Ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas Gaza conflict will have more than just a regional impact

The arrival of US President Donald Trump in Israel to address the Knesset (Israeli parliament), and after that to chair the signing of the peace accord between Israel and Hamas, was truly a global event.

- POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE by Theo Venter

It was done in typical Trump-style that circumvented the conventional diplomatic political correctness in speeches and actions, but the importance of this event cannot be underestimated.

Trump cannot get the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025, since it has already been awarded, but he and his administration must get credit for bringing the destruction and human suffering in Gaza to an end. The question that must be answered is how this peace accord was possible in terms of the Trump 20-point plan.

BACK IN HISTORY

The conflict in the Middle East is very old. If we limit ourselves to recent historical events, the conflict started during World War I when Great Britain promised a homeland to both the Arabs (Palestinians) and the Jews (Israelis) through the now famous Balfour Declaration.

The Arabs helped the British forces against the Ottoman Empire (Turks) during that war, and it became the story of the movie Lawrence of Arabia.

Some Jews started emigrating to what we now know as Israel after World War I. Between the wars there were several periods of unrest between Palestinian and Jewish settlers. It was after only after World War II and the United Nations’ recognition of the State of Israel in 1947 that we have witnessed continuous conflict over the last 80 years.