Andy Gregg finds the Gaza “peace” plan vague, with no mention of the West Bank and subject to Trump’s whims.
Now that the hostages have been returned, Netanyahu and the current Israeli government have little to gain from the next phase of any concrete plan that is finally cobbled together. Ever since the Oslo Peace agreement in 1993, Israel has had a history of repeatedly reneging on agreements. The recent Ceasefire is the third one since October 7th 2023. The previous one, which lasted two months, was unilaterally broken by the Israelis in March 2025, almost as soon as the agreed number of Israeli hostages had been released and before the agreement was supposed to move on towards more complicated and difficult discussions about developing a more permanent route map to peace.
There was a conspicuous absence of US or other pressure on Israel to comply with negotiated positions and to restrain Netanyahu and the most extreme elements of the settler and Zionist communities from the most flagrant violations. Israel under Netanyahu has been able to work consistently to make the two-state solution virtually impossible. We are now faced with a situation where 700,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem will make a viable Palestinian state virtually impossible. Furthermore, there is little or nothing to reassure Palestinians that Israel won’t unilaterally renege on the agreement this time and resume its genocidal attacks on Gaza. Will Trump hold the Israeli’s feet to the fire this time?
Perhaps the only reason he might is the possibility of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to him next year. Trump was undoubtedly angered by the Israeli attack on Hamas negotiators in Qatar, and this seems to have been the catalyst for him to finally exert some pressure on the Israelis. It is highly unlikely, given the strengths of the Christian Zionist and pro-Israel lobby in the US, that he will want to do much more of this. It is much more likely that his inconsistent butterfly mind will move on to other domestic or foreign affairs.
This is the moment when maximum pressure needs to be exerted on Israel by the international community, in which Britain should be playing a key role. All the evidence, however, shows the contrary from Labour in Government. There has been a long history of almost uncritical support for Israel from leading Ministers and MPs in the Party. Some leading Labour figures have only recently been brought over to a position of limited criticism of Israel’s genocidal behaviour by massive extra-parliamentary activity. Against the leadership Labour conference voted in agreement with the UN’s genocide branding of Israel and for a total arms embargo.
Over a quarter of the PLP and around a third of the Cabinet remain members of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). They include Starmer himself, Wes Streeting, Rachel Reeves and David Lammy. The addition of recently elected and absolutely uncritical MPs like Luke Akehurst, whose support for Israel is unquestioning, shows how the Israeli lobby has almost completely captured the current Labour Party leadership. Pro-Israeli lobbyists donated over the last four years to 13 out of the current 25 Cabinet ministers. Some of this funding seems to have come from LFI, which refuses to disclose its own sources of funding, so it may well have come from Israeli government sources. Despite this record, the recent Conference passed the most progressive resolution in favour of Palestine against the wishes and machinations of the Party leadership. It is unlikely that the leadership will act in the spirit of this motion. Labour’s late recognition of a Palestinian state will also require action to end all arms sales and deeper sanctions to make it happen.
The Gaza “Peace Plan” is vague and self-contradictory and doesn’t even mention what is happening in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Both the settlers and the Israeli Government are emboldened to make further incursions into the ability of Palestinians to establish even the attenuated sense of self-determination that is mentioned, almost as an aside, in the 20-point plan. The details of how Gaza will be governed (and by whom) and how the appalling traumas of the two-year genocide will be dealt with remain uncertain. One of the few people who might be able to command popular support and unite the Palestinian factions so as to impose a semblance of leadership and direction is Marwan Barghouti. His release after over 20 years, despite being requested by many leading Palestinians and other international commentators, has been refused by the Israelis.
The release of hostages/prisoners on both sides is, of course, to be welcomed and celebrated. However, all the evidence and previous experience lead in the direction of continued inaction over Palestinian rights to self-determination and a failure to take real action to restrain Israel. If the international community does not take serious steps to impose a real and lasting solution, then in a few years’ time, Israel will almost certainly insist on one of its regular rounds of “mowing the lawn”, and the cycle will start again. Will the UK Government and the wider international community really favour a longer-lasting solution to the underlying causes of this hundred-year-old conflict? Will the Labour Government start to act in an even-handed way in Israel and Palestine? The next few months are going to be key, and those of us who have been so ashamed of the record of the Labour Government will need to keep the pressure up and continue to support action on Palestine at every opportunity.
Next steps on the ground in Israel-Palestine
Standing Together writes to supporters internationally.
This ceasefire, which has stopped the bombing of Gaza and freed all living hostages, has let so many of us breathe again. But it cannot be the end of our fight – the reality across this land is still one of occupation and military control over millions of people who do not have rights. And despite the deal, the bodies of 19 hostages have not been returned by Hamas and some 15 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the deal took effect.
This ceasefire must hold, and we must double down on the fight for a just and sustainable political solution: an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, and a peace agreement that can guarantee true freedom and safety for all of us.
This week, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality decided to remove posters of Palestinian children killed in the war that we had plastered on walls in Jaffa. So we put them up again – not only to show our solidarity with the many Palestinians in Jaffa who have family in Gaza, but to say that we will not forget the lives that were taken. They also stand as a painful reminder of the destruction that will continue if we do not change the status quo on this land.