The morning sky over Gaza hums with the murderous buzz of Israeli drones. Boys on bicycles are obliterated. Girls playing in the ruins of their homes are erased. Families queuing for water are turned to ash. Forty-five human lives were extinguished in a single morning. Meanwhile, in Washington, protesters chant “war criminal” as President Joe Biden boasts that a ceasefire is “on the brink” of being finalized.
This deal—the so-called “breakthrough”—is not new or historic. It is the exact same deal Hamas accepted in May 2023 and again in July 2023. A deal that could have stopped the daily massacres of innocent Palestinian lives months ago. A deal that Biden allowed Netanyahu to torch while fueling Israel’s genocide with a steady flow of billions of dollars worth of U.S. weapons and unwavering political support, shielding Israel’s war criminals from any accountability.
Trump’s Role in the Shadows
As this deal teeters toward finalization, Trump’s former Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, reportedly held a tense meeting with Netanyahu pushing hard for Netanyahu to accept the compromises necessary to secure the deal, warning of political consequences if it wasn’t finalized by January 20.
According to Haaretz, last Friday evening, Steven Witkoff, Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, called from Qatar with a clear message for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s team: he was coming to Israel the next afternoon, Sabbath or not.
When Netanyahu’s aides tried to politely explain that the prime minister wouldn’t typically hold meetings during Shabbat, Witkoff didn’t hold back. His response, laced with salty language, made one thing abundantly clear—he didn’t care. Shabbat was irrelevant to him, and this meeting couldn’t wait.
In a rare break from official protocol, Netanyahu showed up at his office Saturday afternoon to meet with Witkoff. Hours later, Witkoff was back in Qatar, sealing the deal. The message was as blunt as it was unmistakable: the clock is ticking, and politics doesn’t pause for tradition.
But even with Trump’s pressure, Netanyahu remained obstinate, unwilling to relinquish the political advantage he gained from prolonging the war. For Netanyahu, every day without a deal allowed him to project the image of a strongman, further entrenching his power.
Trump’s involvement is not surprising. His administration laid the groundwork for this war, emboldening Israel’s far-right government through moves like the Abraham Accords and the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Now, as he eyes another run for the presidency, Trump’s team seeks to reframe this moment as one of diplomatic triumph. But let’s be clear: the blood of Gaza stains many hands, and Trump’s are among them.
The Real Reason for the Delay
Make no mistake: the delay in this deal was not about negotiations or Hamas. It was about valuing profit over people, about imperialist power and advancing Zionism’s colonial perversions. For Netanyahu, every day without a deal was another day to distance himself from October 7th, another day to project the image of a “war hero” to his increasingly fractured base. The more Gaza burned, the stronger his political position seemed.
For Biden, the calculus was no less cynical. The Biden administration knew the terms of this deal. They proposed it. But instead of pushing it through, they stood by as Netanyahu imposed new last-minute conditions—permanent military occupation, expanded buffer zones, and the fragmentation of Gaza into isolated regions.
Every delay was another opportunity to appease Israel’s far-right government and its unrelenting thirst for destruction. Even now, as the deal edges closer to fruition, Israeli extremists like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich decry it as a “catastrophe.” He still openly calls for the occupation and “cleansing” of Gaza, for opening “the gates of hell” until Hamas surrenders entirely. Smotrich’s words are not a fringe opinion—they reflect the ethos of a government that has turned Gaza into a graveyard.
The True Cost of Delay
The deal being discussed reportedly involves a prisoner swap: 3,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 200 serving life sentences, in exchange for the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza. This could have happened last year. It could have happened last summer. Instead, it happens now—after over 15,000 more Palestinians have been killed, after northern Gaza has been besieged for more than 100 days, after a generation of children has been buried beneath the rubble.
What has Israel gained from this barbaric campaign? Certainly not its stated objectives. Hamas has not been defeated. In fact, it has inflicted more casualties on the Israeli military in recent months than at any other time in history, except October 7th. The only objective Netanyahu has truly achieved is the undeclared one: the complete destruction of Gaza, the erosion of Hamas’s popular support, and the deepening of the people’s despair.
Accountability Is Not Optional
Now, as Biden’s presidency nears its end, Trump repositions himself for a comeback, and Netanyahu faces mounting internal dissent—even from Israeli soldiers refusing to fight—their shared complicity cannot be whitewashed.
The mainstream media, suddenly willing to broadcast footage of Gaza’s devastation that they kept hidden for months, must not let this moment pass without accountability.
Biden and Netanyahu delayed this deal for political expedience. They prolonged Gaza’s suffering to serve their own interests. That is not leadership. That is genocide.
The ceasefire, if it comes, will bring a fleeting reprieve. But the test of justice is not in temporary truces. It is in whether we hold those responsible for this barbarism to account. It is in whether we ensure that the voices of Gaza’s survivors are heard—not as victims, but as witnesses to a crime that the world can no longer ignore.
The question now is simple: will we demand justice, or will we allow this cycle of complicity and slaughter to continue? The answer lies with us.
I absolutely agree that we must never let the world forget how easily they became bystanders to genocide and the propaganda they were able to accept without question even when the genocide was live streamed. I have recently heard the term Sick from Genocide. That is how I’ve felt and many like me upon having to bear witness to something as vicious and depraved. But the greater sickness lies in the society that is propped up by these ongoing crimes against humanity.
*May and July 2024, not 2023🙏🏼