Two things to say about this important, historic news (we agree with Trump) of the agreement reached in the Middle East on peace in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians. On the one hand, even if it has to go out of the picture, there is an entity that is not political, because it is a terrorist entity, Hamas, on the other hand, there is the recovery of the Palestinian National Authority that had ended up a little bit in the backroom of the culture, of the politics of Palestine, even with suspicions of corruption.
There is one first thing to say, which especially the Italian media have not appreciated and emphasized, because most of the articles and headlines are all inspired by the doubt, uncertainties, and fragility of this truce (which, remember, becomes enforceable as of Sunday at 12:15 p.m.): we saw some very beautiful images yesterday. We saw an Al Jazeera colleague taking off his bulletproof vest during the live broadcast and finally celebrating. We saw scenes of even collective celebration that replace the narrative that we have become accustomed to in recent times, from the butchery of the October 7 mass attack in Israel carried out by Hamas to what the Israelis then did in Gaza in an inevitable retaliation and repercussion that nonetheless counts, according to the official death toll of the last few hours, nearly 50,000 probably innocent civilian victims. There will be plenty of a way to talk about the relationship between Hamas and territory but these are the numbers.
We saw for the first time not rubble, not malnourished children, not people crying, not despair: we saw scenes of celebration and celebration is always important, it will hurt what it will hurt but it is a positive sign. A narrative of hope is a narrative, at the beginning of this 2025, that has its weight, has its strength.
And then we come to the merits: Biden, the outgoing president, gives a lecture in which he claims his own merits and certainly those of his administration, of his diplomacy, all while Trump, who will take office on Monday, January 20, says “credit to me” and rightly claims with this success the beginning of his presidency in terms of foreign policy, the issues of world geopolitics and the issues of that part of the world in the Middle East that have been problematic for so many years actually.
And let’s come to the second thing I wanted to say: the merits are on both of them, and they take away that somewhat schematic idea that there is also in the Italian mainstream of thinking that the foreign policies of the great democracies walk like in a teenage comic strip or a bit of a macchiet, depending on whether one president rather than another comes along, with his own character with his own party, Democrat, Republican, Trump, Biden or others. In reality, America is a great country and has a powerful diplomatic machine that works underground anyway regardless of the personality of the presidents, who certainly will have their merits and demerits. This is to take away from the reading of what happened an inevitable sense, as usual, of adolescent schematism and then of course there is to be vigilance about this truce but in the meantime let us enjoy for a moment, as Cecilia Sala did in our opening video a week ago, a momentary sense of collective celebration and joy.
The article Party! comes from TheNewyorker.
