Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public rejection of a US-backed deal for Gaza drew skepticism in Israel, amid reports he was personally hammering out details of a pilot military withdrawal days earlier.
The Israeli leader is struggling to balance incompatible demands on Gaza policy from his key domestic and international allies.
The far-right Israeli politicians who prop up his coalition government want to intensify Israeli attacks on Gaza and establish settlements inside the territory.
Illustration: Mountain People
US President 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.
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.
On Sunday, he rejected 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’s buy-in.
The remarks blindsided Israeli commanders, who had been discussing the implementation of the plan in meetings with Netanyahu and Israel Defense Force (IDF) Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir days earlier, Israeli media reported.
“We learned about it today from the media,” the station quoted a defense official as saying. “At 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.”
The meetings covered precise boundaries of three pilot areas in southern Gaza where a proposed international force — which has yet to be stood up — could take over from the Israeli military, and the interface between the two forces, the report said.
Netanyahu’s 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 US Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper.
He came to deliver in person the message that the Trump administration wants Israel to end its wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli media reported.
“The Americans’ message to the IDF was to move in the direction of shutting down all three theaters of operations,” a senior Israeli military officer said.
Defying Trump, who is notoriously thin-skinned and intolerant of dissent, is risky when Israel is internationally isolated and needs US military supplies.
However, Netanyahu has a long track record of audacious political maneuvering, at home and internationally, undaunted even by ostensible power imbalances. Then-US president Bill Clinton, after meeting him for the first time in 1996, is reported to have said: “Who’s the fucking superpower here?”
In May 2024, 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.
The administration in Washington appears to have largely shrugged off Netanyahu’s comments as electioneering, perhaps encouraged by military decisions that indicate a far more attentive regard for Trump’s wishes.
Last week, Netanyahu scaled back Israeli airstrikes on Gaza by raising the threshold for authorizing attacks. Targeted killings must now be approved by the chief of staff, rather than the regional commander, unless Israeli forces are in “imminent danger.”
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’s demand.
Netanyahu’s combination of fierce domestic rhetoric and some conciliatory steps on the ground in Gaza could have bought him a bit of time, but US patience might not last until polling day in late October.
Trump is weighing up election concerns of his own, as the US is holding midterms just a week after Israel votes.
Netanyahu’s visit to the White House last month was 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 said.
It ended without a joint statement, and strains caused by Netanyahu’s competing political priorities have become increasingly evident.
“That’s how it is when you try to juggle too many balls; you start dropping them,” the paper said.
The top envoy for the Board of Peace Nickolay Mladenov declined to comment on Netanyahu’s rejection of a deal that took months to hammer out. In an interview with Israeli media he said only that “discussions continue.”
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.
Israeli attacks have continued, killing more than 1,200 people, and Israel has blocked the entry of equipment, supplies and fuel needed for rebuilding homes, schools and medical infrastructure.
The majority of Gaza’s surviving population lives in tent camps with little sanitation, and although hunger has diminished, food shortages are still widespread, with more than 70,000 children projected to need treatment for acute malnutrition to April next year, food security experts have warned.
Netanyahu’s office rejected reports that he had discussed detailed withdrawal plans for Gaza.
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