For Donald Trumpin the peace negotiations for Gaza, a difficult phase now arrives: he will have to move on slippery ground and find the right place for all the pieces of the Middle Eastern puzzle, but above all he will have to find a difficult point of balance between the expectations of the Arab countries, who helped him reach the truce in the Strip, and those of Netanyahu. What role will it have? Blairthe controversial former British Prime Minister? How to “reward” Egypt, Türkiye And Qatar for the precious help given in the realization of the truce? And what will be the function of Al Sisithe host of the summit of Sharm el Sheikh. And where does this new task come from? Hamas as “temporary Gaza police”?
After the satisfaction with the ceasefire, the stop to the endless massacre of innocent Palestinian civilians (68 thousand dead) in the Strip and the return of the Israeli hostages home, now come the many issues of phase two of the American president’s peace plan. They are very tangled knots and the skein is made more intricate by the weight that some of the protagonists of the peace negotiations have acquired.
The problems in the clear are known. The issues on the table are the disarmament of Hamasthe future of its leaders, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Strip, the composition of the stabilization force that will have to deal with the transition period, the composition of the Peace Council chaired by Trumpthe future Palestinian leadership and the role ofAnp. These are all points whose implementation is very complex, but above all the road to get there is still to be built, the details are to be defined and the positions of Israel and Hamas are opposed. This is why the negotiators unpacked the peace agreement trying to bring home the “easier” points. And this was a right choice because it put an end to the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and allowed the hostages to return home. But now there’s the hardest part to solve. Then there remains the eternal theme of the creation of the Palestinian state on the basis of resolution 181 of theUN of 1947 which provides for two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian, which can live side by side in peace and security. Now it seems like a utopia but it is certainly the only possible solution for a future lasting peace.
But in addition to the themes foreseen by the peace plan, Trump will have to deal with a rapidly changing situation. The ceasefire was also reached because Qatar, Türkiye And Egypt they put a lot of pressure on Hamas to accept the agreement, under penalty of the end of aid arriving from some of the Arab countries in the region starting from Qatar. Trump he knows it well. And the first problem he will have to solve is that of the role of Tony Blair which Arab countries don’t like. In the Middle East everyone remembers the role played by the former British Prime Minister in the war on Iraq and the limited success of his role as envoy for the Quartet for the Middle East (USA, EU, UN And Russia).
Meanwhile, the role of the Egyptian president is growing Al Sisi who has already called a conference for the reconstruction of Gaza and who Trump would like to be a member of the Peace Council. Even the absence of Netanyahu at the top of Sharm el Sheikh has been commented on in various ways. According to the Israeli press, Erdogan would have vetoed his presence. And this would be another sign of the difficulties of starting a concrete dialogue on the future of Gaza and the Middle East.
And it should also be considered that, while the Arab countries were putting pressure on Hamasit was instead Trump to insist and perhaps, in some way, to “impose” the truce on the Israeli prime minister, “advising” him, among other things, to make an apology phone call to Qatar for the bombings on Doha. The problem of Netanyahu now it is to keep at bay the messianic and religious right of his government which does not want to hear about the peace agreement. Starting with the problem of the timing and methods of the army’s withdrawal from Gaza. THE’Idf still controls 53 percent of the territory and the far right, led by Ben Gvir And Smotrichdoes not want to hear about the idea of withdrawal from Gaza just as he insists on illegal settlements in the West Bank. It is therefore easy to imagine the reaction of the Tel Aviv government to the appointment of CEO Hamas as a “temporary police force” which he spoke of, surprisingly, Trump. This also seems to be a sign of the search for difficult balance points in a situation that does not seem at all under control. The disarmament of Hamas it is in fact the other big problem, together with the withdrawal of the Israeli army, which Trump will have to face.
The road to achieving true and lasting peace is still long under the sky of Gaza.