Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s public rejection of a US-backed deal for Gaza drew scepticism in Israel, amid reports he was personally hammering out details of a pilot military withdrawal days earlier.<\/p>\n
The Israeli prime minister is struggling to balance incompatible demands on Gaza policy from his key domestic and international allies.<\/p>\n
The far-right Israeli politicians who prop up Netanyahu\u2019s coalition government want to intensify Israeli attacks on Gaza<\/a> and establish settlements inside the territory.<\/p>\n Donald Trump, who provides vital diplomatic and military backing for Israel, wants to move toward a permanent settlement and return to Palestinian control in Gaza, brokered by the Board of Peace that he created and chairs.<\/p>\n With an Israeli election looming in just over two months, Netanyahu appears to have opted to publicly placate domestic partners who are already on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n On Sunday, he rejected<\/a> a new 15-point plan for Gaza, which included a Hamas commitment to give up its weapons, meeting a key Israeli demand. He also resisted US pressure to end wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran without Israel\u2019s buy-in.<\/p>\n The remarks blindsided Israeli commanders, who had been discussing the implementation of the plan in meetings with Netanyahu and the IDF\u2019s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, days earlier, Israel\u2019s Channel 12 television reported.<\/p>\n \u201cWe learned about it today from the media,\u201d the station quoted a defence official as saying. \u201cAt the meetings that were held until now, the prime minister personally gave his consent to this plan and to a withdrawal from the points in Rafah.\u201d<\/p>\n The meetings covered precise boundaries of three pilot areas in southern Gaza where a proposed international force \u2013 which has yet to be stood up \u2013 could take over from the Israeli military, and the interface between the two forces, the report said.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s public attack on the Board of Peace plan seemed like a particularly pointed rejection of US goals because it was released soon after a reported visit by Adm Brad Cooper, who heads US Central Command.<\/p>\n He came to deliver in person the message that the Trump administration<\/a> wants Israel to end its wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli media reported. \u201cThe Americans\u2019 message to the IDF was to move in the direction of shutting down all three theatres of operations,\u201d a senior Israeli military officer told Channel 13 Television.<\/p>\n Defying Trump, who is notoriously thin-skinned and intolerant of dissent, is risky when Israel is internationally isolated and needs US military supplies.<\/p>\n But Netanyahu has a long track record of audacious political manoeuvring, both at home and internationally, undaunted even by ostensible power imbalances. Bill Clinton, after meeting him for the first time in 1996, is reported to have said: \u201cWho\u2019s the fucking superpower here?\u201d<\/p>\n In May 2024, the then US president, Joe Biden, announced an Israeli-backed ceasefire and hostage release plan for Gaza, only to have Netanyahu distance himself from the proposal and ultimately reject it.<\/p>\n For now the administration in Washington appears to have largely shrugged off Netanyahu\u2019s comments as electioneering, perhaps encouraged by military decisions that indicate a far more attentive regard for Trump\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n Last week, Netanyahu scaled back<\/a> Israeli airstrikes on Gaza by raising the threshold for authorising attacks. Targeted killings must now be approved by the chief of staff, rather than the regional commander, unless Israeli forces are in \u201cimminent danger\u201d.<\/p>\n Nor is this the first time he has bowed to US pressure to rein in wars that have the enthusiastic backing of his far-right allies, recently limiting the offensive in Lebanon, and last year ordering fighter jets heading for Iran to turn back at Trump\u2019s demand.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s combination of fierce domestic rhetoric and some conciliatory steps on the ground in Gaza may have bought him a bit of time but US patience may not last until polling day in late October.<\/p>\n Trump is weighing up election concerns of his own, as the US is holding midterms just a week after Israel votes.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s visit to the White House last month was notably low profile for a leader who has repeatedly campaigned on his reputation as an international statesman and close relationship with the US president, Haaretz newspaper noted<\/a>.<\/p>\n It ended without a joint statement, and strains caused by the Israeli prime minister\u2019s competing political priorities have become increasingly evident. \u201cThat\u2019s how it is when you try to juggle too many balls; you start dropping them,\u201d the paper said.<\/p>\n The top envoy for the Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, declined to comment on Netanyahu\u2019s rejection of a deal that took months to hammer out. In an interview with Israeli media he said only that \u201cdiscussions continue\u201d.<\/p>\n Palestinians in Gaza have endured nearly a year of deadly limbo after Trump brokered a nominal ceasefire last October, that he said would halt fighting and pave the way for reconstruction.<\/p>\n Israeli attacks have continued, killing over 1,200 people, and Israel has blocked the entry of equipment, supplies and fuel needed for rebuilding homes, schools and medical infrastructure.<\/p>\n The majority of Gaza\u2019s surviving population live in tent camps with little sanitation, and although hunger has diminished food shortages are still widespread, with over 70,000 children projected to need treatment for acute malnutrition to April 2027, food security experts have warned<\/a>.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s office rejected reports that he had discussed detailed withdrawal plans for Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s public rejection of a US-backed deal for Gaza drew scepticism in Israel, amid reports he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-580812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580812","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=580812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}