Israel and Hamas have agreed to a 20-point peace plan introduced by the United States, according to the Council on Foreign Affairs. Hamas has released all living hostages, while Israeli troops have vacated half of the Gaza Strip.
On Sept. 29, the White House’s X account posted President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza conflict. Now that the plan is underway and making progress, many have commended Trump’s efforts for peace.
Recent pro-peace propaganda has portrayed Trump as the savior of problems he’s created. This strategy is used to persuade the general public that Trump has more foreign power than he actually does.
Trump had made comments during ceasefire talks about wanting to to make amends with Iran, a country that had been infamously bombed by the U.S. and Israel’s joint efforts four months prior, according to Newsweek. If there were always motivation for peace, the U.S. shouldn’t have begun a war with Iran.
I believe Trump’s recent actions to settle the discord between Israel and Hamas, hypocritical from the military services he has granted earlier in his second term, are motivated by glory rather than the two countries' welfare.
“In April 2025, (Israel) had 751 active FMS cases with the U.S., worth a total of roughly $39 billion,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The U.S., under Trump’s leadership, has supplied copious amounts of military support to the Israeli Defense Ministry.
A PBS News article, included the speech given by Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, to the Israeli parliament on Oct. 13, 2025.
Netanyahu said Trump was “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” and promised to work with him moving forward.
Trump’s plan includes sending aid to Gaza, sending in military trucks full of supplies to feed, heal and improve the Palestinians’ lives that had been destroyed with U.S. weapons. If there were always motivation for peace, the U.S. should not have been supplying military aid to Israel.
Earlier this year, the U.S. suspended military aid to Ukraine due to an argument over negotiating the ceasefire between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump, according to The Guardian. In other words, Trump had blackmailed the Ukrainian leader to accept President Vladimir Putin's requests by taking away aid that could have saved Ukrainian citizens' lives, to have the satisfaction of helping to end a war.
I believe the timeliness of the ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia has become irrelevant to the Trump administration due to the lack of attention the war has garnered, caused by the overshadowing coverage of the devastation in Gaza.
Rather than focusing on promoting peace, Trump has prioritized the algorithm of the media to garner the most attention to his “noble” contributions.
At the beginning of Trump’s second term, he voiced his yearning for the Nobel Peace Prize, and I’m convinced this strike of humanitarianism is rooted in his need for such praise.
Israel and Hamas’s ceasefire continues to hold, but has been undergoing turmoil, according to AP News.
“The military later said it resumed enforcing the ceasefire, and the official confirmed that aid deliveries would resume Monday,” AP News said.
The helplessness of the situation is apparent as funding to foreign lands can be, and has been, intercepted. I urge any readers who want to help Palestinians to directly fund people or families in Gaza, rather than relying on aid to be sent internationally.
Laynee Eslich is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Laynee about their column? Email them at Layneeeslich@gmail.com.
