Dear friends--
This has been (still is!) a huge week in the history of Palestine, the rest of West Asia... and possibly also the world.
On Monday, you will recall, Pres. Trump and PM Netanyahu appeared together in the White House, where Trump unveiled a 20-point plan for a ceasefire+hostages "deal" for Gaza. Many in the Western media immediately inferred that this plan was, in essence, the final deal, one that had been pre-negotiated and agreed not just with Israel but also with Trump's well-known big West Asian buddies like the Saudis, Emiratis, Qataris, etc (with many of whom his close family members have massively lucrative business arrangements.) So those media figures treated Trump's September 29 declaration like an immovable colonial diktat, and were waiting only for Hamas to announce its surrender to all those 20 points...
But then yesterday afternoon (Friday), Hamas announced its welcome of Trump's efforts and its readiness to release all Israeli captives, living and deceased, "according to the exchange formula mentioned in President Trump's proposal, provided that the field conditions for the exchange process are secured." It also restated its readiness "to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats) based on Palestinian national consensus and based on Arab and Islamic support." See their full statement here (PDF).
With remarkable speed, Trump took that response as a win. He posted on Truth Social that: "Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly!"
As of now (Saturday morning, Washington DC time), the Israeli bombings of Gaza have not yet stopped. But it already seems clear that the dynamic of West Asian power relationships is much more complex than the simple picture of U.S.-Israeli regional paramountcy that so many in the Western media had assumed. Hamas, it turns out, still has many cards to play-- in Gaza, yes, but also in the relationships it has built over the decades with many significant Arab and Muslim governments.
In yesterday's statement, the Hamas leadership basically accepted the whole of the early part of Trump's "Plan", while politely but forcefully rejecting all the "Day After" provisions it included-- the Tony Blair Viceroy-ship, the "de-radicalization" efforts, its own exclsuion from any role in governing, the forced demilitarization, etc.
Since Hamas's impressively collective and cohesive leadership issued that statement, individual members have fanned out across the Arab media-- and to several Western outlets-- to expand some upon their position. For example, Osama Hamdan went on Al-Araby t.v. (as shown above) where he made such points as these:
- We do not accept that the affairs of Gaza, as a part of Palestine, be managed by any non-Palestinian party.
- The entry of foreign forces or a foreign administration into the Gaza Strip is an issue that is not acceptable to Palestinians.
- There is a Palestinian national agreement that a national Palestinian body, linked to the Palestinian Authority, will manage the Gaza Strip.
- Attempts to exclude Hamas from the Palestinian political
process will not succeed.
Find the whole of Hamdan's remarks here.
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There are still numerous unknowns regarding both the backstory of all the contacts of the past few days-- and also, obviously, the impact they will have on the horrendous suffering the U.S.-Israeli alliance has inflicted on the people of Gaza over the past two years.
Is that alliance, which under both Pres. Biden and Pres. Trump has been nearly wholly "ironclad", finally coming apart... even just a little?
There is reason to think it might be. There have been significant voices in Trump's MAGA base that have started to question its value, very deeply indeed. ( Tucker Carlson!) Plus, the upswelling of Palestinian solidarity actions all around the world, and here in the U.S., may finally be having real impact on the calculations of politicians...
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Anyway, let's hope that what we see in the days ahead are:
- A speedy and complete ceasefire in Gaza
- Arrangements speedily made, including Israeli troop withdrawals in Gaza, that will allow for Hamas to release all the live Israeli POWs it still holds, and the mortal remains of all deceased hostages, and then Israel's stipulated release of Palestinian prisoners.
- The start of speedy, serious, hopefully UN-led, negotiations over the modalities of "Day After" planning for Gaza, in a manner that is fully respectful of Palestinian national rights there.
Once Hamas and its allies have released all their Israeli POWs and hostages, they will then have given up one of their most powerful negotiating cards. So it will then be up to the whole of the "international community" -- including the U.S. government and its "Western" allies, but also the UN's highest and most authoritative bodies-- to ensure that that humane and realistic position adopted by Hamas and its allies is not met with any further assaults on the beleaguered population of Gaza, but rather with their final escape from the horrors of Israel's quite illegal genocide, siege, and occupation.
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It's been a busy week for me. But before I tell you what I've been doing, I want to share some tragic news that you may or may not know already. Namely that on September 26, our great colleagues Dr. Yousef Aljamal, co-host of our PalCast podcast, and his brother Mustapha Muhammad (our super-competent Comms Associate here at JWE) learned that nine of their close family members in Gaza's Nuseirat Camp had been killed in an Israeli bombing.
These killings, of their sister Ghalia and her family and their brother Abdulrahman and his family, were carried out in the especially cruel manner of "double-tap" attacks: As friends and family members tried to bury the victims of the first attack, the Israeli planes came in again to target them, too.
Thoughts, prayers... and above all solidarity and a renewed commitment to end the whole ghastly story of the genocide and chronic oppression of the Palestinians of Gaza.
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![]() Yousef and Mustapha are nothing if not resilient. Yousef undertook a planned solidarity visit to Dublin a couple of days ago. See him here at the front of a march there yesterday! (Click to enlarge. That photo comes from our very own PalCast co-host, Tony Groves!)
![]() Yousef and Tony had also recorded a powerful new episode of the PalCast in mid-week. Their guest was Sinn Féin Senator Chris Andrews, who spoke with them from the Global Sumud Flotilla as it came under repeated attack by Israeli drones. His ship had been struck four times during the night before, yet he and more than 20 other Irish participants on board stayed committed to their mission of delivering aid to Gaza.
Yousef and Tony spoke with Andrews about the political message behind the flotilla and the lack of meaningful support from states like Ireland. Andrews condemned the Irish government’s reliance on empty statements while failing to protect its own citizens or challenge Israel’s violations of international law. For him, the flotilla was carrying out the work that governments should have done long ago: bringing aid and breaking the silence around Gaza’s suffering.
You can hear that timely, very poignant conversation on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
(By Thursday, it was clear that Andrews and nearly all the other flotilla participants had had their boats boarded and had been--illegally-- detained by Israeli naval forces while still in international waters.)
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As for my own recent activities, they include these:
** On October 1, I wrote this essay, "On 'Condemning Hamas", on Globalities.org. In it, I noted that the repeated demands in Western discourse space that speakers or writers should "Condemn Hamas" before they could voice any other opinions about matters related to Palestine were not merely ritualized or performative, but that such requirements had already-- when used, as for example, as the pretext for repeated U.S. vetoes at the UN-- significantly blocked efforts to win a ceasefire in Gaza.
As I wrote there:
On my part, I have have always resisted jumping onto the “Condemn Hamas!” bandwagon, which is a either a rhetorical straitjacket, or the beginning of a treacherously slippery slope, or both.
What I have condemned, repeatedly and publicly, are any acts by any party that have violated international humanitarian law.
![]() Anyway, do go read that essay, which is also a plea that people should seek, rather than just blindly condemning Hamas, to try to understand its history and its workings, instead.
And yes, I do recommend that people go and buy and read the book about "Understanding Hamas" that Rami G. Khouri and I co-authored last year... Such understanding is more sorely needed than ever, these days!
![]() ** On Wednesday evening (DC time) I had the pleasure of participating in a globe-girdling conversation with Pascal Lottaz (from Japan) and Eugene Doyle (from Aotearoa/NZ) about Gaza, the flotilla, Hamas, etc.
This conversation was was part of the informative series of "Neutrality Studies" conversations on global issues that Pascal presents nearly daily from his studio in Kyoto.
![]() ** On Thursday evening I hosted a deeply informative conversation with the veteran UN correspondent Ian Williams, on the role the UN has played in Gaza (and Palestine) over the years.
You can see the whole of this 30-minute conversation on our YouTube channel here. Highlights from what Williams said, and links to the transcript of the whole convo-- and some of my other recent writings on this topic-- can be found here.
Notably, Williams said at one point: “You could almost conceive of a role in Gaza with the UN bringing UNRWA back and the other agencies. But they would have to be much firmer and say, No, we’re not going to do it on your terms. You either let us in there with neutral peacekeepers whom we will pick protecting us or we won’t go."
... So maybe this could be the path forward?
I'm hoping that my colleagues at JWE and I can do more over the coming weeks to explore the constructive role the UN might play in helping to cement the end of the genocide in Gaza-- along with Israel's illegal actions in the Palestinian West Bank and much of the rest of West Asia-- and to support the Palestinians as they rebuild Gaza and regain their rights across all of their national homeland, as soon as possible...
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So we're living in times that suddenly, over the past 24 hours, seem to have become "interesting" in a new, and just possibly quite a lot more hopeful, way?
Now is definitely the time to keep up the pressure on Israel and all the other governments that have given either greater or lesser amounts of support to its genocide in Gaza.
There is some hope now that all the pro-rights, anti-genocide, anti-occupation actions that people inside Gaza and worldwide have been mounting are finally starting to have their effect.
Onward! (And remember to take good care of yourself and of all those hold dear.)
You stay well--
Helena
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