How is the Everlasting Peace Plan for Israel-Palestine going?

Peace President Trump earlier this month was saying of his famous 20-point peace plan, ““I think it’s going to be a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace.” (1)

This calls to mind the line in Jazmine Sullivan’s breakup song: “Forever doesn’t last too long.” (2)

Democracy Now! interviews Haaretz columnist Amira Hass on the shaky nature of the current ceasefire. (3)

It includes a discussion of a grim recent report finding that 83% of the Israeli public supports expelling the Palestinians from Gaza. Hass calls particular attention to the growing aggression of Israeli settlers against West Bank Palestinians.

How any of what we know and have experienced so far adds up to “an everlasting peace” is beyond my meager understanding.

Moulin Rabbani discusses the fragility of the current agreement: (4)

It took the “Oslo Process” from 1995 to 2000 to break down. Trump’s Everlasting Peace plan might sputter along until the end of this year or so. That is, to the extent that any substantive agreement s beyond the immediate ceasefire (which Israel has already been violating) and the hostage returns. The prospects for the Everlasting Peace Plan (5) do not look good at the moment.

Meanwhile, another Haaretz columnist, Gideon Levy, also doesn’t seem to be very positive on the Everlasting Peace Plan. (6)

Levy also discusses the basically symbolic nature of countries simply formally recognizing a Palestinian state. Jonathan Shamir on October 6, just before the formal date of the Everlasting Peace Plan, also cautions about taking such formal diplomatic maneuvers as being more substantive than they actually are:

State recognition … has never been the core demand of the movement for Palestinian liberation. In fact, in response to the consensus that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, Palestinians and those amplifying their message have made a uniform call for an immediate ceasefire, a halt in weapons aid and sales to Israel, and the imposition of sanctions. Absent these concrete measures, critics have argued that recognition is little more than a trick—a sleight-of-hand meant to placate restive Western publics while perpetuating the same conditions that enabled a genocide against the Palestinian people in the first place. Macron, who co-convened the recent UN summit with Saudi Arabia, exemplified this deceptive approach. From the dais in the assembly hall in New York, he recognized Palestine while omitting any mention of cutting off French arms sales to Israel, which have continued unchecked since October 7th. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, similarly, recognized a Palestinian state while leading a government that continues to use workarounds to evade its own partial ban on sending weapons to Israel. Starmer has also met senior Israeli officials on British soil as recently as September 10th, and has led a massive crackdown on solidarity activism by designating the direct action group Palestine Action as a terror organization and arresting hundreds of peaceful protesters. Three of the other countries that recently recognized Palestine—Australia, Canada, and Luxembourg—likewise continue to sell weapons to Israel and refuse to sanction it. [my emphasis in bold] (7)

Notes:

(1) Tait, Robert (2025): Trump dreams of ‘everlasting peace’ as acolytes drop heavy hints to Nobel committee. Guardian 10/09/2025. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/09/trump-nobel-peace-prize-gaza> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(2) Sullivan, Jazmine (2015 [?]): Forever Don’t Last. Spotify n/d. <https://open.spotify.com/track/5ILoNug82Z8g4qUfpr5GXE> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(3) “Israeli Sadism in a Nutshell”: Amira Hass on Israeli Prisons, Settler Violence & Gaza Ceasefire. Democracy Now! YouTube channel 10/17/2025. <https://youtu.be/9-Y2qEow5zo?si=28EsnLwIGXXkvAiD> Also with full text at: <https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/17/amira_hass> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(4) Will Gaza Cease Fire Hold? The Majority Report YouTube channel 10/18/2025. <https://youtu.be/XSSA57YFz-g?si=7Dk3I6kHqf9JxQZv> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(5) Magdy, Samy et al (2025): Israel and Hamas agree to part of Trump's Gaza peace plan, will free hostages and prisoners. AP/Britannica 10/09/2025. <https://www.britannica.com/news/616563/ac80d3ed50ff2a9b4106ab5e13156651> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(6) Gideon Levy: an Israeli journalist standing up for Gaza. Frontline YouTube channel 10/17/2025. <https://youtu.be/hha6eL5-pbU?si=UvPUxoU6K_QFqoEu> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(7) Shamit, Jonathan (2025): The Recognition Trick. Jewish Currents 10/06/2025. <https://jewishcurrents.org/the-recognition-trick> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).