Wed Feb 19, 2025
February 19, 2025

Gaza cease-fire: A partial Palestinian victory after unimaginable loss

By FABIO BOSCO 

On Jan. 15, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani announced a comprehensive ceasefire agreement between the State of Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian resistance as of Jan. 19. Even while the agreement was being negotiated, Israel continued to bombard Gaza.
In addition to the cessation of hostilities, the agreement provides for the exchange of prisoners, including Palestinian political prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza except for a 700-meter border strip, the entry of ample humanitarian aid, the free movement of Palestinians inside Gaza, a reconstruction plan, and the extension of the Palestinian Authority government to Gaza backed by military forces from Arab countries. The agreement would be implemented in three phases and would be overseen by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

The Israeli government had other plans for Gaza: strangling Palestinian resistance, permanent military occupation, expulsion of the Palestinian population from northern Gaza and its replacement by Zionist colonies. But these objectives were met by the heroic resistance of the Palestinians and their allies.

The Palestinian people survived 15 months of genocide consciously implemented by the Zionists through bombing, bullets, hunger, cold and the destruction of all health services. At least 65,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, 70% women and children, and another 800 in the West Bank, where thousands were arrested. In addition, 70% of all buildings, including schools and hospitals, were destroyed. The heroic Palestinian resistance, weakened, recruited new members and carried out attacks against Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

The Palestinian resistance deepened the Israeli economic crisis with the consequent exodus of capital and hundreds of thousands of liberal Zionists. In addition, there is a conflict between the State of Israel and the orthodox Haredi population that refuses to participate in military conscription. Finally, the humiliating situation of Israeli prisoners in Gaza mobilized relatives and friends and won the sympathy of the majority of their population. Externally, the growing international isolation and loss of support among the people, particularly among the youth and the Jewish community in the United States, hampers the Zionist project as a whole.

Whoever pays the band  gets to choose the music.

But none of this seemed to bother Netanyahu and his far-right cabinet. Until his main sponsor, the United States, through Trump’s emissary, on the night of Jan. 11 reported the new president’s position in favor of an immediate ceasefire, given Israel’s stalemate against the resistance and its failure to establish an effective military occupation in Gaza or southern Lebanon. The Israeli press reported that this was an imposition, and it is unknown whether a green light was negotiated for other Zionist objectives such as annexation of the West Bank. Presumably, Trump wants to implement this ceasefire agreement so that he can continue to enact the “Abraham Accords,” which seeks to normalize Israel’s relations in the Middle East starting with Saudi Arabia, which was initiated in his first administration bur indefinitely put on hold by the Gaza war.

The fact is that the State of Israel depends on U.S. funding, arms, and diplomatic support to maintain its existence, and it would be unwise to argue with Trump.

In addition to U.S. imperialism, other imperialist countries that support Israel also benefit from this agreement, such as the Europeans who deliver arms, Russia, which exports oil, and China, which is the Zionists’ main trading partner. European imperialism expects a reduction in the wave of popular mobilizations against support for Israeli genocide, and China will be able to reestablish its trade routes in the Red Sea, which had been blocked by the Yemeni Houthis in solidarity with Palestine.

Among the Arab countries, Egypt will benefit from the normalization of maritime traffic in the Suez Canal and from the revenues provided by the control of the Rafah border post. Qatar asserts itself, once again, as the most popular Arab regime among the Palestinians along with the Houthis. And the rest can resume the shameful normalization agreements with the State of Israel, without facing massive popular fury.

A new Middle East?

President Joe Biden, the tireless purveyor of weapons for genocide in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, announced that his administration was responsible for the cease-fire because it had created a new Middle East, and that the weakening of Hezbollah and the fall of Bashar al-Assad forced the resistance to concede.
Hamas had already accepted the ceasefire agreement announced by Joe Biden in June 2024, with nearly identical terms to the present agreement. In other words, the real obstacle to the cease-fire was Netanyahu, who was able to continue the genocide thanks to the financing, arming and diplomatic protection provided by Biden’s own government, and with the support or approval of other imperialist countries.

As for Lebanon, there was indeed a breakthrough for the U.S. through the election of General Joseph Aoun and the appointment of Nawaf Salam as Prime Minister, both supported by the US and Saudi Arabia. But they are still far from their actual goal of disarming Hezbollah.

In Syria, both the United States and Israel for years maintained the status quo that kept Bashar al-Assad’s regime intact. The Assad family protected the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights for 50 years and was distancing itself from the Iranian regime. In addition, it kept several members of the Palestinian resistance in the infamous Sednaya prisons and in the “Palestinian wing.” The only countries that helped, in one way or another, in the military and popular offensive that led to the fall of Assad were Turkey, Qatar and the Ukrainian secret service that provided drone technology for military purposes. But the decisive factor was the hatred of the Syrian population against Assad, which took away his social base, and allowed the triumph of the combined action of the military offensive led by HTS from Idlib, and the popular uprising in the south and greater Damascus.

The new Syrian regime seeks the capitalist reconstruction of the country in collaboration with all the imperialist countries and regional powers like Turkey and Saudi Arabia, in addition to the neighboring countries. That is why it limits itself to diplomatic protests against the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights. But among the Syrian population, sympathy for the Palestinian cause has always been and remains in the majority. In the medium term this will turn against the Israeli occupation, in one form or another, if there isn’t a bloodthirsty dictatorship protecting the Zionists.

Aware of this reality, the State of Israel bombed 800 Syrian military and intelligence targets, in the largest air operation in the history of the Zionist state, and it wants to promote a conference for the partition of Syria into three states: a Druze state in the south, a Kurdish state in the northeast and a Syrian Arab Damascus. Of course, this plan depends on the United States putting it into action.
Finally, the Iranian question: The Iranian regime is prioritizing an agreement with Western imperialism based on the resumption of the nuclear agreement in exchange for the end of heavy economic sanctions. At the same time, it signs a mutual support agreement with Russian imperialism to protect against a possible imperialist military aggression by Israel, whose government is ready to attack nuclear, military, or oil installations. Once again, these attacks would depend entirely on US support.

A partial victory, but the struggle must be continued

In this regional and international scenario, we can affirm that the end of the genocide is a partial achievement of the Palestinians. It is no coincidence that the announcement of the truce has been greeted with expressions of joy throughout Palestine. The Palestinian people, once again, by their heroic resistance, are preventing Israel from imposing all its objectives, despite its overwhelming military superiority.

But this is not true peace. We are facing a very volatile situation, in the midst of an indescribable humanitarian catastrophe, where it is not even given that Israel will comply with the terms of the agreement. This cease-fire does not mean an end to the violence of genocidal Zionism. There will be no peace without the end of Israel’s occupation and until there is a free Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

We cannot let this truce make us forget the genocide committed by Israel with the support of all the imperialist governments. We must continue to demand that the Zionist criminals be arrested as ordered by the International Criminal Court and tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The partial victory will only be maintained and expanded with the strengthening of Palestinian resistance, through popular mobilization with armed self-defense in coordination with the international solidarity of the working class and youth in Arab countries and around the world, to overthrow authoritarian Arab regimes as was done in Syria and paralyze the military machine in the imperialist countries.

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