US President Donald Trump had convinced Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the fact that he could not “fight the whole world” and that his endless war aimed mainly at revenge must end.
However, a lot of hard work remains for all the countries whose leaders attended and signed the Sharm El-Sheikh Agreement to end the war in Gaza. The agreement will not succeed without close personal commitment by the US president to remain directly involved in carrying out all its different stages, ending with the long-awaited goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state as the only solution to bring permanent peace to the region.
Sharm El-Sheikh was the site of high-level summits following the signing of the Oslo Accords between Palestine and Israel in 1993, and if history has one lesson to teach us in this regard, it is that failing to reach that goal of a Palestinian state, ending Israel’s racist occupation and denial of basic human rights, is the key reason we have continued to see wars which always result in huge human and material losses for the Palestinians, with the worst being this last one.
Netanyahu would be repeating the same mistake he has made all through his long career if he believed that the indiscriminate killing of 70,000 Palestinians, half of them women and children, the injuring of nearly 200,000, the levelling of 90 per cent of Gaza, or even the heavy blows he dealt to arms of the so called “Iranian axis,” would bring an end to the century-long legitimate Palestinian struggle for self-determination and the Palestinians’ right to live in their own homeland.
The recognition of this reality directed Egypt’s principled position and efforts to end the war in Gaza over the past two years. In this respect, Egypt did not act as a mediator, but as a historic supporter of legitimate Palestinian rights that has its own peace agreement with Israel. The 1979 Camp David Agreement, also mediated by a prominent American president, was not limited to setting conditions to end Israel’s occupation of Egypt’s Sinai. It also provided for bringing about a permanent settlement by granting Palestinians their right to self-determination and their own independent state over all the territories Israel occupied in June, 1967, including East Jerusalem.
That was the same demand President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi repeated at least three times in his speech to prominent world leaders gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday. Al-Sisi confirmed Egypt’s “full support for and commitment to the implementation of [the new peace] plan, thereby generating the necessary political horizon to realise the two-state solution,” as it remains the sole viable path to achieving the legitimate aspirations of both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples to end the chapter of conflict and live securely.”
Addressing the US president directly, Al-Sisi expressed his hope that the latest war in Gaza would be the last in the Middle East, praising his repeated commitment to ending wars instead of initiating new ones, appealing, “Enough war… And welcome, peace.”
Contrary to claims by Israel’s current fanatical government that peace in this region can only be achieved through excessive use of lethal force, President Al-Sisi declared that security and peace cannot be achieved through military might alone.
He also reaffirmed that Egypt, alongside those Arab and Islamic nations that attended the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit after meeting with the US president on the fringe of the UN General Assembly, remain unequivocally committed to peace as a “strategic choice”. He stressed: “Experience over recent decades has conclusively demonstrated that this choice can only thrive when established upon justice and the fundamental equality of rights.”
Al-Sisi added, “from this standpoint, and given that all the peoples of the region enjoy an enduring right to their sovereign nation states, the Palestinian people are no exception. They, too, possess the inalienable right to self-determination and to envisage a future devoid of the spectre of war. They hold the fundamental right to enjoy freedom and live within their own independent state; a state living side by side with Israel in peace, security, and mutual recognition.”
Addressing the people of Israel directly, the host of the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit called upon them to “ensure this historic moment ushers in a new beginning for a life defined by justice and peaceful coexistence.” Indeed, justice is what creates and strengthens genuine peace, while wars with merciless killing and massive destruction can only lead to deepening hatred, revenge and yet another round of confrontation.
Meanwhile, as Egypt remains committed to working on the ultimate goal of the creation of a Palestinian state, it recognises, along with key regional Arab nations topped with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the importance of meeting the immediate needs of the Palestinians in Gaza after two years of Israeli genocidal war.
Over the next period Egypt will work collaboratively with the United States, and in full coordination with all partners, to provide urgently needed humanitarian and medical aid and to start the reconstruction of the Strip without delay. Soon, Egypt plans to host the “Conference for Early Recovery, Reconstruction, and Development,” which will build upon Trump’s plan for ending the war in Gaza, with the goal of providing essential livelihoods and restoring hope among the Palestinians on their land.
Along with key Arab and Muslim nations, topped with Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia, Egypt will also work on providing backing to a newly created Palestinian technocratic administration in Gaza and the training of a professional Palestinian police force to oversee the predictably massive reconstruction plan in Gaza, as well as providing much needed security. Hopefully, the US president is aware by now that a Palestinian-run government is the only way to ensure the durability of any arrangements to take place in Gaza in the near future, all while maintaining the connection between the devastated Strip and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. The internationally recognised PA should lead the effort not just to rebuild Gaza but also to restart the long-stalled peace negotiations with Israel on the implementation of existing agreements that set conditions for the creation of a Palestinian state.
In his third affirmation of the importance of this goal, President Al-Sisi concluded his speech at Sharm El-Sheikh by stating, “today’s agreement paves the way towards the future. It is therefore essential that we consolidate this agreement, execute all its phases, and ultimately achieve the implementation of the two-state solution.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 16 October, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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