Two weeks before he traveled to Washington to meet Trump and negotiate the plan to end the war, Netanyahu stood in front of his supporters from the extreme right in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, and told them: “There will be no Palestinian state, this place is for us.”
But Netanyahu found himself surrounded by the closest Trump adviser, contemplating a draft plan to end the war, which may also constitute a path to establish a Palestinian state.
Trump’s anger at the Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, along with Arab and international pressures, had helped to produce the twenty plan, and its aim, according to participants in the operation, achieved two goals for Trump: the first is political and the second is personal.
According to the newspaper’s sources, the timing of presenting the plan was not randomly, Trump explained that he is seeking to end the war by the second anniversary of the October 7 attack, and the Nobel Peace Prize, which the American president sees to deserve, is awarded this month.
“From the beginning, Trump realized that the hostages were the key to all doors in the Middle East,” said a former Israeli diplomat who worked with Washington on behalf of the prisoners’ families.
To achieve all these goals, Trump pressed Netanyahu to make concessions and agree to the post -war plan, according to the diplomat.
“The pressure was necessary to persuade Hamas, which considers the hostages a pressure card, and Washington’s allies who were bothered by Israel’s aggressive behavior.
A former US official told the newspaper that Israel’s attack on Doha “opened the door to Trump’s plan, and was an insult to the American president,” but he allowed him to say: “You have spoiled the matter and I will save you. The matter is over.”
After Trump presented his plan to Netanyahu, the latter and his team tried to reduce some of the items, especially those related to the Palestinian state.
Netanyahu and his team also asked to add a clause that allows Israel to resume fighting if Hamas violated the agreement, but the Americans asked him to “stop searching for gaps.”
Despite this, Trump was keen in his plan to preserve the face of Netanyahu’s face, as Hamas will remove the government and remove it and strip the whole sector of military capabilities, according to the proposal, and a body of Palestinian technocrats under the supervision of Trump will temporarily take over the presidency of the Gaza Strip.
But the most important, according to Israeli officials, was the language that Trump used in his announcement: “If Hamas rejects the agreement, Israel will have the full support of Trump to eliminate it.”
“The basic rule is that Trump’s interests come first.”
