The Eternal Return and the 'Iliad'
The phone rang and it was the poet friend explaining that he was quitting chemotherapy. It would be the last conversation. At one point in the conversation about how he was experiencing the end of his life, he concluded: "It's all in the Iliad".Humankind endlessly demonstrates that it learns neither from fury nor from compassion. It was a Saturday morning, the sun was shining, and I was cutting the dead leaves of an aspidistra, a humble, slender plant that demands no attention and whose name he had taught me.
Two years ago, on October 7th, anger, fanaticism, and terror descended on free young people enjoying themselves at a festival and families facing their holiday. That terrorist act set in motion a savage operation against an entire people, with the aim of drowning them in blood, ravaging them, and wiping them off the earth.
Today, the bombing of a ruined Gaza has stopped, and the army of genocidal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins a slow, partial withdrawal. This is good news, but it is extraordinarily fragile. We are witnessing the first steps of an agreement that may save lives but does not guarantee peace. To a truce that is essential but precarious, and which, to be lasting and stable, will require a great deal of will, the ability to pressure the parties, and political intelligence.
Only with real verification and a solid political architecture, which we have never had until now, can we prevent the truce from failing. It is a necessary pact that, without guarantees that still do not exist today, could remain a mere pause before the next war.
The recent agreement between Israel and Hamas consists of a partial ceasefire, an exchange of hostages and prisoners, and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli clothing. Fulfillment of the conditions will require time, the will of the parties, and observers with deterrent capacity.
The fragility of the agreement lies in the fact that Israel has not made verifiable commitments regarding its withdrawal or humanitarian access, which leaves the pact at the mercy of trust, a very rare commodity after two years of devastation.
Benjamin Netanyahu is the main obstacle to consolidating peace, because his military and diplomatic decisions respond more to internal calculations than to a national Israeli strategy. Every day of war against the Palestinian population has eroded Israel's moral and political legitimacy, and at some point citizens will have to confront this at the ballot box if they want their country to still be considered a democracy.
The agreement is deeply asymmetrical: Hamas must fulfill immediate obligations, while Israel retains the ability to halt and reverse its commitments.
Without active external guarantors—the United States, Egypt, Qatar, and the EU—the truce could quickly become a dead letter. Stability will depend on verification and automatic sanctions in case of non-compliance; otherwise, the reservoir of hatred is now so enormous that it will lead to a return to violence. It is only a matter of time.
The reconstruction of Gaza and the creation of a civilian authority are essential conditions for giving stability to the process.
In the short term, an international oversight mechanism is needed capable of verifying each step and sanctioning non-compliance. At the same time, clear sequencing is essential: the phases of withdrawal, liberation, and reconstruction must be clearly defined and irreversible.
In the medium term, the pact must lead to a political and institutional architecture for a Gaza that is currently politically disjointed. It will need a recognized authority and international supervision. Without governance, the power vacuum will be the seed of the next conflict.
And finally, the external guarantors (the United States, the EU, Egypt, and Qatar) will have to assume their responsibility as active mediators, not passive observers.
US President Donald Trump has achieved a valuable ceasefire, but the question now is whether he will maintain his interest in pacifying the region and seeking a lasting peace, when he no longer needs gestures directed at the committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize. The agreement reached is a beginning of peace, but it is not yet peace, and now comes the most difficult part, since a two-state solution is practically impossible despite international recognition. In the coming hours, we will see the return of live hostages, corpses, and prisoners. Joy will be overwhelming for some families, but peace cannot be imposed and is still far off. It will require the reconversion of two peoples today exhausted by violence and consumed by hatred. Once again.