The peace of the brave

The release of all Israeli living hostages by militant group Hamas on Monday was a significant step that has cleared a major stumbling block for all parties to move towards peace in Gaza. It is to Donald Trump’s credit that this important milestone was achieved. 

The US president finally used all his leverage to convince Israel to accept the deal—he allowed Benjamin Netanyahu to frame this as a victory by fulfilling the promise to return all hostages, dead and alive; and audaciously asked the Israeli president to pardon Netanyahu’s corruption charges, during an hour-long address to the Knesset. 

But Trump also managed to cobble up a coalition of major Arab and Muslim countries—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, the UAE and Turkey among others—that further isolated Hamas and forced them to accept the ceasefire and hostage release. 

But Monday’s events are only the beginning of what promises to be a long process fraught with massive challenges. The hostage release in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and the end of Israeli hostilities is, ostensibly, the easiest part of Trump’s 20-point plan. 

What has been achieved so far, is a ceasefire not a lasting peace; a quieting of the guns and a chance for people to absorb the suffering they’ve been through over the past two years. For peace to last in Gaza, ordinary Palestinians must tangibly feel the benefits. 

Palestinians must have unfettered access to humanitarian supplies, be assured safe and secure communities, and have access to basic amenities as quickly as is humanly possible given the widespread destruction. 

For this to happen there has to be an immediate restoration of civilian rule in Gaza to a Palestinian authority that does not include Hamas. A security force made up of foreign troops and Palestinians has to be in place to ensure security. No time can be lost because any vacuum left by Hamas risks being filled by militias that will make it even harder to achieve stability in the long run—the post-Gaddafi scenario in Libya must be avoided at all costs. 

Within this complex reality, Trump’s Board of Peace must not be a vanity project. It has to serve as a guiding force to install Palestinian rule in Gaza and set the ball rolling for the enclave’s reconstruction—it’s physical infrastructure and more importantly its social and cultural fabric. 

But achieving peace and stability in Gaza must never come at the expense of the Palestinian aspiration for statehood. What has been achieved thus far must have an end game that sees Palestinians and Israelis living side by side in two states with a common yearning for peace, security and stability. It will be a historic mistake if the Trump initiative stops at the border of Gaza. 

Within this context, pressure must be put on Israel to halt its settlement programme; to stop the continuous usurpation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank. 

A lasting peace settlement will require both sides—Israelis and Palestinians—to compromise and attempt to reach what Yasser Arafat had described as “the peace of the brave” during his 1994 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. 

On too many occasions the glimmer of hope in the Middle East has been dashed by the intransigence of extremists on either side. If it wasn’t a Jewish fanatic who killed Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, it was a Palestinian extremist blowing themselves up at an Israeli bus station. If it wasn’t a divisive Hamas that ruled Gaza with an iron fist and was more concerned with lobbing rockets into Israel than its people’s welfare, it was an Israeli far-right minister provoking tensions at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and championing illegal settlements. 

If things are to be different this time around, Trump and his board must ensure that Israelis and Palestinians on the ground do feel the benefits of peace and the leaders on either side remain committed and focussed on the plan irrespective of the fanatics and extremists. 

Finally, the Palestinians must have a clear roadmap and a realistic timeline to achieve statehood. 

The going is not easy. It never was. We quote Arafat’s prophetic words from 1994 when addressing the chairperson of the Nobel Peace Prize: “I know, I know full well, Mr Chairman, that this supreme and greatly significant prize was not awarded to me and to my partners, Mr Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister, and Mr Shimon Peres, the foreign minister, to crown an achievement, but as an encouragement to pursue a route with greater steps and deeper awareness, with truer intentions so that we may transform the peace option, the peace of the brave, from words into practice and reality and for us to be worthy of carrying forward the message entrusted to us by our peoples, as well as humanity and a universal moral duty.” 

The time is now to turn words into practice. To give life to the two-state solution. To give peace a chance.