The predictable rejection by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Donald Trump’s month-old 15-point Gaza peace plan promises to prolong the territory’s bloody purgatory.
It highlights the inability of the US to exercise leverage over Netanyahu and bodes ill for attempts to revive a peace initiative.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have continued, and it has consolidated its hold on over 65 per cent of the territory despite the ceasefire brokered last October. Since then, some 1,200 Palestinians are reported to have died. The Israeli leader appears to have made some limited concessions, holding back on near-daily airstrikes, but it is unclear how long the respite will last.
The deal announced by Trump’s Board of Peace stipulated that Israel should first uphold its part of the truce agreed last year, including halting airstrikes, pulling back its forces within Gaza and allowing more aid into the devastated enclave.
RM Block
“The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed,” Netanyahu declared, ruling out the Trump formula for a simultaneous disarmament and withdrawal process. Bowing to pressure from far-right members of his cabinet, with a keen eye to the looming Israeli general election, the prime minister reiterated that Hamas would have to be entirely defeated before a single tank withdraws.
Israel had already made plain its opposition to key elements of the deal, including the promise of initially limited Palestinian self-government, supervised disarmament and eventually a pathway to Palestinian statehood. Their rejection in principle makes the prospect of long-term peace, let alone immediate relief and reconstruction of Gaza, difficult to conceive. In doing so, it is also scuppering vital buy-in by neighbouring Arab states to a peace process.
Netanyahu’s rejection of the deal comes at a time of shifting sands in the US, where midterm elections have raised the salience of Middle East policy. Israel’s old, dependable allies in both US parties are increasingly on the defensive or, in the Democrats’ case, in outright retreat. Even Trump’s loyal vice-president JD Vance has let it be known he is deeply sceptical of the Gaza strategy.
Trump has staked much politically on projecting himself as a successful peacemaker. In Iran and Gaza, his much-vaunted peace deals are evaporating within days, just as he hopes to disengage from the region. His Board of Peace, on its first public outing, has shown its toothlessness. There is little chance of any movement from Israel until after October’s election. But unless the US seriously confronts whichever sort of government then emtakes poeer, Gaza’s torment will inevitably continue.
