Many Hillsdale professors and students say they doubt that the Gaza ceasefire deal enacted earlier this month will resolve conflict between Israel and Hamas, but Visit­ing Professor of Jewish Stud­ies Michael Weingrad said it seems promising.

“The way I look at the Gaza peace plan is ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen,’” Weingrad said. “At the same time, I’m hopeful about this plan.”

Israel and Hamas institut­ed a U.S.-proposed ceasefire agreement Oct. 10, which stipulated the release of Pal­estinian prisoners and the return of all Israeli hostages. But tensions remain high in the Gaza Strip, as Hamas has yet to return all bodies of the deceased Israeli hos­tages, and Israel has pro­hibited aid from entering Gaza by closing the only crossing into the region.

Sophomore Yahli Salzman is a citizen of Is­rael and has a brother in the Israel Defense Forces who has been deployed in Gaza several times since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. Salzman said the ceasefire deal is a relief from the bloodbath of the last two years.

“I remember one of the first times talking to my brother after he got out of Gaza for the first time, he said, ‘It smells like death,’” Salzman said. “That’s just such a strong sentiment to show how bad this war was on multiple fronts.”

Salzman said he hopes Israel can move on to better times and end the fallout of this war.

“I think the ceasefire is in the best interest of everyone,” Salzman said. “So many peo­ple have died in these past two years: Gazans, Israelis. It’s not worth it. People say, ‘This war is good. This war is actually doing something.’ No, it’s not. People are being torn away from their families. Young children haven’t seen their dads in two years be­cause they’ve been in a Hamas tunnel and they haven’t been able to see the light of day in two years.”

Weingrad said the U.S. alli­ance with Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar to form the ceasefire deal is likely to have a better outcome than previous peace attempts. President Donald Trump’s success in stabilizing Israel’s foreign relations in the 2020 Abraham Accords sug­gests Trump may be able to orchestrate a business-driven peace deal, according to We­ingrad.

“One of the things that Trump seems to do on the world stage is to think out­side the usual boxes,” Wein­grad said. “He certainly had huge success at least in his first term with the Abraham Accords. What part of my hopes for the Gaza plan are that he is attempting to over­flow Hamas and the Palestin­ians and the usual suspects in these failed peace processes with a different cast of char­acters, a different set of coun­tries, and leaders who are more interested in American interests, Israeli security, and deals and business rather than war and fanaticism.”

Weingrad, who spends sev­eral months of the year doing research in Israel, said Hamas is representative of Palestine and its fundamental opposi­tion to Israel. A peace deal with Hamas does not address the broader political conflict, according to Weingrad.

“If there is a flaw in the peace plan that jumps out at me most, it is the attempt to see a difference between Hamas and the Palestinians,” Weingrad said. “It’s this idea that there is a Palestinian political culture that is not as dedicated as Hamas is to realizing its own aspirations only through carnage and de­struction. I think it is a con­ceptual problem to make that distinction from a Palestinian identity that is about the de­struction of Jews.”

But senior William Dea­ton said Israel’s retaliation to Hamas’ attacks has gone beyond what was necessary. He said Israel is “trying to ethnically cleanse the Pales­tinian people,” referring to Israel attacking a hospital and Catholic church in Gaza over the summer.

“I understand the need to defend their territory from a terrorist organization, but they are killing civilians,” Deaton said. “That’s despica­ble.”

Netanyahu said in a July statement that the church was hit by “stray ammunition.”

Deaton said Israel’s at­tempt to expand its borders will continue to cause friction with neighboring countries.

“I doubt that a lasting peace is possible,” Deaton said. “There is a very strong movement in Israel, and es­pecially in their Parliament, that is calling for a greater Is­rael. That includes Gaza and the West Bank, and it includes lots of the other Middle East­ern countries around them. Benjamin Netanyahu has not denounced that.”

Professor of Politics Thom­as West agreed with Weingrad that the peace deal cannot re­solve the bigger issue, which is the conflict between the Is­raeli and Palestinians.

“It’s one of those dilemmas in politics that doesn’t have an easy answer,” West said. “Will the deal solve the problem? No. As long as the Palestinian population lives within Israeli borders in large numbers, the problem won’t go away.”

Assistant Professor of The­ology Don Westblade said Trump’s involvement was crucial to bringing about the ceasefire.

“I do think that Trump de­serves to take a bow for this,” Westblade said. “That’s not to say I love him for everything he does, but I think he has done something fairly indis­pensable in this latest devel­opment. Not single handed­ly — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to cooperate. But I don’t know that anybody else would have been able to get so many Arab states on board in pressuring Hamas to let the hostages go.”

Alexander Hamilton Society president and se­nior Malia Thibado said she is concerned about who will govern Gaza go­ing forward.

“There’s been a lot of talk about putting the Pal­estinian Authority back in control,” Thibado said. “You want to have a democratic Gaza. You’re not going to get that with the Palestinian Au­thority because the Palestin­ian Authority is literally just the political wing of a former terrorist organization. You’re not going to get any better and it’s just going through the cycle again.”