Former Israeli diplomat says Trump’s proposal a ‘simulation game’
Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas has expressed scepticism that the plan outlined by Trump and agreed to by Netanyahu would deliver on its promise of ending hostilities in Gaza.
“I don’t see an agreement yet,” Pinkas told Al Jazeera. “I see a great theoretical agreement. I see a simulation game.”
Netanyahu has a vested interest in this deal not working out, Pinkas said, and predicted that the Israeli leader would try to buy time in the coming days with the excuse of having his security apparatus assess the terms of the deal.
“I want to be optimistic, but I think this is too convoluted, too complex and there are too many contentious issues here.”
He added that while Hamas has been cornered into accepting the deal, he did not foresee the group freeing the remaining captives within 72 hours of an agreement as stipulated by Trump’s deal.
That would likely be physically impossible, Hamas just said they lost contact with some of the hostages in the ongoing bombardments.
Nah, this is just a set up to justify further genocide. Just another way to blame Hamas.
Nothing in the plan will hold Israel to account, nor the US, see how that goes in Lebanon
Hundreds of people killed by Israeli attacks on Lebanon in 10 months since ceasefire
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in November after more than a year of cross-border fighting and two months of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah following Israel’s exploding pager attack on the Lebanese group.
According to the deal, both Israel and Hezbollah should have pulled out from southern Lebanon.
Yet Israel has continued to occupy five strategic points near its border in southern Lebanon and has carried out near-daily air strikes, which it says are targeting Hezbollah members but which regularly kill civilians.
While the ceasefire required the Lebanese army to expand its role in Lebanon and become the only armed force in the country, Hezbollah has refused to disarm.
On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem reiterated that the group would not give up its weapons, just a month after the new Lebanese government publicly committed to disarming the group.
In July, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the Israeli strikes had killed about 250 people and wounded 600 since November.
PIJ chief considers Trump’s Gaza plan ‘recipe to blow up region’
The leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group Ziad al-Nakhala has said he considered the US announcement on Gaza a “recipe to blow up the region”.
