known for their enmity to Israel, including a eulogy for deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a central organizer of its Oct. 7 pogrom.
That hasn’t stopped Washington from looking to include Egyptian troops and Egyptian- and Jordanian-trained Palestinian police in its proposed “International Stabilization Force” to police Gaza. And Washington keeps floating the idea of Turkish troops as well, which Israel opposes because of the Turkish government’s close ties to Hamas. But nothing concrete has been advanced.
In reality, Israel and the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces are the only force that can disarm Hamas, dismantle its death squads and command structure, destroy its tunnels, get its boot off the neck of the Palestinian people and prevent it from carrying out more pogroms.