Is Donald Trump’s Sweeping Gaza Peace Plan Really Viable?
Many doubts prevail, but the deal is “political gold” for Benjamin Netanyahu either way.
....Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel involved in many past U.S. peace initiatives, and now at Princeton, told me that neither Israel nor Hamas has an interest in ending the war. Trump clearly “loves” the drama of the announcement, he added, but the President doesn’t understand that it is subject to “wildly different views of the details, and likely protracted negotiations.” The differences are still “profound,” Kurtzer said. Jeremy Ben-Ami, of J Street, a pro-Israel, pro-peace organization based in Washington, D.C., said that Hamas is likely to see the plan as a “negotiated surrender.” And Trump explained that, if Hamas rejects it or demands changes, he will allow Netanyahu to do whatever needs to be done to “finish the job.” Kurtzer pointed out that this was “political gold” for the Israeli leader, “who can maneuver anything Hamas says into a ‘no’.” Notably, Trump and Netanyahu declined to answer any questions at the end of the press conference. Trump said, “We’re waiting for signatures and waiting for approvals from a lot of different countries that are involved in this.”
The plan makes no mention of the West Bank, home to.....
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