File photo: Special envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, and Jared Kushner Trump’s son-in-law will be on Gaza’s peace board.President Trump will chair the board – AP
President Trump’s advisers have little patience for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objections as they push ahead with “phase two” of the Gaza peace plan.
- “This is our show, not his show. We managed to do things in Gaza in recent months nobody thought was possible, and we are going to continue moving,” a senior U.S. official told Axios, referring to Netanyahu.
- Netanyahu released an unusually pointed statement objecting to the “executive board” for Gaza, which the White House named on Friday.
- The committee, which reports to the Trump-led Board of Peace, includes the foreign minister of Turkey and a senior Qatari official, despite Netanyahu’s insistence that those countries have no role in governing Gaza.
- The announcement stunned Netanyahu, who was not consulted. The Israeli media quickly started reporting on the idea that Qatar and Turkey — key mediators on the Gaza deal who both have fractious relationships with Israel — would be wielding influence.
- “The announcement… was not coordinated with Israel and runs counter to its policy. The Prime Minister instructed the Foreign Minister to raise this matter with the U.S. Secretary of State,” Netanyahu said.
Asked by Axios about Netanyahu’s comment, the senior U.S. official doubled down.
- The official said Netanyahu was not consulted on the membership of the committee because he does not have a say in the matter.
- “If he wants us to deal with Gaza, it will have to be our way. We worked over him. Let him focus on Iran and let us deal with Gaza. We are not going to argue with him. He will do his politics and we will keep moving forward with our plan. He can’t really go against us,” the U.S. official said.
- The senior official added that unless Netanyahu wants to send Israeli troops back into the fight in Gaza, with the U.S. withdrawing from this issue, he’ll have to get with the U.S. program.
- “We are doing him a favor. If this fails he can say, ‘I told you so.’ We know that if it succeeds he will claim credit.”
While Trump personally has kept up a close relationship with Netanyahu, many on his team are fed up with the Israeli prime minister’s hardline stances in Gaza and beyond.
- They’re also worried that if they can’t build momentum behind phase two of the deal, Israel will resume the war.
- The U.S. official claimed that while Netanyahu is highly skeptical the U.S. plan would work, he likes its content. The official said that “nobody in Israel believed we will get this far – but we managed to do it.”
Board of Peace launch
Trump wants to launch the Gaza Board of Peace next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
- He announced a new Palestinian technocratic government on Wednesday to oversee day-to-day governance in Gaza. It will be headed by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister of transportation in the Palestinian Authority.
- Former UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov will serve as the Board of Peace “High Representative” for Gaza — effectively the CEO.
- Mladenov will report to an international Executive Board, which will include Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner; former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair; billionaire businessman Marc Rowan; the foreign minister of Turkey and ministers from Qatar and the UAE; Egypt’s intelligence chief; Israeli-Cypriot billionaire Yakir Gabay; and former UN Gaza envoy Sigrid Kaag.
- “Each member of the Executive Board will be responsible for a defined portfolio critical to stabilizing Gaza, including governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization,” the White House said.
The Palestinian technocratic government released on Saturday its mission statement, which includes a commitment to peace.
- “We are committed to establishing security, restoring the essential services… as well as cultivating a society rooted in peace, democracy, and justice,” the statement read.
- The new government also committed to “the highest standards of integrity and transparency.”
- “We embrace peace, through which we strive to secure the path to true Palestinian rights and self-determination,” the new government stressed.
What to watch: Any hope of turning the Gaza truce into lasting peace depends on Hamas giving up its weapons, and on Israel pulling its troops back, rather than trying once again to disarm Hamas by force.
- U.S. officials insisted in recent days that Hamas has privately signaled it’s ready to accept the U.S. demilitarization plan and begin to disarm. They said the next 60 days will focus on getting this process going.
- “With the support of Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar, we will secure a COMPREHENSIVE Demilitarization Agreement with Hamas, including the surrender of ALL weapons, and the dismantling of EVERY tunnel,” Trump said on Truth Social Thursday evening.
- He added: “Hamas must IMMEDIATELY honor its commitments, including the return of the final body to Israel, and proceed without delay to full Demilitarization. As I have said before, they can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”
- The White House said Saturday that Army Gen. Jasper Jeffers will be commander of the International Stabilization Force in Gaza.
- Jeffers will oversee all security matters related to the Palestinian technocratic government, assist in efforts to demilitarize the Gaza Strip, and supervise the safe transfer of humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials to ensure they do not fall into Hamas’ hands.
