Netanyahu likely to accept Trump’s peace plan, but implementation remains uncertain
While Netanyahu will likely accept Trump’s plan later today, it is not guaranteed that he will implement it, says Gideon Levy, an Israeli political analyst and columnist.
“My guess is that Netanyahu will take it and accept it as a whole package in order not to show any kind of tension with Trump, of whom he is quite scared,” Levy told Al Jazeera.
“And later on, the real test will be in implementing this,” Levy said, noting that the US did not intervene when Israel violated past agreements.
Still, Netanyahu will struggle this time to appease both his far-right coalition partners, who don’t want to end the war, and Trump, who is eager to bank a diplomatic success – and both sides are key for the Israeli prime minister to stay in power, Levy said.
“He will do anything possible, firstly, to keep his government, to keep his coalition. For him, that’s the most important thing. At the same time, he cannot allow himself by any means to have any kind of tension and to lose Trump.”
White House Press Secretary says concession needed on both sides to land ceasefire deal
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the press before the Trump-Netanyahu meeting that Hamas is close to agreeing to a ceasefire. The question now is, where does Israel stand on this?
Leavitt said both sides will have to make concessions. The concern is that Netanyahu may not be willing to do so, as he said in his speech at the UN General Assembly that Israel needs to “finish the job”.
UN Security Council awaits US decision as 21-point Middle East plan looms
I was watching the Security Council’s regular monthly meeting on the Middle East, and it seemed very irrelevant because they are all waiting for this very important news to come from Washington, DC, as everything that was discussed this morning would become irrelevant if we see this 21-point plan finally agreed upon.
Some suggest that it might not be 21 points now, that perhaps a point or two might have been dropped because the Israelis have been in Washington and they are doing their work, trying to modify this plan to one that fits what the Netanyahu government wants.
There is a range of different diplomatic options discussed in New York over the last week:
- One of the most important ones is the idea of an international stabilisation force to go into Gaza. We know there are some nations that are offering to send peacekeeping troops to operate in that force.
- Another idea floating around is that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who used to be an international envoy for the Middle East, might be returning to be some sort of proconsul in Gaza.
