Trump's New Dawn for Gaza?

Well, my days in Jerusalem, Gaza, and Tel Aviv a few weeks ago were in substance no different from my time in Tehran last year.

- BY NILANTHA ILANGAMUWA

They are archenemies, locked in a conflict whose roots are as ancient as they are intractable, a struggle over biblically evolved claims to land and memory. One thing is consistent among both Iranians and Israelis: people are treated not merely as adversaries to be vanquished but as existential embodiments of deeply entrenched national and religious imperatives. While Iranians endure one of the most severe economic constrictions in living memory, Israelis too confront anxiety and austerity, albeit within a militarily assertive framework.

The attacks of 7 October 2023, orchestrated by Hamas, were followed by powerful Israeli counter-strikes, culminating in a devastating crescendo that left grief, ruin, and communities profoundly traumatised on both sides. Two years on, the aftershocks of these hostilities are still being measured—not only in lives lost but in the psychological and societal scars that will shape generations. What unfolds is less a conventional conflict than a palimpsest of pain, where each eruption leaves indelible impressions on the civilian psyche. There is no precise formula predicting the next chapters, but these are undeniably consequential times, as President Trump prepares to land at Ben Gurion Airport this weekend, ostensibly to address the Knesset.