What happened
President Donald Trump Monday released a 20-point plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza, following a two-hour White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who backed the proposal. Under the plan, Israel would halt its attacks and withdraw in stages as Hamas released all Israeli hostages, disarmed and gave up any governing role in the Palestinian enclave. Gaza would be run by apolitical Palestinian technocrats overseen by a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump, with security provided by an Arab-led international force and Palestinian police, until a reformed Palestinian Authority could take control.
Who said what
Trump called the unveiling of his proposal for “eternal peace in the Middle East” a “historic day.” If Hamas did not agree, he added, he would give Israel “full backing” to destroy the militant group. Hamas “faces a bitter tradeoff,” The Associated Press said, as the plan demands it “effectively surrender” in return for humanitarian aid for Gazans, an end to the fighting and a “vague promise that some day, perhaps, Palestinian statehood might be possible.”
Netanyahu said he backed Trump’s plan. But he “peppered his support” with “conditions” that appeared aimed at reassuring his “far-right coalition partners who don’t want him to stop the war,” The Washington Post said, and he “hedged with details that could make it difficult for Arab nations to sign on.”
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar jointly said they have confidence in Trump’s “ability to find a path to peace” based on a “two-state solution,” though they did not back his specific plan. The Palestinian Authority also welcomed Trump’s “sincere and determined efforts” for peace and agreed to pursue his reforms. Hamas said it wasn’t consulted on the plan but would consider it.
What next?
Trump “deserves the credit he craves” for this plan, which “laid a strong foundation” for eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace, David Ignatius said in the Post. “If you are a betting person,” the odds are it fails, Thomas Friedman said in The New York Times. But “if you are a hoping person, hope that this time will be different,” because “this really is the last train” to anywhere in the Mideast but the “gates of hell.”
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