By Robert Inlakesh*
Sep 30, 2025
The Trump-Netanyahu plan, which has left out Hamas, clarifies Israeli refusal to allow any path to a Palestinian State.
The highly anticipated press conference, this Monday, hosted at the White House between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, did not deliver a “peace proposal” but, instead, affirmed the Tel Aviv-Washington commitment to regional war.
Dubbed as a grand plan for “peace in the Middle East” and “ceasefire proposal”, what was just outlined indicates two key points: the US and Israel will reject Palestinian Statehood, while continuing to pursue regime change in Iran.
Understanding what has just been laid out and what its implications will be, first requires asking a series of basic questions about the nature of this so-called “peace plan”:
- Is it the only plan?
- Who has accepted it?
- Does this fit into a pattern of similar plans?
- Is the plan practical?
- Where does this lead?
A Counterproposal?
To answer the first question, this is not the only plan currently presented. In fact, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) just passed the ‘New York Declaration’ on Palestinian Statehood unanimously, which was then followed by a series of States offering their recognition of Palestine as a commitment to the declaration that was drafted by both France and Saudi Arabia.
Therefore, it can reasonably be assumed that this new proposal is being used as a kind of counteroffer to the European-Saudi proposal, which did not just offer a vague roadmap to Palestinian statehood, but also a vague plan for ending the war in Gaza. Another plausible explanation is that the Trump-Netanyahu ceasefire proposal is an additional layer, building upon the New York Declaration.
Similar to the New York Declaration and points touched upon by French President Emmanuel Macron during his UNGA address last week, the Trump-Netanyahu proposal demands the full disarmament of Hamas and demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, generally. Both proposals also call for an International Force to enter Gaza with Israeli permission to ensure the disarmament process and transfer of the territory to a new administration.
The only key difference between the European and American proposals is that the US plan opposes Palestinian statehood explicitly. Both Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump still urged the Palestinian Authority to reform, which the Ramallah-based quasi-dictatorship has already accepted, according to an official statement.
Yet, the reforms that are being called for by the Palestinian Authority (PA), by both the New York Declaration initiative and Israeli-US plan, only name the reformation of textbooks and the non-existent “pay to slay” policy, as they call it.
The so-called “pay to slay” policy refers to the PA’s budget for the families of martyrs and prisoners of the conflict, which the Israelis disingenuously claim is some kind of reward for armed attackers. Explaining why the Zionists are lying in full deserves an article of its own, yet it is sufficient to say that, even if this were true, the money historically paid to such families has been too low to even entertain the idea of a “pay to slay” incentive.
In addition to this, both proposals oppose Palestinian democracy; they advocate for Palestine to be fully disarmed – whether as a recognized State or occupied territories – and are, overall, pro-Israel plots that seek to totally annihilate the Palestinian cause for national liberation over even the 1967 borders.
Who Accepts the Proposal?
Which leads on to – who has accepted the proposal? Evidently, as per statements publicly released on the issue, just about every Arab and Muslim-majority country that backed the New York Declaration also appears to publicly praise the Trump-Netanyahu plan. However, Hamas was not even approached prior to this announcement.
This being a ceasefire agreement between both Israel and Hamas, they are the only two parties that must implement it. Therefore, there is only a 50 per cent agreement rate, thus far. Turkiye, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the others are all irrelevant in this regard, because it is not their concern as to what the people of Gaza want.
What the majority Arab and Muslim-majority countries have shown, however, is that they will now pressure Hamas to concede. They want to enjoy full normalization with the Israelis and allow for new business deals to flourish. None of them have any interest in whether Palestinian children are being slaughtered, only in continuing business as usual, which will require ending the genocide in order for them to proceed.
A History of Similar Plans?
In July of 2024, then US President Joe Biden had organized a highly anticipated press conference, where he announced that the war in Gaza “must end” and called upon the Israelis to accept his ceasefire. Since then, a range of ceasefire proposals have been put on the table, which anonymous sources have claimed that the Israelis have agreed to.
Each time one of these proposals was presented, the Israelis would find a way to make sure it was not implemented, until January of this year, when Donald Trump entered office. The Israelis actually agreed, and so did Hamas, implementing a phased ceasefire that was far more detailed than the ‘21 point plan’, and all the media leaks we have seen suggested of the new ceasefire deal.
By March, the Israelis decided, after receiving a chunk of their captives, that they did not want to end the war and simply began bombing again. There were no repercussions whatsoever for their actions. In fact, the US Trump administration rewarded them with brand new weapons packages and unfreezing the 2,000-pound bombs, which were put on pause by Joe Biden.
Each time a new proposal is put on the table, the finger-pointing at Hamas begins. Meanwhile, the Israeli and US media also begin churning up their anonymous sources who comment on a behind-the-scenes feud between the US and Israel. From November 2023, until his last month in office, anonymous sources claimed that Joe Biden was swearing at Netanyahu, slamming the phone and that he was even demanding a ceasefire or imposing red lines.
Similarly, earlier this year, especially in the build-up to the so-called ‘12 Day War’ between Iran and Israel, which the US approved of and entered directly, there were countless reports about a fight brewing between Netanyahu and Trump. The Jerusalem Post even ran a ridiculous story citing anonymous sources, claiming that the US President was considering recognizing a Palestinian State.
Over the past few days, these anonymous sources have returned to claim that the Israeli Prime Minister has been publicly criticized by the American President; that Trump was forcing his hand and that what we are seeing now is a reshaping of Israeli-US relations, where Washington is taking the bull by the horns. All of this, of course, is from anonymous sources and analysts who are selling a story, one that totally depends upon the imagination of the audience consuming this information.
Although this can all appear to be rather confusing, it is important to understand that it is designed to be as such. To see the truth of the matter, you need only look back to how many times similar proposals, talk of feuds, power plays, four-dimensional chess, and threats have occurred. This year alone, Trump has sent warnings of all hell breaking loose if Hamas does not accept this or that proposal; he has claimed he wants to take Gaza as real estate, even publishing a grotesque “Trump Gaza” AI video on social media.
In addition to this, the Israelis themselves constantly change their plans for Gaza and launch new military operations, claiming that it will be a game-changer, before backing off from the original strategy.
Is the Plan Practical?
The simple answer is “no”. None of these proposals makes anything clear, and this ceasefire, if Hamas were to accept it, would not only be more difficult to implement than the one that ended in March, but there are even fewer means of pressuring the Israelis to adhere to their side of the agreement.
Hamas has repeatedly made it abundantly clear that it is open to leaving the government in Gaza and that it will not control the territory after the war. The hard part is how this will be achieved.
If the Israeli subcontractor, known as the Palestinian Authority (PA), were to take over, the removal of Hamas from power could technically be achieved. Especially as the PA is an established organization that pays salaries to its employees and is, at least, a familiar brand.
The Trump-Netanyahu plan appears to ensure the PA will not take over Gaza at all and this is due to an Israeli refusal to allow any path to a Palestinian State. So, in the PA’s absence, the post-war administration would have to be composed of Palestinian technocrats, according to this model, although the details are, indeed, vague.
If not the Palestinian Authority controlling the post-war administration, then the only other option would be the experts from inside the Gaza Strip, almost all of whom would have had some kind of political affiliation to either the PA or Hamas administrations. So, unless they want to employ unelected officials with no expertise and no experience to run Gaza, they will have to use people who are going to have some kind of overlap with political players. Inevitably, this gives either the PA or Hamas some level of influence. Or, they could use total outsiders, Palestinians or Arabs who are not from Gaza, all of which will be disastrous.
Whether you like either of them or not, the PA and Hamas are well-oiled machines with deep roots in Palestinian civil society, a fact that cannot be undone by a Western or Israeli politician waving their finger.
Also, keep in mind that, according to a statement released by the White House on the issue, the deal will include the release of all Israeli captives and their bodies within 72 hours, before any Palestinian hostage is released. Even then, only 1700 Gazan hostages will be released, along with 250 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences and the bodies of 15 murdered Gazans held by Israel.
Over 10,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli detention, while there are hundreds of bodies of murdered Palestinians and prisoners who are being illegally held from their families.
The elephant in the room here is that, if this plan were to go ahead, it essentially demands that Hamas immediately hand over its most effective bargaining chips and will then wait on the goodwill of the Israeli government to release a fraction of their own hostages and their bodies. Then what? Hamas begins disarming, which will be forced by an international interventionist force, also depending upon the goodwill of Israel to withdraw its forces and stop bombing.
You need only look at Syria or Lebanon to see how serious an Israeli pledge to a ceasefire agreement is. In Syria, the current administration is openly collaborating with them, yet Israel is still backing a Druze minority insurgency force in the south and bombing the country at will, whenever it chooses. In Lebanon, Israel has occupied a portion of the south and has committed over 5,000 ceasefire violations.
In addition to all of this, there are no details or even commitments that instill any level of faith in what the humanitarian aid entry protocol will be, how reconstruction will take place, where Palestinians will live during reconstruction, no assurances that ethnic cleansing will not take place, no insurance settlements will be established, no means of imposing restrictions or punishing Israeli violations.
To save time covering every individual point, this plan has no legs beyond achieving the complete surrender of the Palestinian Resistance and the release of all Israeli captives; the rest is just a vague “well you’ll just have to trust the war criminal PM will stop committing genocide and ethnic cleansing, when he openly says there’ll be no Palestinian State.
Where Does This Lead?
Both Netanyahu and Trump mentioned Iran in their speeches; this was no accident. They also both spoke of the wider region and eliminating what the Israeli Prime Minister calls “the curse”, otherwise known as the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance.
This plan is just another iteration of the Lebanese push to disarm Hezbollah, to allow for total Israeli domination of the entire region. Washington and Tel Aviv are signaling they are committed to going all the way; they want to eliminate every single threat to them, the most notable being the Islamic Republic of Iran.
They are on the war path. There are two options that have been placed before Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran: Capitulate; or fight to the death. Given that the motto of the Hamas armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, has been that “it is a Jihad of Victory or Martyrdom”, it appears that they are more likely to adopt the stance of famous Palestinian journalist, Ghassan Kanafani that “it’s better to die on one’s feet”. Similarly, Hezbollah vows to fight a battle similar to that waged at Karbala, Iraq, by Hussein Ibn Ali in 680 AD.
* Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
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