Trump's New Gaza Plan Has One Palpable Weak Point:
It Clashes With Netanyahu's Promises to His Voters
The U.S. President's plan apparently addresses reality on the ground, but giving the PA a foothold in Gaza and ending the war will endanger Netanyahu's coalition ¦ At a certain point, pressure from the Gulf states may tip the scales at the White House ¦ And the abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank is not a coincidence, but implementation of a clear plan
Amos Harel, Haaretz, September 26, 2025
Despite Netanyahu's efforts to ignore it, an unprecedented diplomatic "tsunami" is unfolding. It's not just the recognition of a Palestinian state by many countries, but also mounting calls for boycotts against Israel and the prospect of punitive measures that could place it alongside Russia on the international stage.
Netanyahu's flight to the United States on Thursday took a longer route, bypassing French airspace, likely out of concern that he might be detained in the event of an emergency landing. The prime minister and his wife, Sara, will have to make do with a long weekend in New York. The media is hardly even bothering to point out that all this is happening in the middle of a war.
Isolated and besieged, Netanyahu is deliberately heating up other fronts, at least rhetorically. In a meeting with members of the IDF General Staff on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, he told the generals, "We're in a struggle in which we're prevailing over our enemies. We need to destroy the Iranian axis and it's in our power to do so. That's what faces us in the coming year, which could be a historic one for Israel's security."
Those remarks can't be read without recalling the warning sounded earlier this week by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who urged public servants to act responsibly and hinted that he suspects Netanyahu might manufacture a false security pretext to postpone elections from the scheduled date in October 2026.
It's unclear what Netanyahu means by "destroying the axis," after the heavy blows Israel struck against Hezbollah and Iran (the latter with U.S. assistance) over the past year. It's obvious, however, that in Netanyahu's view, keeping multiple fronts active helps delay scrutiny of his conduct before the October 7 massacre and his handling of the war in Gaza since then.
Haaretz
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