{"id":314901,"date":"2026-04-13T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=314901"},"modified":"2026-04-10T14:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:00:28","slug":"ending-israels-war-on-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/04\/ending-israels-war-on-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending Israel\u2019s War on Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

To make lasting peace in the Middle East, the US must end its blank check to Israel\u2019s perpetual wars and join with the rest of the world to force Israel to live within its internationally recognized borders of June 4, 1967.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

9 Apr 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0A two-week ceasefire has partially halted the Israel-US war on Iran. The war accomplished precisely nothing that a competent diplomat could not have achieved in an afternoon. The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war and it is open again now, but with more Iranian control.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the chaos continues. Israel is intent on blowing up the ceasefire, as this was Israel\u2019s war from the start. Israel dazzled Trump with the prospect of a one-day decapitation strike that would put Trump in charge of Iran\u2019s oil<\/a>. Israel, in turn, was out for bigger prey: to bring down the Iranian regime and thereby become the regional hegemon of Western Asia.<\/p>\n

The foundation of the ceasefire is Iran\u2019s 10-point plan<\/a>, which Trump (perhaps unwittingly) called a \u201cworkable basis on which to negotiate<\/em>.\u201d The plan makes sense, but it is a major climbdown for the US, and probably a redline for Israel. Among other points, the plan calls for an end to the wars raging in the Middle East, almost all of which have Israel at their root cause. The plan would also resolve the nuclear issue, essentially by going back to the JCPOA that Trump ripped up in 2018.<\/p>\n

The Iran War, and the other wars raging across the Middle East, trace back to one core Israeli idea, that Israel will permanently and steadfastly oppose a sovereign Palestinian state and will topple any government in the Middle East that supports armed struggle for national sovereignty. It is crucial to note that the UN General Assembly has passed multiple resolutions, such as Resolution 37\/43 (1982), affirming that political self-determination is so vital, that armed struggle in the quest for self-determination is legitimate. The UN was born, in part, out of the determination to end the centuries of European imperial domination over Africa<\/a> and Asia. Of course, there would be no cause for armed struggle if Israel would accept a political solution, notably the two-state solution that has overwhelming support throughout the world.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s core goal may be summarized as Greater Israel. This means no Palestinian sovereignty, and no clear boundaries for Israel even beyond the boundary of historical Palestine<\/a> under British rule after WWI. Zionist extremists like Netanyahu\u2019s political allies, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich favor Israeli control over parts of Lebanon<\/a> and Syria<\/a>, as well as permanent control over all of what was British Palestine. America\u2019s Christian Zionists, exemplified by the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee<\/a>, and a strong voter base of Trump, speak of God\u2019s promise to Israel of the lands between the Nile and the Euphrates. Crazy stuff, but these are real beliefs, nonetheless, and they are conveyed in the White House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s strategy is therefore regime change in every country that resists Greater Israel, a plan already foreshadowed in the famous political document \u201cA Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm<\/u><\/a>,\u201d written by US Zionist neocons as a platform for Netanyahu\u2019s new government in 1996. We\u2019ve had constant wars in the Middle East since then to implement the Clean Break vision. This has included the war in Libya<\/a> to overthrow Moammar Qaddafi, the wars in Lebanon, the war to overthrow Syria\u2019s Bashar al-Assad<\/a>, the war to overthrow Iraq\u2019s Saddam Hussein<\/a>, and now the war to topple the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that the US lacks its own grandiose ideas. Israel wants regional hegemony<\/a>, this is not a secret. Netanyahu confirmed these ambitions in his recent remarks<\/u><\/a> about Israel becoming \u201ca regional power, and in certain fields a global power.\u201d <\/em>On the other hand, American officials dream of global hegemony. And Trump dreams of money. He craves the Iranian oil and repeatedly said so.<\/p>\n

In any event, it\u2019s clear that this war was Netanyahu\u2019s creation. He and the Mossad chief came to Washington<\/a> to sell Trump a bill of goods. It\u2019s not hard. Trump was suckered, while everybody else had their doubts about Netanyahu\u2019s claims of an easy one-day decapitation strike\u2014essentially a replay of the US operation in Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pathetic to \u201clisten in\u201d on the White House discussion, as revealed by the New York Times<\/u><\/a>. Netanyahu, a con man, presented rosy scenarios of regime change that US intelligence contradicted, yet Trump foolishly accepted. Trump and Netanyahu were cheered on by Christian Zionists (Hegseth), Jewish Zionists and real-estate developers (Kushner and Witkoff), a faith healer (Franklin Graham), and high-level sycophants (Rubio and Ratcliffe).<\/p>\n

\n

While Trump was telling the world that Iran was begging for a ceasefire, it was Trump himself who was begging for a ceasefire.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Until Tuesday evening, it looked like Trump might lead the world blindly to World War III. The vulgarity and brutality of his public rhetoric was unmatched in US presidential history. Now we know that he was desperately seeking an off-ramp and using Pakistan<\/a> for that purpose. While Trump was telling the world that Iran was begging for a ceasefire, it was Trump himself<\/u><\/a> who was begging for a ceasefire. The Pakistani leader delivered it.<\/p>\n

The ceasefire is good, and the 10-point plan<\/u><\/a> is good, even if perhaps Trump didn\u2019t know what was in it when he said that it was a good basis for negotiation. Israel will, in any event, work overtime to break it, and has already started to do so, with carpet bombing of Beirut<\/a> that is killing hundreds of civilians, and with other strikes. A permanent US-Iran agreement is the last thing that Netanyahu wants. That would end his dream of Greater Israel.<\/p>\n

Yet there is a way to peace and that is for the US to face reality. Israel is the real \u201cterror state,\u201d waging perpetual war throughout the Middle East for a wholly indefensible reason\u2014to have unchecked freedom to terrorize and rule over the Palestinian people and to expand its borders as Israel\u2019s zealots see fit. To make lasting peace in the Middle East, the US must end its blank check to Israel\u2019s perpetual wars and join with the rest of the world to force Israel to live within its internationally recognized borders of June 4, 1967. Iran\u2019s 10-point plan can be the basis of a comprehensive regional peace\u2014if the US accepts the reality of a state of Palestine. In that case, Iran would likely agree to stop funding non-state belligerents, and Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the entire region could live in mutual security and peace. That outcome should be the basis of a negotiated agreement of the US and Iran in the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

The American people have made their views clear. A 2025 Pew survey<\/u><\/a> finds most Jewish Americans lack confidence in Netanyahu and back the two-state solution. Most Americans now view Israel unfavorably<\/u><\/a>, the highest unfavourability in history. Sympathy for Israel has hit a 25-year low. Now the political class must catch up with the public.<\/p>\n

The peace is within reach, if the US grasps it. Iran\u2019s proposal is serious and the ceasefire is a fragile opening for a comprehensive settlement. The question is whether the US will, once again, allow Israel to destroy the peace, or rather this time stand up for America\u2019s interests and the world\u2019s interests in a lasting peace.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, is Director of Columbia\u2019s Center for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as Special Adviser to three UN Secretaries-General [Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres. His books include <\/em>The End of Poverty<\/a>, Common Wealth<\/a>, The Age of Sustainable Development<\/a>, Building the New American Economy<\/a>, and most recently,<\/em> A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism<\/a>. Sachs was also an advisor to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as to the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Sybil Fares is a specialist and advisor in Middle East policy and sustainable development at SDSN.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 Apr 2026\u00a0–\u00a0To make lasting peace in the Middle East, the US must end its blank check to Israel\u2019s perpetual wars and join with the rest of the world to force Israel to live within its internationally recognized borders of June 4, 1967. While Trump was telling the world that Iran was begging for a ceasefire, it was Trump himself who was begging for a ceasefire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":216053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3729,3281,742,88,2097,767,2159,70,3956],"class_list":["post-314901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-ceasefire","tag-evil-empire","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-rogue-states","tag-usa","tag-war-of-aggression"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314901","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=314901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314902,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314901\/revisions\/314902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}