JERUSALEM (AP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Wednesday he had agreed to join U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s Board of Peace, after his office earlier criticized makeup of the board\u2019s executive committee.<\/p>\n
The board, chaired by Trump, was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing the Gaza ceasefire plan. The Trump administration\u2019s ambitions have appeared to balloon into a more sprawling concept, with Trump extending invitations to dozens of nations and hinting it will soon broker global conflicts.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s office had previously said the executive committee \u2014 which includes Turkey, a key regional rival \u2014 wasn\u2019t coordinated with the Israeli government and \u201cis contrary to its policy,\u201d without clarifying its objections. Israel\u2019s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has criticized the board and called for Israel to take unilateral responsibility for Gaza\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
Others who have joined the board are the UAE, Morocco, Vietnam, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Argentina. Others, including the UK, Russia and the executive arm of the European Union, say they have received invitations but have not yet responded.<\/p>\n
It came as Trump traveled to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where he is expected to provide more details about the board. There are many unanswered questions. It was not immediately clear how many or which other leaders would receive invitations.<\/p>\n
When asked by a reporter Tuesday if the board should replace the U.N., Trump said, \u201cIt might.\u201d He asserted that the world body \u201chasn\u2019t been very helpful\u201d and \u201chas never lived up to its potential\u201d but also said the U.N. should continue \u201cbecause the potential is so great.\u201d<\/p>\n
That has created controversy, with some saying Trump is trying to replace the U.N. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Tuesday, \u201cYes to implementing the peace plan presented by the president of the United States, which we wholeheartedly support, but no to creating an organization as it has been presented, which would replace the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Told late Monday that French President Emmanuel Macron was unlikely to join, Trump said, \u201cWell, nobody wants him because he\u2019s going to be out of office very soon.\u201d A day later, Trump called Macron \u201ca friend of mine\u201d but reiterated that the French leader is \u201cnot going to be there very much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The executive board\u2019s members include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Trump\u2019s deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel.<\/p>\n
The White House also announced the members of another board, the Gaza Executive Board, which, according to the ceasefire, will be in charge of implementing the tough second phase of the agreement. That includes deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas and rebuilding the war-devastated territory.<\/p>\n
Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and U.N. Mideast envoy, is to serve as the Gaza executive board\u2019s representative overseeing day-to-day matters. Additional members include: Witkoff, Kushner, Blair, Rowan, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan; Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi; Hassan Rashad, director of Egypt\u2019s General Intelligence Agency; Emirati minister Reem Al-Hashimy; Israeli businessman Yakir Gabay; and Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands\u2019 former deputy prime minister and a Mideast expert.<\/p>\n
The board also will supervise a newly appointed committee of Palestinian technocrats who will be running Gaza\u2019s day-to-day affairs.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Catherine Gaschka in Paris contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JERUSALEM (AP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Wednesday he had agreed to join U.S. President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,85,46,43,133317],"class_list":["post-249601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-trumps-board-of-peace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}