Middle East Press On: Demilitarisation, Genocide Two State Paradigm: New Age Islam's Selection, 3 October 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
3 October 2025
Demilitarisation, Genocide And The Two-State Paradigm
Palestinian Subordination: Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan
The Tide Of Public Opinion In Europe Is Turning Against Israel
Revolt Against The Enemy’s Plan: How Trump’s Proposal Seeks To Liquidate Palestine
Even If Gaza Peace Comes, Israel's Reputation Cannot Be Rewritten Overnight
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Demilitarisation, Genocide And The Two-State Paradigm
by Ramona Wadi
October 2, 2025
The call to demilitarise Gaza is not new. The absurdity of demilitarising an anti-colonial resistance struggle in the face of hi-tech, imperialist supported Israeli genocide “under the supervision of independent monitors”, as the US plan states, only proves who defines the narratives and who controls the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians from their land. Israel, alongside all the countries that have expressed their approval to purportedly stop genocide, have only affirmed their support for genocide.
While calling for demilitarising Gaza to render the Palestinians people completely helpless against Israel’s latest military technology, impunity for Israel’s genocide is sealed. Demilitarisation will justify Israel’s security narrative. And in the context of all other coercive measures included in US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, demilitarisation also justifies the absence of a Palestinian state, which is already enshrined in the defunct two-state paradigm.
No wonder so many Western and Arab leaders were quick to endorse a plan that builds upon the previous oppressive measures and plans that culminated in the current, ongoing genocide. Trump’s 20-point plan does not conceal the intention to separate Gaza from the Palestinian people, and demilitarisation will be a key component to this narrative if it is implemented.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza is proof that anti-colonial resistance is legitimate. Yet world leaders speak of negotiations – the type that allows the West to direct its colonial legacy against the Palestinian people. Only Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro challenged the intentional international apathy when he spoke of an international army “of nations that do not accept genocide” to liberate Palestine. In the face of calls for demilitarising Gaza, Petro called for internationalist resistance against colonialism and genocide. And the unlikelihood of this happening only highlights all that is wrong with the Western concepts of justice and human rights, which have been rendered null.
When countries can recognise a non-existent Palestinian state and support the demilitarisation of Gaza while arming Israel to continue its genocide, it is logical that Palestinians need to defend themselves against this latest phase of colonial violence by all means possible. The West, however, as Trump’s plan clearly shows, wants to entrench the discrepancies between the coloniser and the colonised, where only the former is worthy of, and therefore right, to possess and use weapons. The Palestinian people, on the other hand, are mere recipients of humanitarian aid, fodder for the humanitarian paradigm. The Western concept of Palestine does not even envisage autonomous food security for Palestinians who had an abundant land before Zionist colonisation, because the satisfaction of basic necessities among the colonised allows more space for resistance against colonialism to grow.
The two-state paradigm supports demilitarisation. Demilitarisation ensures there is no emergence of a Palestinian state. Currently, demilitarisation also ensures that Palestinians will have no protection against genocide. The world’s insistence on rendering the Palestinian people even more vulnerable against Israeli colonialism melts the veneer shielding Israel’s international backers. Among all backers of the two-state paradigm, who has spoken out against demilitarisation if only to ensure the establishment of a Palestinian state?
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251002-demilitarisation-genocide-and-the-two-state-paradigm/
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Palestinian Subordination: Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan
by Dr Binoy Kampmark
October 2, 2025
He had moments of discomfort and embarrassment – pressed into calling the Qatari prime minister by his host to apologise for striking Doha and made to pay lip service to the prospect of a Palestinian state – but Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu had many reasons to be pleased. On 29 September, President Donald Trump advanced a peace proposal that essentially preserves Israeli pre-eminence regarding the fate of Palestinians, though it entails a cessation of hostilities, an affirmation that Gazans would not be expelled (those leaving would have the right to return), and an injunction against Israeli annexation of the Strip. But Hamas, militarily and politically, would have to surrender all claims, with the Palestinian Authority shepherded and supervised by foreign powers.
Trump’s peace proposal comprises twenty points. They include a “deradicalised terror-free zone”, Gaza’s redevelopment for the benefit of its people aided by “a panel of experts who have helped birth some of the thriving miracle cities in the Middle East”, and an immediate end to the war on its acceptance by the parties. Israel would withdraw to an agreed upon line in anticipation of a hostage release, during which all military operations would cease pending complete withdrawal. All hostages, dead and alive, would be returned within 72 hours, to be followed by the release of 250 Palestinian life sentence prisoners and Gazans detained since 7 October 2023.
Hamas and militant factions will forfeit any role in governing Gaza, with any offensive infrastructure and equipment destroyed, but any of its members wishing to commit to “peaceful co-existence” and decommissioning of weapons will be granted amnesty, with those wishing to leave given safe passage to receiving countries. Compliance by the militant group will be overseen by “regional partners”. Full aid would resume, with the UN and Red Crescent restored to their role as chief distributors.
On the issue of governance, a temporary technocratic “apolitical Palestinian committee” of qualified Palestinians and “international experts” would form a temporary transitional body, subject to a “Board of Peace” personally chaired by Trump. Most unfortunately, it is likely to include such figures as Sir Tony Blair, the Middle East’s typhoid Mary when it comes to peace. The transitional authority would hold the reins till reforms by the Palestinian Authority had been completed. With immediacy, however, the US would work with Arab and international partners to deploy an “International Stabilisation Force” to Gaza. The ISF will be responsible for training Palestinian police forces and provide support in terms of vetting recruits, with assistance from Jordan and Egypt.
The proposal clearly envisages a significant role for the ISF, though says about who will comprise it. Israel will not, under the plan, occupy or annex Gaza, surrendering what territory it has taken to the ISF. Even if Hamas were to delay or reject the proposal, the Israeli Defence Forces would still hand over occupied territory of “terror-free areas” to the stabilisation force but retain a security perimeter to stem “any resurgent terror threat.”
The plan also envisages the establishment of an interfaith dialogue to promote the values of peace between the parties, and a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” if the programs for Gaza’s redevelopment and PA reform take place as planned. A vague US promise to “establish a dialogue” between Israel and the Palestinians regarding peaceful and prosperous co-existence rounds off the points.
There was palpable grumbling from the Israeli camp. Netanyahu undoubtedly harbours ambitions of finishing “the job”, and there is little to say the war will not resume once the Israeli hostages are returned. Having previously rejected any governing role of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, he now reluctantly accepts the idea subject to a “radical and genuine overhaul” of the body.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, one of the right-wing heavies in the Israeli cabinet, is threatening to withdraw his Religious Zionist Party from the coalition. Agreeing with the plan had been “an act of wilful blindness that ignores every lesson of October 7.” It would only “end in tears.” Fellow zealot, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, is also likely to be seething.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid is also suspicious of Netanyahu, who tends to say “yes” when visiting Washington, “standing in front of the cameras at the White house, feeling like a breakthrough statesman.” On returning to Israel, however, he always seemed to add a qualifying “but”, his political base always reminding him “who the boss is.”
In keeping with history, the Trump plan, even if it were to be implemented to the letter, enshrines the essential subordination of Palestinian goals to the dictates of other powers. Palestinian military presence is not only to be curtailed but essentially eliminated altogether. Hamas, never consulted regarding the peace terms, is to accept its own effacing. The PA is to accept its own subservience and infantilisation. The Gazans are also to accept an economic and development program dictated and directed from without. Statehood is to be kept in cold storage till appropriate, controlled conditions for its release are approved – and certainly not by the Palestinians themselves. They, it would seem, remain the considered errant children of international relations, mistrusted and requiring permanent, stern invigilation.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251002-palestinian-subordination-donald-trumps-gaza-peace-plan/
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The Tide Of Public Opinion In Europe Is Turning Against Israel
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib
October 02, 2025
In the UK, the ruling Labour Party’s annual conference this week recognized that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, shortly after the government refused to do the same. It will be interesting to see the implications of such a decision on the government and on other states in Europe, such as Italy. Will the West revise its relationship with Israel?
The Labour conference in Liverpool accepted the UN Commission of Inquiry report that stated Israel is committing genocide. The delegates backed a motion that urged the government to “employ all means reasonably available to it to prevent the commission of a genocide in Gaza.” They also called for the UK’s arms trade with Israel to be suspended.
Previously, the UK government denied that Israel was committing genocide. A week before the UN report was released, London made a dubious statement that it had “not concluded” that Israel was committing genocide. It also claimed that its arm sales, mainly parts for the F-35 jets that are used in bombing Gaza, have not led to any breaches of international humanitarian law.
The UK government has tried to deflect criticism by recognizing the state of Palestine. This symbolic gesture was intended to show the government’s angry domestic audience that it is doing something for Palestine. However, this is not enough. The British people require accountability. The Labour Party is already showing discontent with the current leadership. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s position on Gaza will definitely not help his plunging popularity.
Several human rights organizations and genocide scholars have concluded that Israel is committing genocide. In July, two Israeli human rights organizations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, came to that conclusion. And the UN report published last month left no doubt that Israel is committing genocide.
Following that report, Amnesty International said the UK government must “prevent and punish” Israel’s genocide. The popular opposition is closing in on Starmer’s pro-Israel, pro-US position. For how long can he resist the will of the people? The government has not officially changed its position yet. However, it cannot be at war with its own party to please a foreign government.
Italy is another country where grassroots pressure is weighing on the government. Protests have swamped major Italian cities, with people demanding justice for Palestine and an end to Italian complicity in Israel’s crimes.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which was sailing to break the siege on Gaza, included 58 Italian citizens, among which were members of parliament. Rome had ordered a navy frigate to escort the flotilla after it was attacked by drones while sailing in the Mediterranean. However, when it got to 150 nautical miles from Gaza’s shore, the Italian navy turned back in order to avoid friction with Israel. The Spanish naval ship that was dispatched by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez did likewise. And Turkish drones that were following the flotilla returned to their base.
Several European countries have tried to absorb popular discontent by recognizing the state of Palestinian as a token gesture. But their people want accountability. They want to know that their elected governments are not endorsing genocide. People are not fooled by the symbolic gesture. They want real action from their states.
As I wrote in a previous op-ed, the best way for Europe to punish Israel is to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement. However, the EU has a crippling problem, which is the need for unanimity. This has hindered the bloc’s effectiveness and prevented it from placing sanctions on Israel. However, in her state of the union address last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “It is time to free ourselves from the shackles of unanimity.” If this requirement is removed, Israel will surely receive a slap to the face.
As much as European leaders are in cahoots with Israel, at some point they will need to cater to their people’s aspirations. As the Italian frigate left the flotilla this week, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked her citizens to come back, hypocritically claiming that their efforts risked preventing peace. Really? But the Italian people did not fall for that. Unions in Italy called a general strike for Friday in solidarity with the flotilla after it was intercepted.
Popular discontent is mounting. Two Gaza-bound flotillas were intercepted in June and in July and nothing happened. However, this time is different. It was not just a small group of activists trying to take aid to the Strip. The flotilla has been supported by a broad popular movement. Can Meloni’s premiership handle a general strike and perhaps even unrest to please her friends in Tel Aviv? Is it worth it? European leaders should start to rethink their support for Israel.
People power works. Of course, Israel has many tools to pressure influential people: money, smear campaigns, kompromat. However, it is the people that will have the final word. Israel was hoping that publics worldwide would grow tired of Gaza and the issue would fade from their attention. In fact, the opposite is happening. People have become more aware of what is happening. The genocide cannot be whitewashed anymore. Protests are becoming larger. Following the illegal interception of the flotilla, protests erupted in Berlin, Rome, Barcelona, Brussels and Istanbul.
People are becoming more organized and more strategic. Despite cases of police brutality and the risk of arrest, they are not being cowed. European politicians must know that their publics will not be satisfied with symbolic gestures. They need to see change. Decision-makers need to take a tough stand on Israel. The tide has turned in Europe and the US will be next.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2617563
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Revolt Against the Enemy’s Plan: How Trump’s Proposal Seeks To Liquidate Palestine
By Alain Alameddine
October 2, 2025
Trump’s plan is not a proposal for a ceasefire, or even for a defeat that the Palestinians can manage and eventually recover from, but rather for total capitulation. It also targets not only Hamas, but the entire Palestinian society. Of course, no one has the right to silence the Palestinian voice in Gaza and the diverse, supporting, opposing, and hesitant opinions there regarding the plan. At the same time, it is necessary to analyze its content and take action for Gaza and Palestine. In addition to not guaranteeing an end to the genocide, how does Trump’s plan form the basis for liquidating the Palestinian cause? And how can we influence the balance of power in the face of this colonial attack?
A Plan That Concedes Two Fundamental Rights: Resistance and Sovereignty
The plan does not only stipulate that Hamas must give up its weapons. It also speaks of a commitment and pledge by all factions that Gaza will not pose a threat to the colony, and speaks of Gaza as a “de-radicalized terror-free zone”, which implies recognizing the resistance as radicalism and terrorism. It also speaks of “amnesty” for fighters who drop the armed resistance, which implies recognizing resistance as a crime.
Furthermore, the plan does not only stipulate Hamas’ commitment not to play any role in governing Gaza. It also proposes a temporary transitional government run by a committee of Palestinians and non-Palestinians, without specifying the duration of this transition, the number or percentage of Palestinians in it, the citizenship of the non-Palestinians, or how its members will be selected. This committee would be under the supervision of an international transitional body headed by Trump and other criminals. This constitutes a surrender of Palestinian sovereignty in the Gaza Strip. It also entrenches the political and administrative rift between Gaza and the West Bank by excluding even the Palestinian Authority from its administration. All this is in addition to keeping open the path to the colony’s annexation of the West Bank.
Oslo is often considered worse than the Nakba of 1948, since stealing a house is less serious than recognizing the house as belonging to the thieves. Trump’s 2025 Nakba plan is not just a defeat, but a Palestinian surrender of two fundamental rights: the right to resistance and the right to sovereignty. It is, therefore, the basis for Palestine’s surrender and the liquidation of its cause.
How Do We Confront This Colonial Attack?
We must remember that no Palestinian figure, organization, or authority has the legitimacy to accept this proposal. First, because the right to resistance and the right to sovereignty cannot be relinquished. These rights do not belong to any organization and, therefore, no one has the authority to relinquish what they do not own. Second, because any acceptance of the proposal would be acceptance under pressure of extermination, and no agreement concluded under duress is legitimate.
But this does not mean that we should not confront this attack – quite the contrary, we must confront it as an attack on Palestine and its cause. Normalizing relinquishing the rights to resistance and sovereignty also threatens the societies of the region and, indeed, the world. This calls for action on several levels. First, an internal Palestinian agreement on two points: stopping genocide and ethnic razing, and refusing to relinquish the right to resistance and sovereignty. These are two comprehensive points that every Palestinian can – and indeed must – adopt, regardless of their position on Hamas or the Al-Aqsa Flood.
Second, Palestinian figures, including politicians, trade unionists, journalists, media professionals, human rights activists, academics, and others, must rise up against the enemy’s targeting of Palestine and publicly declare their rejection of genocide and their refusal to relinquish the rights to resistance and sovereignty. The leaders of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority have an exceptional, even historic, role to play at this level, one that is worthy of any sacrifice they may be forced to make.
Third, all Palestinian organizations, institutions, and groups – political, labor, civil, media, cultural, religious, commercial, and others – in Gaza, the West Bank, the Arab Diaspora, and the foreign Diaspora, despite their differences, must work to issue a unified position and urgently form a participatory platform to coordinate efforts to resist the enemy’s aggression.
Fourth, every Palestinian must rise up against the project that targets them, by overcoming the illusion of helplessness and moving from it to confrontation, and by overcoming the dead-end horizon of individual action and moving from it to organized collective action.
Fifth, action in Al-Sham and Arab countries, not as solidarity with “another” cause, but rather in direct self-defence against the enemy’s attempt to impose absolute hegemony and claim the right to determine the fate of peoples, and against the dangerous precedent that this would set against the region’s societies.
In the medium and long term, it is necessary to analyse the path that has led us to this moment and to define a liberating and democratic political project, at the level of Palestine and the region, which addresses the weaknesses revealed by the analysis and builds organization around it. However, the priority today is urgent action to save Gaza from annihilation and protect the Palestinian cause, that is, to organize an uprising against the enemy’s plan.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/revolt-against-the-enemys-plan-how-trumps-proposal-seeks-to-liquidate-palestine/
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Even If Gaza Peace Comes, Israel's Reputation Cannot Be Rewritten Overnight
By Jpost Editorial
October 3, 2025
Mixed reactions exploded when US President Donald Trump announced his 20-point peace plan to end the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza earlier this week, which Jerusalem and Arab leaders have endorsed. For many, the very fact that Israeli and Arab officials have formally embraced the proposal is historic in itself.
As the pressure ramps on Hamas from mediators to accept the deal, the families of hostages, the families of soldiers, Palestinians in Gaza, and the entire State of Israel wait with bated breath.
Each of these groups carries its own anxieties: hostages’ families longing for closure, soldiers’ relatives fearing for their lives and health, and Gazan civilians clinging to hope of respite from bombardment and shortages.
If accepted, an immediate ceasefire would kick in, all of the hostages would be freed, and Palestinian prisoners would be released. Israel would withdraw in stages from the enclave, Hamas would be disarmed, and a transitional government led by an international body would be appointed to oversee Gaza’s rebuilding.
Such a phased withdrawal could potentially change the region’s trajectory for generations. It is also controversial, since questions remain over which powers would lead this transitional authority and how its legitimacy would be maintained.
This deal, if it comes, will be blessed beyond relief. But it comes two years, nearly to the day, since Hamas’s murderous cross-border massacre on October 7, 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage, mostly civilians. The ensuing war, per Hamas health authorities, has killed over 65,000 Palestinians.
The long-term damages of how the war was managed and how the past two years have been handled will chase Israel – its leadership and its civilians, – for a very long time.
Anecdotes continue to rise of Israelis abroad feeling unsafe to travel, wary to say where they are from – something they should be able to proudly do. The ripple effects of the war extend far beyond the battlefield into the lives of ordinary people.
Reputational cost as painful as physical dangers of war for many
Fears of sanctions and bans from cultural and academic institutions creep in, and the consequences – justified or not – of the photos from Gaza’s devastation are starting to catch up with Israelis. For many, the reputational cost of these images is becoming as painful as the physical dangers of the war itself.
And, it will probably not stop even once a deal is signed. This is the reality that Israel’s leaders must be prepared for: not just defending to an audience that already agrees, but explaining to the world what was done, why it was done, and owning up to mistakes. In an era of global scrutiny, explanations must persuade skeptical allies abroad as much as reassure Israelis at home.
What is required, once this is all over, is a deep and broad examination of the war tactics – were they always correct and right, or did they dig Israelis into a hole they will struggle to escape? From the use of airstrikes in densely populated areas to policies on humanitarian aid, each decision will need review.
Antisemites, and those who choose to see Israel’s actions regardless of nuance, will always exist. But that does not absolve leaders from responsibility for what made Gaza ravaged and war-torn. The claims that “They deserved it” and “There are no innocents in Gaza” are insultingly simplistic, and they will not hold up. A moral reckoning must be owned internally.
When the deal is hopefully signed and everyone can breathe a sigh of relief – chiefly the hostage families – and collective healing can commence, Israel will be left to explain and defend the reputation it garnered. That reputation will not be rewritten overnight, but it can be repaired with consistent honesty, accountability, and humility.
That reputation is as much a leadership decision as any tactical one on the ground, and is something leaders must be thinking about already, seeing further than the next step into the future. It is time to take real responsibility. Only then can the nation heal from both the horror of October 7 and the devastation of what followed.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-869301
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URl: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/demilitarisation-genocide-two-state-paradigm/d/137092
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