Yesterday, Israel immediately declared how they will sabotage the Board of Peace’s 15-point disarmament proposal signed by Hamas. An Israeli official issued a statement declaring that it “does not adequately address” Israel’s demands for the “complete demilitarization, [which is] a precondition for any process.” It explained that Israel had raised objections to the Board of Peace envoy Tony Blair, without specifying what they were. Hence: “There will be no IDF withdrawal from the Yellow Line in the Gaza Strip before Hamas is disarmed and the Strip is fully demilitarized.”
While one can also assume that the IDF will not even pull back to the Yellow Line, the actual central issue is that the disarmament agreement is structured such that each side is to respond, step-by-step, in sync with the other side’s fulfillment of their requirement (e.g., turning in weaponry or a progressive withdrawal from Gaza). Netanyahu and his government know full well what their demand is designed to accomplish. No one trusts that there is any point when Israel would declare that Gaza is “fully demilitarized.”
The White House sent a message back, with a senior US official briefing reporters, saying: “We’re not asking Israel to do anything that isn’t in the 20-point plan that they agreed to initially, and so we’re very confident they will adhere to it. If they don’t, President Trump would be very, very disappointed.”
