A ceasefire is not synonymous with the end of war. It is unlikely that terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists against Jewish civilians will cease, nor that Israeli military forces will stop behaving with the murderous brutality we have witnessed. A ceasefire is not a peace agreement because violence, resentment, and vengeance will not disappear. Nor is it expected that Palestinians will cease to live under what is, in practice, an apartheid regime, confined to Gaza and the West Bank, without a homeland or rights. Nevertheless, after so much bloodshed, destruction, and suffering—caused by a heinous act of terror in southern Israel and a genocidal war in Gaza—whatever comes out of the announced truce is more than enough reason to breathe a sigh of relief.
In this ceasefire process (if confirmed), the real winners are the victims who will no longer exist among the Palestinians (the latest estimates point to over 46,000 deaths) and the Israeli hostages who may return home (though many dozens are believed to be dead). However, there is also a political figure who stands out in this process: Donald Trump. He was the one to announce the agreement. He was the first to do so because he had his own envoy in the negotiations. And it seems he also had the final and decisive word in persuading Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the agreement.
It is too soon to say whether the ceasefire will truly hold, whether it will be possible to rebuild Gaza (its infrastructure—the suffering of its survivors cannot be erased), or whether a durable solution for governing Gaza can be found that does not involve Hamas terrorists. It is even more difficult to imagine a future with a genuine political agreement that allows for the only definitive solution: the coexistence of two states, equal in rights and duties, sovereign and free.
But perhaps, at the very least, we might one day be able to say that the path to peace began with Trump, as absurd as that may seem.
Article originally published in Jornal de Notícias