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19 October 2025

Trump’s Peace Plan In Jerusalem Sparks Outrage And Doubt

As Trump touts support for Israel and unveils a new peace proposal, Palestinians and critics highlight ongoing violence in Gaza and the growing influence of pro-Israel interests in U.S. politics and media.

On October 19, 2025, as political leaders gathered in Jerusalem and Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss the future of the Middle East, the disconnect between high-level diplomatic rhetoric and the lived reality of Palestinians was laid bare. Former President Donald Trump, returning to center stage in Middle East diplomacy, delivered a speech before the Israeli Knesset that, for many observers and those directly affected by the ongoing conflict, felt not only hollow but deeply troubling.

Trump’s address was filled with self-congratulation and effusive praise for Israel’s “resilience” following the events of October 7, 2025. He described this as one of Israel’s darkest days, recounting stories of Israeli pain and heroism, but conspicuously omitted any mention of the ongoing violence in Gaza. According to Middle East Monitor, Trump “did not mention the ongoing genocide in Gaza—the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, the families buried under rubble, the starving children trapped in what has become the world’s largest open-air graveyard.”

Instead, Trump highlighted his administration’s unwavering support for Israel, boasting about moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli settlements as legitimate. He framed these actions as achievements, even as they sparked international condemnation and deepened the sense of injustice among Palestinians. “He seemed proud—boastful even—of his role in arming Israel,” reported Middle East Monitor, “as though gifting our land away was an act of peace.”

While Trump spoke in Jerusalem, the situation in Gaza remained dire. A Palestinian resident, whose home was destroyed by Israeli bombing, struggled to find food and shelter for his family. In a voice note sent amid the sound of drones, he shared that they had eaten only a little food in two days. “As Trump boasted about ‘supporting Israel’s defence,’ my friend was struggling to defend his family from hunger, cold, and despair—not from an army, but from a war machine that has turned his life into rubble,” the author recounted in Middle East Monitor.

The so-called peace plan unveiled by Trump at the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, attended by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and several Arab officials, offered little comfort to Palestinians. The plan spoke vaguely about “economic opportunities” and “regional cooperation,” but failed to address the root cause of the conflict—the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. It promised security for Israel, but nothing for Palestinians living under constant military siege. As reported, the plan “celebrates normalization between Israel and Arab regimes, while ignoring the normalization of apartheid and dispossession on the ground.”

This approach was not new. Trump’s 2025 proposal echoed his 2020 “deal of the century,” which also excluded Palestinians from the process and sought to legalize the annexation of settlements and the denial of refugee rights. “The difference now is that the destruction in Gaza and the tightening of Israel’s control over the West Bank have made such plans even more grotesque,” the author observed.

Meanwhile, the U.S. political system and major media institutions have come under increasing scrutiny for their perceived subservience to Israeli interests. Journalist Aaron Maté, writing on October 19, 2025, argued that both Democrats and Republicans, as well as corporate news outlets, have prioritized support for Israel over democratic values and public opinion. According to Maté, “support for Israel outweighs electoral strategy, morality, or public opinion” for U.S. politicians, who fear losing future book deals, speaking engagements, or elite acceptance if they criticize Israel.

Maté pointed out that pro-Israel billionaires now control major media and tech platforms: Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, Larry Ellison is in the process of buying TikTok and is a major funder of Israel’s military, and Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) is seen as having a pro-Israel leaning. The Adelson family, long-time Trump supporters, have also played a significant role in shaping Middle East policy. In a striking example of the media’s ideological alignment, Barry Weiss—a vocal pro-Israel activist with no newsroom experience—was appointed head of CBS News, a move Maté says “exposes corporate media as ideological propaganda machines, not journalistic institutions.”

The influence extends to efforts to control the narrative on social media. U.S. politicians have admitted that TikTok is being targeted for regulation or bans because young Americans have used the platform to view raw footage of Israeli war crimes, fueling pro-Palestinian narratives. This, Maté argues, has led to attempts to “ban or control TikTok to stop pro-Palestinian narratives.”

Amid this climate, trust in mainstream media has plummeted. Only 25% of Americans now trust these outlets, the lowest figure in modern history. The decline, Maté contends, is due to “corporate lies (e.g., Russiagate, war propaganda), open bias for Israel, and censorship of Palestinian voices.” He warns that while skepticism is healthy when rooted in truth, it becomes dangerous when exploited by movements like MAGA, which can distort reality for political gain.

For Palestinians, the disconnect between diplomatic summits and their everyday reality is stark. Peace, as they see it, is not simply the absence of war but the presence of justice—accountability for war crimes and the right to live freely on their land. Yet, as the Sharm el-Sheikh summit demonstrated, Arab regimes are increasingly eager to move on from the Palestinian cause, prioritizing normalization with Israel and their own geopolitical interests over meaningful support for Palestinian rights. “Many Arab regimes seem eager to move on from the Palestinian issue, to normalize with Israel and focus on their own interests. But ignoring injustice will not bring stability to the region,” the author wrote for Middle East Monitor.

The continued imprisonment of Marwan Barghouti, the most popular Palestinian political figure, further underscores the situation’s complexity. Despite his non-Hamas affiliation and widespread support, Israel refuses to release him. Maté suggests that Hamas’s motivation on October 7, 2025, was not mass killing but gaining leverage to free leaders like Barghouti, who symbolize Palestinian unity and legitimacy—qualities both Israel and the Palestinian Authority fear.

In the face of what Maté describes as “anti-Palestinian fanaticism embedded in U.S. political culture,” independent media outlets such as MintPress News, The Grayzone, Substack, and Democracy Now remain among the few voices challenging official narratives. However, these outlets are fragmented, underfunded, and frequently censored, making it difficult for alternative perspectives to reach a broad audience. Maté urges readers to support independent journalism as a moral responsibility in times of censorship and war.

For many Palestinians, Trump’s visit and the surrounding pageantry only reinforced a painful truth: peace built on denial and injustice is destined to fail. Real peace, they insist, must begin with the recognition of Palestinian rights and the end of Israeli occupation. Until then, no amount of diplomatic fanfare can silence the demand for justice or erase the resilience of a people rooted in their land and history.