{"id":306148,"date":"2025-10-27T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=306148"},"modified":"2025-10-26T08:35:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T08:35:14","slug":"a-ceasefire-of-the-perpetrators-how-the-west-repackaged-occupation-as-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/10\/a-ceasefire-of-the-perpetrators-how-the-west-repackaged-occupation-as-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"A Ceasefire of the Perpetrators: How the West Repackaged Occupation as Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

16 Oct 2025 – <\/em>US President Donald Trump is being lavishly credited with ending Israel\u2019s two-year massacre of Gaza\u2019s population. We are told he persuaded both Netanyahu and Hamas into accepting his \u201cdeal.\u201d In truth, Hamas had consented to nearly identical terms more than a year ago. It was Israel that torpedoed the effort\u2014assassinating Hamas negotiator Ismail Haniyya and, under full American cover, resuming its onslaught.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s much-touted 20-point plan resurrects a century-old pattern of Western-engineered \u201csolutions\u201d that dictate Arab destinies. It is not a peace initiative but a reincarnation of Sykes-Picot\u00b9<\/strong>\u2014drafted in Washington, couched in the idiom of compassion, yet anchored in domination. What has changed is not conscience but calculus. Israel\u2019s unrestrained aggression\u2014its strike on ceasefire talks in Qatar, that killed six members of the negotiating team, while the chief negotiator survived \u2013 exposes its ruthless provocations, its crumbling legitimacy\u2014has become a liability for Trump. Even his MAGA faithful, long intoxicated by blind allegiance, now question both the moral and strategic price of this alliance.<\/p>\n

Across the West, public outrage has reached a scale unseen in decades. Millions march against Israeli impunity. Governments, cornered by domestic pressure, now tiptoe away from unconditional endorsement. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, solidarity with Palestine has hardened into near-universal condemnation. Israel\u2019s isolation has a price\u2014and Washington is paying it.<\/p>\n

Yet while the guns may fall silent, the occupation remains. The apartheid remains. The suffocating siege, the theft of land, the architecture of control\u2014all endure. What is now celebrated as \u201cpeace\u201d is merely an intermission in an unending colonial project.<\/p>\n

No American president has ever delivered justice or statehood to Palestinians; Trump\u2019s plan is the emptiest performance yet\u2014a legal vacuum dressed in diplomatic ritual. Its vague formulations ensure Israel\u2019s continued supremacy, while real decisions about Arab futures remain chained to Washington\u2019s will. Regional autocrats play their roles obediently in this familiar choreography of dependence.<\/p>\n

The proposal for a so-called\u00a0Gaza International Transitional Authority<\/em>\u2014a euphemism for external rule\u2014reveals the old deceit in a new costume. Britain, whose imperial pen once partitioned the region, returns as \u201cmediator\u201d under American command. The descendants of those who once conspired with colonial powers now normalize relations with Israel under U.S. patronage. The circle of betrayal is complete.<\/p>\n

This Gaza plan is not a peace accord; it is Sykes-Picot reborn\u2014a political arrangement disguised as humanitarian necessity. It redraws not borders but hierarchies, reaffirming who commands and who complies.<\/p>\n

We may never know Gaza\u2019s full toll\u2014already counted in the hundreds of thousands\u2014but the world\u2019s complicity is beyond dispute. Every capital that shipped the bombs, every newsroom that whitewashed the blood, every politician who turned away shares in the stain.<\/p>\n

If this ceasefire holds, it may halt the bombing but not the injustice. It may spare lives but sanctify impunity. The architects of Gaza\u2019s ruin will walk unpunished, their crimes cleansed by the rhetoric of diplomacy. This is not peace\u2014it is postponement. The world calls it reconciliation, but the graves whisper otherwise.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00b9<\/strong> Sykes-Picot was a secret treaty. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire was crumbling, and the Allied powers were vying for control of the Middle East. Britain, France, and Russia negotiated the Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide the Ottoman territories into spheres of influence.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Javed Akbar is a Canadian writer with a passion for humanitarian work. A member of the Governor\u2019s Council of the\u00a0International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF)\u2014a leading Canadian charity. His opinion columns appeared\u00a0in\u00a0<\/em>Toronto Star\u00a0and numerous digital platforms. A retired management accountant.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Oct 2025 – Trump is being lavishly credited with ending Israel\u2019s massacre of Gaza\u2019s population. We are told he persuaded both Netanyahu and Hamas into accepting his \u201cdeal.\u201d In truth, Hamas had consented to nearly identical terms more than a year ago. It was Israel that torpedoed the effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":251431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[87,865,1029,88,475,427,249,70],"class_list":["post-306148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-netanyahu","tag-palestine","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306150,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306148\/revisions\/306150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}