Trump to give Netanyahu a Gaza ultimatum — will it work?
On Monday, when Netanyahu returns to the White House, there may be no cameras and no press conference. Instead, the pair are expected to meet for a private early dinner where, behind closed doors, Trump will remind Netanyahu of all the US has done for Israel by striking Iran.
'Bibi [Netanyahu] has to pay a price, and that price is Gaza. He will give it, through the agreement, step by step, not all in one day,' Ronni Shaked, co-ordinator of the Middle East unit at the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, said.
Trump is expected to persuade the Israeli leader to accept a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, in exchange for the return of half of the hostages still held by militants. 'But after 60 days, Netanyahu will find the excuse, any excuse, to continue the war, to stay in Gaza, in order to keep the government,' Shaked added.
The cycle of war for quiet is a familiar one for Netanyahu, who has fought four wars with Hamas in Gaza since its takeover in 2007 in an approach known as 'mowing the lawn'. Sceptics of the prime minister, of which there are many — a recent poll gave Netanyahu a trust rating of 40 per cent among the Israeli public — say he has no intention of planning for the 'day after' the war. Yet this is exactly what Trump wants to see.
Over the past week, Trump repeatedly posted on his social media platform that a deal was imminent. He even commented on Netanyahu's corruption trial, speaking out against what he called a political witch-hunt of the prime minister.
Afterwards, Netanyahu managed to delay undergoing cross-examination in his trial for corruption by citing 'political, national and security issues at hand'.
It has been a winning streak for Netanyahu, who can also trumpet his third invitation to the White House in the president's second term.
However, Netanyahu's departure to Washington was delayed by three hours because of a crisis in his fragile government, banded together by religious nationalists who want to continue the war and ultra-orthodox members who do not want their sect to enlist in the army.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are set to issue more than 50,000 conscription orders for the ultra-orthodox community to join up in July, and offered to increase jail spots for deserters. In response, the Haredi parties that represent that community said they may boycott future parliament votes until they see a new draft of a bill to alleviate the conscription demands.
Within Israel, there is growing opposition to the war in Gaza among both the military and the public. Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, has questioned the government's plan for Gaza's future and why more Israeli soldiers must die in battle.
Meanwhile, the Israeli public watches as families of hostages held in Gaza for more than 630 days show up day after day in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square and beg for the lives of their loved ones, calling for a deal.
'All 50 hostages must be brought home. It is unbearably cruel to bring only in parts,' Viki Cohen, the mother of the 21-year-old captive soldier, Nimrod Cohen, said. 'We cannot begin to recover as individuals and as a nation until they are all home. No one should be left behind. Twenty-one months this nightmare is going on.'
Those familiar with past negotiations with Hamas say it is unlikely soldiers such as Cohen will be handed over easily because they are leverage for the Islamist group during negotiations. Hamas is also said to be bargaining for Israeli troops to withdraw and the elimination of the Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has taken over the distribution of aid from traditional non-governmental organisations and overseen a deadly and chaotic handout of essential supplies, which is said to have killed more than 600 Palestinians.
Despite hopes an agreement will be announced on Monday, there still appear to be gaps between Israel and Hamas in the wording of the agreement. Those gaps can and have been bridged before, in two previous ceasefires, but it is far from the guarantee Trump seeks for a lasting peace and the initiation of a new regional order.
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The Guardian
18 minutes ago
- The Guardian
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And you know what happens to traitors. Traitors get shot.' But Pamela Hemphill, 68, from Boise, Idaho, refused Trump's pardon and expressed remorse, describing the police as 'heroes' and the rioters as 'very dangerous people'. Buehler reflects: 'I could see patterns. It's very tribal. Trump was successful in almost stealing red, white and blue as their symbol. They all call themselves patriots on this wall. They all bought into the big lie that the election was stolen. 'Their social media posts and messages that were part of the record when they were indicted show that they believed a lot of the other lies like Pizzagate – we've got to stop the pedophiles taking over. They're in a media bubble. They believe it and they're in it together and they did see themselves as patriots.' The project aims to foster solidarity and courage among those who oppose authoritarianism. Buehler recounts how the defacement of the Wall of Lies by the far-right group Proud Boys galvanised the community, leading them to cut out the Proud Boys graffiti and spraypainted hearts all over it and raise money for a bigger mural. 'How are we going to survive the next four years? This runs through your head. Then what can I do? Community gives you courage. Marching in those parades gives you courage to fight against this. We're using this symbolic art piece to rally around a different flag.' The Wall of Shame – installed at the same location as the Wall of Lies – was provoked by Trump's decision on his first day back in office to grant clemency to about 1,500 individuals charged or convicted in connection with the January 6 insurrection, including people found guilty of assaulting police officers. Democrats called the move an affront to justice and democracy. Yet the controversy has been almost forgotten in the fast-paced news cycle, overwhelmed by a deluge of Trump drama from Elon Musk to Signalgate to tariffs to protests in Los Angeles to military strikes on Iran. But Buehler insists: 'We look at that as the first of his steps in his march toward authoritarianism. 'OK, let's pardon all the people that rioted.' 'It's interesting what we've seen since. He sent thousands of national guard and marines to LA for mostly peaceful protests. I don't know if it's ironic or telling that, during the January 6 riots, he watched them on television on the other side of DC and didn't do anything and then pardoned them. A hundred and forty cops got hurt and now this year [FBI director] Kash Patel is saying, 'Touch a cop, go to jail.' I guess the unsaid part is, 'Touch a cop, go to jail unless it's for Trump and what Trump wants.'' The artist adds: 'He's since followed it up with some illegal deportations. He disobeys the courts constantly. He's turned the White House into a car dealership showroom with Tesla. And now he's starting a war [against Iran] without the authorisation of Congress. I guess we're trying to highlight that was the first thing. Don't forget that one: the pardon of the rioters. That was his first act of trying to emulate Putin and become an authoritarian leader.' Trump has been waging war on reality for a decade, conjuring a mirror world in which up is down and black is white. He has described the January 6 rioters as patriots and martyrs while dismissing those who protested against immigration enforcement raids in LA as 'insurrectionists'. When he faced criminal investigations he blamed the 'weaponisation' of the justice department, while any negative media coverage is routinely branded 'fake news'. Rob Prichard of Radio Free Brooklyn, who initially suggested that Buehler tackle the January 6 pardons, finds something Orwellian in Trump's attempts to rewrite history and dominate the cultural space. The president has seized control of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and ordered the removal of so-called 'improper, divisive or anti-American ideology' from Smithsonian Institution museums, forcing the resignation of the director of its National Portrait Gallery. Speaking from Park Slope, Brooklyn, Prichard, 69, says via Zoom: 'As a nation we are as close to autocracy as we've ever been. It seems like fascism is basically a war on consensus reality and we need to put a pin in those points where it's so obvious that it's not true. 'Trump's entire political career is predicated on a demonstrable lie, saying Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and because we never called him out on it properly in the first place, it just continues. If you can get away with it you play the hand again. Steve Bannon [a rightwing podcast and former Trump adviser] is flooding the zone. We need to flood the zone too but with the truth.' The colour-coding of the mural is intentional, designed to reclaim a national symbol from what the creators perceive as its co-option by Trump supporters. Prichard adds: 'We're not ceding the red, white and blue. We claim it and we claim the true meaning of representative democracy. 'I have hope because for one thing, autocracy and fascism is predicated on violence and the threat of violence. Both violence and the threat of violence are untenable. They can't be. You just can't maintain them forever and it has to break. The fever has to break eventually and either there's complete submission or we liberate ourselves. I don't see complete submission. That's part of our DNA.' Prichard does not use words such as fascist lightly. His 91-year-old mother is German and was forced to join Hitler's youth movement when she was seven years old. 'She remembers it. She is deathly afraid of Trump. If she were 10 years younger, she would probably move to Germany permanently.'
