NEO: Peace Through Strength: How Trump and Netanyahu Aims to Legitimize Occupation: - 06-10-2025

Politics Peace Through Strength: How Trump and Netanyahu Aim to Legitimize Occupation Viktor Mikhin, October 06, 2025 The world continues to see only one chilling picture from the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues to destroy Palestinians, despite their acceptance of the so-called Trump plan. Peace Through Strength: How Trump and Netanyahu Aim to Legitimize Occupation As Cairo prepares for ceasefire talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is revealing the true face of the so-called “diplomacy” of Washington and Tel Aviv. His army continues to bomb refugee camps and residential neighborhoods in Gaza, killing dozens of civilians. This bloody backdrop to the negotiations exposes the essence of Donald Trump’s notorious policy—”peace through strength”—where Palestinians, at gunpoint, are being forced to accept terms that cement their enslavement. A “Responsible Stance” Against an Ultimatum Policy Palestinian resistance factions, including Hamas, have presented a measured and responsible response to the American proposal. This response, the result of extensive internal consultations, reflects a willingness to engage in dialogue. The movement agreed to release all Israeli captives, transfer the governance of Gaza to a technocratic government, and immediately begin negotiations through mediators. Their goal is to reach an agreement that “serves the interests of the Palestinian people and guarantees an end to the ongoing war of extermination.” This is not a surrender but a gesture aimed at stopping the unbearable suffering of people living under conditions of genocide, starvation, and forced displacement. The international community, including the UN, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, has praised this flexible and constructive position. While a world weary of months of bloodshed breathes a sigh of relief and applauds the Palestinians’ apparent restraint, Israel and the U.S. are preparing a strategic trap for them, cynically seasoned with rhetoric about “de-escalation.” Behind loud declarations of a “troop withdrawal” lies a well-calculated plan for the permanent annexation of Palestinian lands, only lightly disguised as temporary security measures. A genuine and lasting peace cannot be imposed by ultimatums from Washington or by force from Tel Aviv According to the plan revealed by the Israeli broadcaster KAN, even after a formal “withdrawal,” the occupation army intends to maintain a long-term military presence in three key points of Gaza, which are its lifelines. This is not merely about “buffer zones” but about creating unofficial, yet unshakable, borders for a new protectorate. A “buffer zone inside the sector” will fragment its territory, making the restoration of a unified civic and economic life impossible. “Control over the Philadelphia Corridor” on the border with Egypt will allow Israel to hold Gaza’s “windpipe,” dictating the terms of any humanitarian aid and trade, thereby keeping the population in a state of total dependency. And finally, “holding Hill 70 (Jabal al-Muntar)” is a classic imperial tactic, providing total tactical control over most of the territory, turning any attempt at resistance into a suicidal attack. The cynicism of this strategy becomes evident in the words of Benjamin Netanyahu himself, who bluntly stated that the army “will remain in most of the territory of the Gaza Strip.” Donald Trump, in his social media posts, not only confirmed this plan but, with his approval, gave it a veneer of legitimacy, effectively legitimizing a future annexation. Thus, the true goal of Trump’s so-called “peace initiative” and the Netanyahu policy he supports is exposed in all its repulsiveness. This is a policy of strangulation, perfected. What Israel failed to permanently secure in past military campaigns, it now hopes to gain at the negotiating table, exploiting the unbearable situation of a civilian population pushed to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. This is a strategy where a humanitarian crisis is used as a lever of pressure, and the promise of a temporary respite is used as bait to consent to perpetual occupation. Under the guise of a “troop withdrawal,” they are trying to sell the world on their eternal presence, and under the pretext of security, they aim to formalize complete military and strategic control over Palestinian lands, burying the very possibility of an independent Palestinian state. Criticizing the Hypocrisy: Bombs Instead of Diplomacy The current escalation of violence in the Middle East has exposed, with horrifying clarity, the monstrous hypocrisy and criminal irresponsibility of key political figures, primarily U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their tandem, marked by mutual political benefit and similar authoritarian populism, has led to the formation and implementation of a policy that can be characterized as nothing less than full support for a plan to finally destroy Palestine as a political state and the Palestinians as a nation with a right to self-determination. Trump’s policy in the region was never diplomacy from the start, but a unilateral capitulation to the most radical demands of the Israeli right. The so-called “Deal of the Century,” crafted by his administration, was not a peace plan but a geopolitical blueprint for legalizing Israeli settlements, annexing the Jordan Valley, and creating a truncated, unviable Palestinian proto-state, fragmented into enclaves. This deal was stillborn precisely because its authors—Trump and Netanyahu—demonstratively ignored the very essence of the conflict: the decades-long Israeli occupation and the systematic violation of the rights of the Palestinian people. In sharply criticizing Trump and Netanyahu, one cannot ignore the monstrous hypocrisy of what is happening. The American president, while talking about the “deal of the century” and a “ceasefire,” simultaneously sent his emissaries to Cairo, Doha, and other Arab capitals to try to persuade Arab leaders to betray the interests of the Palestinian people and accept Israeli policy. Netanyahu, whose troops killed dozens and wounded hundreds of Palestinians just a day before any talks, declared with cynical hope that bargaining over lives “would only last a few days,” as if he were talking about stock assets, not human destinies. Such “peace,” built on coercion, the collective punishment of the two-million-strong population of the Gaza Strip, and the outright threat of total annihilation, is not just a sham—it is a dangerous and immoral illusion. It does not eliminate the root of the problem—the decades-long Israeli occupation, the discriminatory apartheid policy towards the Arab population, and the illegal practice of settlement building. All it does is suspend one cycle of violence to cement the conditions for the next, even more bloody one. Criticism of Donald Trump’s Middle East policy, particularly his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, focuses on his unilateral actions, which, in the view of many, led to the destruction of the foundations of multilateral diplomacy. The decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran not only destabilized the region but also undermined trust in international agreements. Simultaneously, the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was perceived as a final rejection of the two-state principle, demonstrating a complete disregard for the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people. Subsequent steps by the Trump administration only exacerbated this trend, legitimizing expansionism on the international stage. The recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and support for the annexation of parts of the West Bank sent a clear and dangerous signal to the whole world that international law is no longer a restraining factor for powerful players. This policy was inextricably linked with the unconditional support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, within the framework of which the United States transformed from a traditional mediator into a direct advocate for the most aggressive aspects of Israeli policy. Blocking any critical resolutions in the UN Security Council essentially gave Netanyahu carte blanche for any actions. The final element of this criticism is the humanitarian indifference displayed by the Trump administration. Cutting funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and Palestinian hospitals was seen as direct complicity in creating a humanitarian catastrophe and the collective punishment of a civilian population, further deepening suffering and undermining the prospects for long-term peace. The Illusion of a Deal and the Price of Palestinian Blood The Palestinian factions accepted this truce not out of faith in Washington’s “deal of the century,” but out of desperation, to give their people a brief respite from a hellish nightmare. This temporary pause is not the result of backroom dealings between Trump and Netanyahu, whose alliance has long been a direct conduit for the most aggressive and intransigent policy towards Palestine. Their “deals” have always ignored the root of the problem, exacerbating injustice and legitimizing the occupation. A genuine and lasting peace cannot be imposed by ultimatums from Washington or by force from Tel Aviv. It will not be born in offices where people’s fates are bargained over, without seeing the ruins of Gaza. As Russian President Vladimir Putin accurately noted at the recent Valdai Forum, “A truce is certainly needed… but the main task is not to freeze the conflict, but to solve it. And it can only be solved on the basis of the well-known UN Security Council resolutions, on the basis of the ‘two-state’ formula.” This is the only way forward. Real peace will only come when Israeli aggression is stopped, the system of occupation is broken, and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, dignity, and a sovereign state are fully recognized. Everything else is merely a postponement, bought with Palestinian blood and doomed to a new cycle of violence. Viktor Mikhin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN), Expert on Middle Eastern Countries Follow new articles on our Telegram channel More on this topic Too little, too late Mohammed Amer «The Deal of the Century» or a Surrender of Conscience? Mohammed ibn Faisal al-Rashid Trump’s Gaza Plan: A Peace Proposal or a Political Cover for Occupation? Abbas Hashemite Betrayal in the Desert: How Trump ‘Overlooked’ the Israeli Strike on Qatar Viktor Mikhin The Biden and Trump Administrations Are Personally Destroying the Ancient Christian Communities of the Middle East Mohammed ibn Faisal al-Rashid Tags: Gaza City, Israel and Palestine, Israel and the USA, Middle East conflict, US Hypocrisy About Contact Us Contributors Home Politics Economy Security Society Asia Americas Africa Oceania Europe Interviews Publications X Telegram GAB Vkontakte OK Network edition New Eastern Outlook 2010-2025 Republishing of the articles is welcomed with reference to NEO. 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