The Ceasefire Illusion: Washington’s Quiet Role in Israel’s Endless Wars

For decades, Washington has positioned itself as both Israel’s staunchest ally and the world’s most active broker of Middle East ceasefires. Yet time and again, when those fragile truces collapse, U.S. diplomacy seems to cushion Israel from accountability rather than curb its actions. Behind the rhetoric of “peace mediation” lies a pattern of support that enables repeated Israeli breaches of ceasefire agreements, often with devastating humanitarian consequences.

At the heart of the problem is America’s vast military and political backing for Israel. Reportedly, the United States provides more than $3 billion in annual military aid, including advanced weaponry used in Gaza and southern Lebanon. However, since the onset of the conflict in Gaza on October 7, 2023, records show that the United States has extended a minimum of $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel. That support gives Washington theoretical leverage, but in practice, it limits it. When Israeli strikes violate ceasefire terms, the U.S. response is typically muted, couched in appeals for “restraint” rather than demands for compliance. The message is clear: Israel’s actions will not seriously threaten the flow of arms or diplomatic protection.

Ceasefire frameworks themselves often bear Washington’s fingerprints, and their flaws. U.S.-brokered truces frequently contain clauses allowing Israel to act in “self-defense” or to “respond to threats.” On paper, that seems reasonable. In reality, it grants Israel wide latitude to interpret any action by Hamas or Hezbollah as justification for renewed bombardment. A ceasefire, in effect, becomes conditional for one side and binding for the other.

As per multiple reports, the Israeli military has carried out 194 breaches of the Gaza ceasefire since October 10. Israel persists in obstructing most aid trucks from reaching Gaza, permitting only 24 percent of the agreed-upon amount since the truce was established. In the meantime, ongoing violence from Israel in Gaza has heightened concerns regarding the delicate truce, as 115 individuals lost their lives and 352 were injured last Tuesday, marking it as the deadliest day in the Strip since the ceasefire was implemented. Today, Al Jazeera reported that the Gaza death toll from Israeli attacks has now reached 240 since the ceasefire began.

So far, Israel has shown little interest in advancing the ceasefire. By cushioning Israel from accountability, Washington turns peace agreements into temporary ceasefire illusions. Only when U.S. diplomacy confronts its own complicity can ceasefires become more than just intermissions in this endless genocidal conflict. Counter Punch has the story…

Jamal Kanj reports for Counter Punch…

How Washington Enables Israel’s Ceasefire Violations

Since the Gaza ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, Israel has once again demonstrated that its impunity is limitless. In less than twenty days since following the signing of the ceasefire, Israel has murdered 226 Palestinians, injured 594, and continues to demolish homes at will. In the same period, Israel has breached the ceasefire more than 125 times.

The most recent was on October 28, when Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza City and Khan Younis, murdering 109 people, including 46 children and 20 women. President Donald Trump justified the killing of the Palestinian children, stating, “they (Israel) should hit back.”

In one of the targets, entire residential buildings were flattened in central Gaza, wiping out 18 members of the same family: children, parents, and grandparents alike. Still, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance dismissed the Israeli attacks as “little skirmishes,” insisting the ceasefire was “holding.” An American spokesman called the murder of more than 100 Palestinians “limited and targeted.” For Washington, the truce is “holding” as long as the victims are Palestinians, and the Resistance doesn’t fire back.

One would ask, if Palestinians had responded proportionally, would it still be described as “limited”? Or is it only Jewish life that counts for the American administrations?

Other mediators, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey weren’t much different. Qatar’s prime minister went so far as to crow that both parties are still committed to the ceasefire. It is as if pretending compliance mattered more than murdering 226 Palestinians in three weeks. Even worse, hours after he announced the resumption of the ceasefire, Israel bombed Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, killing at least two more civilians. Israel has carried out many more attacks since.

From day one, Israel has ignored its obligations in key provisions of the agreement. For instance, Item 7 required that “full aid be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip” at levels matching the January 19, 2025, roughly 600 trucks per day. According to international human rights organizations, in the first two weeks following the ceasefire, Israel rejected 99 applications to deliver aid to Gaza. As of November 1, Israel has allowed, on average, only 145 trucks a day to enter the Strip, or just 24% of the “full aid” under the ceasefire agreement. Further, Israel has barred UNRWA, the largest UN aid organization with the most extensive storage and distribution system on the ground, from delivering shelter and food supplies for 1.3 million human beings. This contravened the International Court of Justice ruling , specifically ordering Israel to allow UNRWA to operate freely.

Israeli violations of accords is a familiar Israeli pattern. In southern Lebanon, a ceasefire demanded Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory by January 26, 2025. Ten months later, it still occupies posts inside Lebanon and carries out daily attacks on targets throughout Lebanon. As in Gaza, the U.S. and France, who brokered that agreement, seem to be unbothered by the Israeli violations. Ironically, these same countries would predictably “cry and condemn” if the Lebanese Resistance retaliated against Israel.

For Israel, agreements are à la carte; it takes what suits it, while refusing to fulfill its obligations. All Israel had wanted from the ceasefire agreement was the return of its captives. Once that was secured, it gained a free hand to do as it pleased in Gaza. The ceasefire is no more than a façade, allowing Israel to manage a “starvation diet” for more than two million people (Humans).

By trivializing Israeli violations of the ceasefire, the U.S. and its Arab partners have turned what should be a mutual commitment into a one-sided war license. When Israeli breaches are not confronted, the Trump administration and Arab mediators turn those violations into an accepted policy. For Israel’s strategy is to create a “new normal,” hiding behind ceasefires to maintain the status quo, anchor a permanent occupation, “security zones,” and make murdering Palestinians a routine.

This has been the “new normal” where Israel conducts regular incursions into Syria and attacks Lebanon, and now Gaza, unchallenged. In this framework, ceasefires become deceptive tactics to secure occupation and normalize aggression.

As long as Washington and its vassal Arab dictators sanitize Israeli violations as “skirmishes,” and as long as Palestinian lives are expendable under a system where “ceasefires” exist in press releases only to boast Trump’s narcissistic ego, and where one side can violate agreements without consequence, “ceasefires” serve to legalize perpetual one-sided war. Thus, exposing Trump’s “peace” as a transactional tool that restores Israel’s leverage to starve and commit mass atrocities with impunity.

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Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2025/11/04/the-ceasefire-illusion-washingtons-quiet-role-in-israels-endless-wars/