Political analysts and experts have been debating the content of the Gaza peace plan which they have branded an American Israeli formulation. The plan stipulates a ceasefire but includes no commitment towards ending the near 80-year-old Israeli Palestinian conflict through any concrete vision of founding a Palestinian State. Many expert views even cited wariness of the capability of the ceasefire to hold.
Today, I introduce my readers to the viewpoints of veteran American professors John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs, cited on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s podcast Judging Freedom on 17 and 22 October respectively. Professor Mearsheimer, political scientist and international relations scholar, and R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at University of Chicago discussed “Why Trump’s Gaza deal will fail”, whereas Professor Sachs, an economist and public policy analyst, and professor at Columbia University, talked on: “Israel’s next moves”.
Allow me first, however, to refer to views by Israeli former Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni who said that Israel has become a pariah State, arguing that the Gaza War and occupation were detrimental to Israel, both in terms of its international reputation and its own national interest. She said that the ceasefire changes nothing of the outcome of the fighting. The world sees what Israel does not see about the Gaza conflict, she said, the situation has become more difficult than it was before. Israel’s cabinet ministers, she insisted, have contributed greatly to the escalation of the situation with their incessant talk of more Israeli settlements, exclusion of Palestinians and relocating them elsewhere, until Israel became a pariah State. Israel-loving Jews say their sons and daughters are no longer willing to support Israel, she said. Beyond Israeli media falsification and obscurity, the world sees another reality which can no longer be ignored. The on-the-ground facts in Gaza reported by international media cry out against the Israeli view exported to the world, Ms Livni said, enraging the international community against Israel. It will be very difficult to restore Israel’s image, she stressed; it is next to impossible for the current government to restore that image.
Now to the viewpoints of Professor Mearsheimer and Professor Sachs.
Judge Napolitano asked Prof. Mearsheimer whether he believes that Israel would comply with the Gaza peace plan, to which the Professor replied that there’s already evidence that the ceasefire is not complied with. “With regard to Trump’s plan, you’re not going to get a peace settlement,” he said. “There’s going to be no final agreement where the Palestinians have self-determination and they get some State of their own.” Judge Napolitano pointed out declarations by Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich that “there will be Israeli settlements in Gaza; without settlements there’s nothing. The territories of the land of Israel are ours… but without settlements they have no foothold. We have patience, determination, and faith… to continue our series of victories”. The Judge said that with such religious fanaticism driving government policy… how does a ceasefire hold over time!
According to President Trump: “We did something monumental, we got the hostages back. That was the first thing we had to do above all else.” This is the peace plan achieved, Prof. Mearsheimer said. But other than that, he said, “Hamas made it very clear that it’s not going to disarm unless there’s a Palestinian entity in control of Gaza… Trump’s 20-point peace plan is designed to make sure this doesn’t happen. So Hamas is not going to disarm… Israel would not defeat Hamas or drive the Palestinians outside Gaza.” So it remains for the stabilisation force made of Arab and Muslim countries to bring about ceasefire and stability.
For his part, Prof. Sachs replied to Judge Napolitano’s “Is Israel honouring the ceasefire?” with a full No… “Israel is killing dozens of Palestinians in Gaza, and killing and tormenting Palestinians in the West Bank. It is blocking aid. Today, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared that Israel has an absolute obligation under international law to allow the UN to provide urgent emergency relief. The Israeli government immediately declared that it does not respect the ICJ and would not abide by its ruling. Israel is in a complete state of lawlessness, and the United States backs that. The ceasefire is not basically a ceasefire and it’s not going to hold… Trump wants the fighting to stop, but he does not understand the politics and he does not understand the root causes, and he doesn’t understand how to actually end the war. He’s surrounded by war profiteers who want the war to continue and prevail.
“The so-callled peace plan has no peace plan at all… it has a ceasefire, but it doesn’t address the core issue which is that Israel rules over 8 million Palestinian Arabs in at best an apartheid State but in fact a State of lawless mass murder. There needs to be a State of Palestinian. This is what 180 out of 193 countries in the UN, countries representing 90 per cent of world population are saying,… There needs to be a State of Palestine constituted of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, according to the internationally determined borders on 4 June 1967. Then a State of Palestine and a State of Israel will live side by side, Hamas and other militant groups would disarm, would disband because there would be a political solution.
“But there’s no politics in what Trump is doing. He wants the show to say the war stops, the magic wand to bring a ceasefire, and the war’s over! But it’s not over if the underlying reasons for the conflict are not addressed.”
Watani International
31 October 2025
