After more than 15 months of a brutal, genocidal war on Gaza, a ceasefire has arrived. As I write this, the first exchange of captives is happening. Three Israeli women, held by resistance groups in Gaza since October 7, 2023, have been released, and dozens of Palestinians will shortly be released from Israeli prisons. These include children and many who have been held in “administrative detention” without charges or access to legal counsel.
The political jockeying to define what this ceasefire means is underway. Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed victory when it is plainly obvious he failed in his stated goals to destroy the resistance in Gaza. The far-right in Israel claims they have been assured this first phase of the ceasefire agreement is temporary and a return to all-out war is imminent. That is a possibility, but the reality of the ceasefire will change these calculations.
Joe Biden, in a fever dream, said his strategy was proven correct. Again, everyone can plainly see this is nonsense. The agreement signed just days ago is essentially the same one from last May. Thousands of lives could have been saved had Biden forced Israel to concede to it. But Biden was, as always, wrapped up in his own narrative of foreign policy genius, dreaming of remaking the world in his own image. The people, particularly the Palestinian people, do not figure into that vision. But, as we have seen time and time again, the Palestinian people simply refuse to be erased. They have not acquiesced to their own removal from history. There is no other path forward but their liberation. How many more politicians will pursue this fantastical and brutal course?
Trump, who is less than 24 hours from returning to the White House, forced this deal when Biden could not. We should not interpret this as compassion or interest in peace and coexistence from him. Trump seeks power and glory, full stop. In this instance, even before officially taking office, he showed how power can be used and he collected the glory of doing what Biden could not. There is a lesson in the realpolitik of our current day if the left is willing to investigate it.
In solidarity,
Dave Reed, Publisher
Must-read: Gaza ceasefire reveals Israel’s fragility and the transformative power of resistance
Abdaljawad Omar: In the wake of a ceasefire, many will try to force the discourse into a binary of victory and defeat. But as the dust settles, a true picture emerges: one of the fragility of the Israeli colony and the transformative power of resistance.
Catch-up
🇵🇸 Qassam Muaddi: A ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday, promising an end to more than a year of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire is planned to take effect on January 19, pending a vote from the Israeli security cabinet.
🏥 Tareq Hajjaj: It has been 3 weeks since Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya was abducted by Israeli forces from north Gaza. New information obtained by Mondoweiss reveals details about the first hours of the doctor’s detention at the Sde Teiman prison camp.
📺 Michael Arria: A recent 60 Minutes report featured State Department officials exposing the horrors of Biden’s policy in Gaza. Why did they wait until he was leaving office to run it?
💣 Roaa Shamallakh: Now that a ceasefire has been agreed to in Gaza, the bombs will stop falling, and the world will breathe a sigh of relief. Yet, for those of us who survived, the war hasn’t ended—it has merely transformed.
🇺🇸 Mitchell Plitnick: A ceasefire deal to finally stop the genocide in Gaza and bring about an exchange of captives appears to be at hand, but many questions remain. Among them is the role the incoming Trump administration played and what this says for his policy in the region.
🪶 Iker Suarez: In the wake of the ceasefire in Gaza, a poem about maintaining militant clarity on what the last year of Zionist genocide means for writers and people of conscience across the world.
⚖️ Michael Arria: Palestinians are suing the Biden administration over the failure to evacuate U.S. citizens from Gaza. “I hope that we’ll finally get these people out under Biden’s watch,” says attorney Maria Kari. “This is blood on Biden’s hands.”
⚛️ Qasem Waleed: The Israeli onslaught has disfigured space and time in Gaza leaving a physicist like me no other choice but to use my understanding of the universe, as well as the wisdom of the ages, to navigate and survive the genocide.
✡️ Jacob Boas: In my life, I have been enmeshed in two genocides. The first was when I survived the Holocaust in World War II. The second is the Gaza genocide, which is being carried out in my name and which is exploiting my story to justify the slaughter.
🫸 Michael Arria: The Biden administration could have delivered the same ceasefire agreement last year, but they refused to exert pressure on Netanyahu.
📰 Farah Samer Zaina: For more than a year, Israeli authorities have refused to give any information about what has happened to Haitham Abd Elwahed since October 7, 2023 — leaving his family in heartbreaking limbo.
🇵🇸 Yazan Mohammad: Basma may have lived through the Gaza genocide, but she doesn’t feel she survived. Now studying at a university in New Jersey, separated from her family, the genocide hasn’t ended, it has just shifted its location.
None Of These War Criminals Will Face Justice While The US Empire Exists
Caitlin Johnstone
Jan 16, 2025
“Two journalists were ejected from a State Department press conference on Thursday for asking inconvenient questions about Gaza. One of them, Sam Husseini, was physically carried out by security while demanding to know why Secretary of State Antony Blinken is not in The Hague for his war crimes.
The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal was also made to leave while asking Blinken why he allowed hundreds of journalists to be murdered in Gaza, telling State Department spokesman Matt Miller that he “smirked through a genocide.”
Husseini was then forcibly removed for asking questions about Gaza, and about Israel’s nuclear program and Hannibal directive. Blinken told Husseini to “respect the process,” to which Husseini replied, “Respect the process? Respect the process? While everybody from Amnesty International to the ICJ says Israel’s doing genocide and extermination, and you’re telling me to respect the process? Criminal! Why aren’t you in the Hague?”
The talking heads on CNN described the journalists interrogating government officials as “cringeworthy heckling by activists”, initially expressing bafflement at how those “activists” could have gotten into a press room intended for accredited journalists (both Blumenthal and Husseini are in fact members of the press who often attend State Department press briefings).
Longtime State Department swamp monster Aaron David Miller tweeted of the exchange, “In 27 years at State, never seen a situation where a Secretary of State — a caring compassionate man — is heckled in his own building by a heckler yelling ‘Why aren’t you in The Hague.’ A new low in civility and discourse.” ”
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/none-of-these-war-criminals-will
One of the reasons that Trump succeeded where Biden did not is because of the alignment of the two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. If Harris had been elected and attempted to force Israel with the same demanding nature as Trump’s, she would not have succeeded (certainly not so quickly), because the Republicans (in the Senate specifically) would have backed Netanyahu and worked against Harris’s pressure and so such an attempt would have failed certainly in the short term.
As far as where Trump goes from here there are a few aspects that need to be factored in: 1. The major question mark is the US-Iran relationship. Will Iran be willing to limit its nuclear program to an extent that Trump will consider sufficient? If not, how will the added pressure on Iran figure into the Gaza front. If Iran is flexible, how will the change in the nature of the Iran vs US dynamic figure into the Gaza front. 2. The end goal of a Saudi Israeli rapprochement. This is the direction that Trump envisions for the glory of a peace prize and the path for it is not through an end to the cease fire after six weeks, but progress in Gaza and progress in the West Bank. (This might be a long shot, but I think this is Trump’s vision for the region.) 3. Trump opposes the continuation of Hamas rule in Gaza. How is such an opposition possible given Israel (under Netanyahu especially) is opposed to the strengthening of Fatah aka the Palestinian Authority. The sensitive period will be in going from Phase I to Phase II of this agreement.
One other point: Even though there does not really seem to be anything Israel gained in Gaza by the extension of this war when the same agreement was on the table in May, Israel (and the US vis a vis Iran) has gained much vis a vis Iran, Syria and Lebanon. Iran is weakened, Syria is no longer a tool in Iran’s bag of tricks and Hezbollah is much weaker today than it was last May. Failure to mention these changes seems to be faulty journalism.
“Trump seeks power and glory, full stop….There is a lesson in the realpolitik of our current day if the left is willing to investigate it.”
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Trump is like most politicians, perhaps more so.
This is an important opportunity for the Palestinian cause and it’s activists to factor in. Trump’s ego, his wanting to make the deal of the century, to become the greatest President, will test the creative capability within the cause, as never before.