President Donald Trump sounded jubilant on Monday when he announced a plan to end the war in Gaza. “This is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization,” Trump said before describing the proposal.
The 20-point peace plan calls for the release of hostages and prisoners, the disarmament of Hamas, the uninhibited delivery of aid into the Strip, the withdrawal of Israeli forces out of it, and the establishment of a technocratic and apolitical committee for governing Gaza, among other measures. Trump said the deal would resolve millennia-old problems and bring “eternal peace.”
“And I’m not just talking about Gaza,” the president added. “It’s called peace in the Middle East.”
But there’s a big problem, and he was standing next to Trump as the president spoke. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was in the White House for the fourth time since Trump’s inauguration in January—no other world leader has come more than twice—and it didn’t take long for him to start throwing up roadblocks to peace. Indeed, Netanyahu had gotten to work undermining the deal before it was even announced.
During the joint press conference with Netanyahu, Trump said that Arab and Muslim countries helped craft the deal, and he emphasized that only one relevant actor hasn’t yet accepted it: Hamas. But as Barak Ravid of Axios reported Tuesday, “The deal now before Hamas is significantly different than the one the U.S. and a group of Arab and Muslim countries had previously agreed on, due to Netanyahu’s intervention.” According to Ravid’s sources, the “significant changes requested” by Netanyahu had infuriated Arab officials involved in the peace process.
The edits pertain to two sensitive matters—the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the disarmament of Hamas—and were negotiated during a six-hour meeting attended by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, and Netanyahu himself.
The updated proposal “ties Israel’s withdrawal to the progress of disarming Hamas, and gives Israel a veto over the process,” Ravid writes. Moreover, even if the phased withdrawal envisioned by the proposal is completed, “Israeli forces will still remain within a security perimeter inside Gaza ‘until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.’ That could mean indefinitely.”
Many critics of Israel interpreted comments that Netanyahu published on Monday as evidence that he has no intention of fully withdrawing forces. In a video statement recorded from Washington, the prime minister said, “Now the whole world, including the Arab and Muslim world, is pressuring Hamas to accept the terms that we created together with Trump, to bring back all the hostages—the living and the dead—while the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] stays in the Strip.”
Moreover, Netanyahu poured cold water on the idea of a Palestinian state, though the proposal calls for a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” He assured the person behind the camera that Palestinian statehood is “not written in the agreement” and that the Israeli team had made clear that “we would strongly oppose a Palestinian state.”
Netanyahu has used his leverage to sabotage the U.S.-led peace process many times before, often to the frustration of the White House. As Jonathan Lis of Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, reports:
Since the war began, Netanyahu has repeatedly taken steps to disrupt talks and stall progress: Israel introduced “poison pills” – demands that could not be bridged and that blocked negotiations; and negotiation teams were given insufficient authority to compromise, slowing understandings with Hamas.
In addition, under Netanyahu’s direction, Israel violated clauses in an agreement already approved by both sides that had enabled a cease-fire earlier this year, leading to its collapse. Netanyahu could take similar steps again now.
Lis’s report does provide one reason to think that Netanyahu could finally be ready for peace. Previously, Netanyahu had seen the continuation of the war as key to his political survival, but the calculus this time is less straightforward. “Israel is entering an election year,” Lis writes. “Running a campaign while hostages remain in captivity is expected to weigh heavily on Netanyahu, as a deal for their release enjoys broad support, including among Likud voters.”
Netanyahu would appear stuck between the majority of Israeli voters and an extremist faction of Jewish supremacists upon which his governing coalition depends. These ultra-nationalist ministers have opposed any peace deal and have proven adept at sabotaging diplomacy, as the Minister of National Security Itamer Ben-Gvir candidly bragged this January.
“Over the past year, through our political power, we have succeeded in preventing this deal from being implemented, time and again,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X. He called on other extremist ministers to oppose the deal then being considered: “The Prime Minister will refrain from signing the deal only if the force opposing it is strong enough to prevent him from doing so.”
With another deal proposed this week, Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Settlements Orit Stock, and other Jewish supremacist ministers are again lobbying against peace. And they may have the leverage to get what they want yet again. “If the Israeli government approves the plan, it could lead to the withdrawal of Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party as well as Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power Party from the coalition,” Israeli Arab politician Mtanes Shehadeh told TRT World. “This may also trigger early elections, potentially as soon as the beginning of 2026.”
So, will Netanyahu side with the Israeli voters or with the extremist ministers? Trump’s push for peace, Lis writes, may give Netanyahu political cover to end the war and get the hostages released—or it may not. “It now remains to be seen whether the pressure from the White House on Israel’s prime minister will outweigh the pressure already being applied by far-right Ministers Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich, and Orit Strock.”
There’s the rub. Trump reportedly played hardball to get the Israeli premier to endorse the new deal, threatening to end U.S. support for Israel if Netanyahu rejected it. But Netanyahu too has been known to play hardball, and he will find ways to sabotage the peace process unless Trump keeps up the pressure. Trump seems unlikely to do so. Indeed, on Monday Trump gave Netanyahu the greenlight to escalate the Gaza war if a deal falls through—and thus also an incentive to ensure it does:
Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas. But I hope we’re going to have a deal for peace. If Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible—they’re the only one left. Everyone else has accepted it. But I have a feeling that we’re going to have a positive answer. But if not, as you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do.
Many critics of Trump and Netanyahu are allowing themselves some optimism that Hamas will accept the new 20-point peace plan and that the brutal war in Gaza, now about to enter its third year, will soon finally end. This columnist predicts that Netanyahu, ever shrewd, won’t let that happen. For the sake of the beleaguered Gazans, I hope I’m wrong. And Trump, for the sake of his own credibility, his Mideast policy, and his legacy, should hope so too.
Read the full article here
