Our Vision: Down with Trump’s “Surrender Plan”

Statement by Revolutionary Socialists

Trump’s so-called peace proposal was not the result of indirect negotiations between the occupation and the resistance, nor of any deliberations within the UN Security Council or other United Nations bodies. It emerged solely from direct talks between the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump, the American president whom Netanyahu himself described as the most pro-Israel leader in U.S. history.

From the outset, Netanyahu gave his full endorsement to the plan, claiming it achieves every objective of the Zionist entity’s war on Gaza. These objectives include the complete return of Israeli hostages, the disarmament and expulsion of the resistance from Gaza, and the placement of Gaza under an international trusteeship led by Trump himself, alongside another war criminal, Tony Blair. The aim is to complete the eradication of the resistance in Gaza, in exchange for a long-term, phased withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Strip.

The American-Zionist proposal is hardly surprising. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have fully backed efforts to eliminate the Palestinian cause, through the annihilation and displacement of Gaza’s people and the annexation of what remains of the West Bank to the Zionist entity. Trump’s plan contains no guarantees, even if the Palestinian resistance were to accept it. It includes no provisions for a complete withdrawal of the Zionist army, nor any preliminary steps toward Palestinian sovereignty over Gaza or the West Bank—not even in the limited form of self-rule.

What distinguishes Trump’s proposal, first and foremost, is the explicit use of threats and intimidation by both Trump and Netanyahu during its announcement. They declared it non-negotiable, warning that any rejection by Hamas would mean the continuation—and escalation—of the genocidal war in Gaza. Second, the plan’s endorsement by Arab and Islamic governments—not only by America’s and Israel’s close allies, such as Egypt, the UAE, and Jordan, but also by Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia, alongside Qatar. Some, like Pakistan’s foreign minister, tried to claim cautiously that what they were shown differed from what was publicly announced.

The Arab and Islamic regimes supporting the plan are now pressuring Hamas to accept it—that is, to submit unconditionally. Some are even preparing to deploy armed forces tasked with verifying the disarmament process and effectively protecting the Zionist entity from any form of Palestinian resistance emerging from Gaza.

Arab defenders of the plan—particularly the Egyptian regime—portray it as a step forward simply because it does not explicitly call for the mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and because it vaguely refers to the “aspirations of the Palestinian people” for an independent state in Gaza and the West Bank at some indefinite point in the future. This comes despite Netanyahu’s repeated statements, including at the United Nations, declaring that the project of a Palestinian state is “over forever,” and despite the ongoing and accelerating expansion of Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank.

We all remember how the mouthpieces of Sisi’s regime rushed to praise its supposedly “patriotic” stance—not only for opposing the displacement plan, but also for its alleged defiance of the Zionist entity by mobilizing Egyptian army forces in Sinai. Many voices, including some from the Egyptian left, called for unity behind the regime during these so-called “critical” moments. Yet they deliberately forget that since the late 1970s, the Egyptian regime has derived its international legitimacy, economic support, and military armament entirely from the American-Israeli-Egyptian strategic alliance created by the Camp David Accords. They also overlook the close cooperation between the Egyptian regime and the Israeli army over the past decade under the banner of the so-called “war on terror” in Sinai. Nor do they mention the role Netanyahu and his intelligence services played in lobbying for Sisi’s coup within the U.S. administration in 2013—alongside the Saudi and Emirati regimes. And, of course, they willfully ignore Sisi’s central role in tightening the blockade of starvation and death imposed on Gaza.

Today, the ruling regime in Egypt—alongside the regimes of Turkey and Qatar—is playing a key role in pressuring the Palestinian resistance to accept this surrender plan. And, naturally, the resistance will be attacked by the mouthpieces of those regimes and their liberal and left-leaning allies, whether it accepts or rejects the proposal. If it agrees to, they will claim that the “Al-Aqsa Flood” achieved nothing but defeat, surrender, and Gaza’s destruction. If it refuses, they will accuse the resistance of indifference toward the daily deaths of hundreds of Gazans and of obstructing an end to the massacre.

There is no doubt that the resistance now faces an extremely difficult situation—not merely because of the criticism directed at the very idea of resistance by the so-called “Arab Zionists,” who wish to surrender without even a fight. The actual difficulty lies in the fact that the resistance today confronts not only its traditional enemies—the Zionist entity and its American ally—but also a blockade and mounting pressure from all Arab and Islamic regimes.

Despite the heroic steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance in its current battle, the military balance is not in its favor. Some may argue that the resistance has lost militarily, but it is crucial to emphasize that this is neither its first defeat in a century of struggle nor its last. What is truly remarkable in this long revolutionary history is not that colonialism and settler-colonialism have prevailed so far, but that the Palestinian resistance has repeatedly rebuilt itself and returned to the battlefield despite massacres and devastation. This generational ability to endure and resume struggle by every possible means, despite unimaginable sacrifices, is what terrifies the American-Zionist colonial project in the long run—and equally terrifies the Arab regimes complicit with it, foremost among them Egypt’s regime. The Palestinian resistance—standing firm against the Zionist killing machine backed by the U.S., Europe, and most Arab states—will remain a source of inspiration for every act of defiance in Egypt and across the world, from the smallest strike to the most significant revolutionary movement.

The Egyptian regime has not only taken part in the starvation and blockade of Gaza’s people; it has also imposed a blockade and repression upon the Egyptian people themselves, denying them even the simplest forms of solidarity with the Palestinians. Yet the regime seems oblivious to how severely its legitimacy has eroded and how much widespread anger is growing against its entire set of policies. The Palestinian people and their resistance have provided one of the greatest inspirations for the global fight against oppression and exploitation, sparking the most significant wave of international solidarity since the Vietnam War. Whatever the outcome of current attempts to impose surrender, the Palestinian revolution will rise again to strike fear into the hearts of the Zionists in Tel Aviv and Washington—and in the capitals of Europe, Cairo, Riyadh, Istanbul, and Doha alike.

The immediate task now is to intensify every possible effort to stop the genocide and lift the blockade on Gaza. The efforts of the international “Flotilla of Steadfastness” to break the siege, along with the strikes and demonstrations supporting it and resisting its suppression by the occupation army, represent a model of popular struggle capable of shifting the balance of power—despite the will of the occupation and its allies—over the medium and long term.