Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived late at the White House and the scheduled 1.5-hour meeting ran close to 3 hours, as the joint press conference afterwards did not begin until almost 2:30. It is not clear what it took to extract an agreement from Netanyahu, but apparently U.S. President Donald Trump was committed to securing Netanyahu’s signature on his 20-point peace agreement. The text was released by the White House, according to Associated Press. It appears that there was somewhat of a wrestling match in the White House today.
Notably absent from Trump’s extensive description of the agreement was any mention of some key points of the 20 points that were difficult for Netanyahu—the immediate delivery of food aid on the level of the January agreement (about 600 trucks/day), the continued presence of Gazans in Gaza, the ban of any annexation by Israel of any part of Gaza, etc. While Netanyahu’s agreement to Trump’s plan was stated, contingent upon Hamas agreeing, Trump spent his time trying to make it appear that his only goals all along were to get the hostages back, to disarm Hamas, to demilitarize Gaza and to keep Hamas out of the governing of a future Gaza.
Also, Trump had a call placed to Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, and had Netanyahu apologize, after a fashion, for bombing Doha. Netanyahu told al-Thani that Israel wasn’t targeting Qatar, only terrorists (translation: the negotiators), and that he regretted a Qatari getting killed. Trump said that a “formal trilateral mechanism for dialogue” is to be set up to deal with security matters and avoid future misunderstandings.
Otherwise, Netanyahu added rhetoric, creating new conditions not in the 20 points which foreshadowed his plan to find Hamas guilty of not abiding by the terms, allowing him to return to cleansing Gaza and to “finish the job.” For example, if the Palestinian Authority keeps exercising “lawfare” against Netanyahu at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), that proves they haven’t reformed. In thanking his “incredibly brave soldiers,” he explained that they were “on the front line in the war between civilization and barbarism....” And he said that “Israel will finish the job by itself,” not only if Hamas rejects the deal, but also if they accept it and then things are done that counter Netanyahu’s view of the deal.
Trump said that he doesn’t have time to continue to deal with the Middle East, but then he announced that nonetheless, he will be Chairman of the new “Board of Peace.” While Tony Blair didn’t get that desired position, Trump said that Blair wanted to be on the Board, and Trump said that that would happen.
