Where Israel and the U.S. Diverge about the Future of Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Washington yesterday in advance of his upcoming meeting with Donald Trump—making him the first foreign leader the new president will receive since returning to the White House. Key to their discussions, writes Ron Ben-Yishai, is the implementation of the second phase of the three-phase cease-fire, the fine points of which remain to be worked out:

Hamas seeks to secure its survival as a political entity in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel, with U.S. support, will aim to prevent that outcome—not only by ensuring Hamas is excluded from Gaza’s civilian governance but also by blocking any military resurgence.

[But] the negotiations over implementing phase 2 of the hostage deal are unlikely to succeed unless one side radically shifts its position. The chances of influencing Hamas are minimal, yet Israel has an interest in keeping the group intact until the second phase is completed. This is because a party is needed to facilitate the return of all hostages—both the living and the dead—one that can be somewhat relied upon and pressured by mediators when necessary, as was the case at the start of the current phase.

However, one key point of contention remains: Trump is determined to end the war—almost at any cost—while Israel refuses to do so until Hamas is militarily and politically dismantled beyond recovery and all hostages are returned. The core issue in Gaza’s postwar arrangement is thus a matter of sequencing—whether the war should end before Hamas loses its grip on Gaza or only after its total collapse.

Read more at Ynet

More about: Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Gaza War 2023, U.S.-Israel relationship

Donald Trump’s Plan for Gaza Is No Worse Than Anyone Else’s—and Could Be Better

Reacting to the White House’s proposal for Gaza, John Podhoretz asks the question on everyone’s mind:

Is this all a fantasy? Maybe. But are any of the other ludicrous and cockamamie ideas being floated for the future of the area any less fantastical?

A Palestinian state in the wake of October 7—and in the wake of the scenes of Gazans mobbing the Jewish hostages with bloodlust in their eyes as they were being led to the vehicles to take them back into the bosom of their people? Biden foreign-policy domos Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken were still talking about this in the wake of their defeat in ludicrous lunchtime discussions with the Financial Times, thus reminding the world of what it means when fundamentally silly, unserious, and embarrassingly incompetent people are given the levers of power for a while. For they should know what I know and what I suspect you know too: there will be no Palestinian state if these residents of Gaza are the people who will form the political nucleus of such a state.

Some form of UN management/leadership in the wake of the hostilities? Well, that might sound good to people who have been paying no attention to the fact that United Nations officials have been, at the very best, complicit in hostage-taking and torture in facilities run by UNRWA, the agency responsible for administering Gaza.

And blubber not to me about the displacement of Gazans from their home. We’ve been told not that Gaza is their home but that it is a prison. Trump is offering Gazans a way out of prison; do they really want to stay in prison? Or does this mean it never really was a prison in the first place?

Read more at Commentary

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict