Washington, DC – The White House says that Donald Trump’s “priority” in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza. But while the American president welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, the two leaders were complimentary.
Meanwhile, Israel continues its assault on Palestinian territory, where more than 57,575 people were killed.
Analysts say that if Trump is really looking for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, he must take advantage of American military aid in Israel to put Netanyahu to accept an agreement.
Brian Finucane, a main advisor to the International Non -Lucrative Crisis Group, has drawn a parallel between Trump’s mixed messaging and that of his predecessor, Joe Biden. The two men, he said, called for a ceasefire but showed a reluctance to press Israel to end the fighting.
“It is like already seen with the Biden administration, where you would hear similar declarations of the White House,” said Finucan.
“If a ceasefire is indeed the” maximum priority “of the White House, it has the lever to provoke it.”
The United States provides Israel billions of dollars in military aid each year, in addition to providing him with diplomatic support in international forums like the United Nations.
While US officials expressed optimism about the realization of a 60-day truce this week that could lead to a permanent ceasefire Netanyahu told journalists in Washington, DC, that Israel “finished work in Gaza” and eliminate the armed group of Hamas.
Finucan, a former lawyer for the American State Department, described Netanyahu’s comments as a “maximalist rhetoric” and “boastful”, stressing that Trump could push Israel to arrest war.
He said Trump could use the “threat of suspension of military support” to carry out the ceasefire, “which would be very much in the interest of the United States and the interest of the president himself in terms of marking a diplomatic victory”.
Trump and Netanyahu ‘in Lockstep’
Netanyahu arrived in Washington, DC on Monday and won a “victory tour” with Trump to celebrate their joint attack against Iranian nuclear installations during a 12 -day war last month.
From the start, the Israeli Prime Minister seemed to play Trump’s ego. While sitting at a White House dinner on Monday evening, Netanyahu announced that he had appointed the American president for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The two leaders gathered on Tuesday, with Trump saying that their talks would be all about Gaza and the truce proposal.
A day later, Netanyahu said he and Trump were “in locking” on Gaza.
“President Trump wants an agreement, but not at any cost,” said the Israeli Prime Minister. “I want an agreement, but not at no cost. Israel has security requirements and other requirements, and we work together to try to get there. ”
But Annelllle Sheline, a researcher at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that Israel was the party which was held a cease-fire. She noted that Hamas has already demanded a sustainable end of war, which the Trump administration says that it is looking for.
“Although we know that Trump said he wanted a ceasefire, so far we have not seen Trump willing to use an extensive lever effect from America to get there,” Sheline told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Far from stopping the flow of arms to Israel, the Trump administration is proud to resume the transfer of heavy bombs – the only weapons that temporarily hid during the war against Gaza.
Disastrous situation in Gaza
Although the Truce talks are underway, the horrors of the War of Israel against Gaza, which experts and rights groups have described as a genocide, intensifies.
Hospitals are lacking in fuel, preventable diseases is increasing, hunger is endemic and hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fires in recent weeks while trying to receive food on private aid distribution sites supported by the United States.
Nancy Okail, the president of the Center for International Policy, said that Trump seems to be interested in a cease-fire in Gaza in part to stimulate his own image as a peacemaker and win a Nobel Peace Prize.
During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to bring peace to the world, entering the weariness of the American war after conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But so far, it has not ended wars in Ukraine and Gaza. And he supervised the outbreak of war between Israel and Iran, even by commanding the participation of the United States.
The American president took the credit of a Truce from Gaza which entered into force in January, only to let it collapse while he supported Israel’s decision to resume war in March.
Okail said atrocities in Gaza could not be arrested with verbal calls for a ceasefire.
“If it is not accompanied by an action – as in the suspension of aid or the suspension of arms to Israel – Netanyahu has no reason to advance seriously with peace negotiations,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Netanyahu pushes the trip
Even if a 60 -day truce is reached, the defenders of rights fear that Israel can not only return to the war afterwards, but it could also use time to drive out the Palestinians from Gaza and further attract its occupation.
Hamas said on Wednesday that it agreed to release 10 Israeli captives as part of the proposed agreement, but the remaining bonding points concern the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the guarantees of a permanent cease-fire.
Before the arrival of Netanyahu in Washington, DC, the Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz revealed a plan to create a internment camp for the Palestinians in southern Gaza, according to the Journal Haaretz.
The publication quoted Katz saying that Israel would implement an “emigration plan” to withdraw the Palestinians from Gaza, who, according to the rights defense groups, would constitute an ethnic cleaning, a crime against humanity.
The idea of depopulating Gaza is not new. The far -right Israeli ministers defend him publicly since the start of the war. But the international community began to take the idea seriously when Trump launched it in February as part of his desire to transform Gaza into “Riviera du Middle East”.
Netanyahu spoke about it during his visit, saying that the Palestinians in Gaza should be free to leave the territory if they wish.
“Involuntary transfer”
Although the Trump administration did not give the ethnic cleaning program to Gaza this week, the White House has always suggested that the Palestinians could not stay in the territory.
“It has become an uninhabitable place for human beings, and the president has a big heart,” Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told journalists.
“He wants it to be a prosperous and safe part of the region where people and families can thrive.”
Defenders of rights stressed that people under bombing and without access to basic necessities cannot have a “free” choice to stay or leave a place.
Sheline said the international fears that Trump and Netanyahu are working to ethnically clean Gaza and move her Palestinian residents elsewhere.
“There was a lot of discussions on the idea that perhaps because the United States helped Israel in the war against Iran, it would be the lever effect used for a cease-fire in Gaza,” she said.
“But instead, it seems to be something like: if Netanyahu accepts a ceasefire, the United States will facilitate this involuntary transfer of Gaza Palestinians.”
For his part, Okail compared people who push people to leave Gaza under the threat of a bombardment and a famine to push the Palestinians out of the enclave under the threat of a weapon.
“If the expansion of the occupation and ethnic cleaning is their approach to the ceasefire, it means that they want to kill any attempt to cease-fire, and not to negotiate it,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
