How did Israelis react to Netanyahu’s approval of Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan? • FRANCE 24

How did Israelis react to Netanyahu’s approval of Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan? • FRANCE 24

[Music] So Hamas says they will review the plan in good faith and provide a response. The reaction from them after Qatari and Egyptian officials met with Hamas negotiators to share Donald Trump’s 20point plan to end the war in Gaza. Intense pressure then on Hamas to accept as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel will finish the job against Hamas if the group rejects the deal or goes back on it after agreeing. Trump himself also saying that if that happens, Israel would have his full backing to do as it wishes. This is a big big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization. Things that have been going on for hundreds of years and thousands of years. We’re going to at least we’re at a minimum very, very close. And I think we’re beyond very close. And I want to thank BB for really getting in there and doing a job. We’ve worked well together. That today we’re taking a critical step towards both ending the war in Gaza and setting the stage for dramatically advancing peace in the Middle East. I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims. It will bring back to Israel all our hostages, dismantle kamas’s military capabilities, end its political rule, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel. Well, let’s cross then to Jerusalem. We’re going to speak to our correspondent, Ngatanapolski, who joins us from there. Nogar, I assume it’s rather a waiting game now, I suppose, waiting for any kind of rep response from Hamas. That’s right. It’s actually a waiting game here in Israel, Stuart, on several levels. First of all, to hear any response, even a hint from Hamas that has been presented with a pretty tough bargain. this uh plan which obviously we don’t yet know the details. These are 20 principles uh written down by the Trump administration. But it basically presents Hamas a Islamist terror group whose reset is to be an armed resistance, an armed fighter against the existence of Israel um with the option of capitulation or the occupation of Gaza. Because behind uh Trump’s words about well if kamas rejects this we’ll let you do what you’re going to do to uh prime minister Netanyahu behind that is a hint that Netanyahu would have a free hand to do anything and anything in the Israeli government’s political context today would mean an occupation uh of Gaza and possibly even an attempt to eject the Palestinian population there. So this is a pretty gim grim bargain. But also on the Israeli side, um I think it’s worth remembering that it was less than a week ago. It was in fact Friday when Netanyahu gave a big speech at the United Nations in which he said, “We still have work to do. We’re continuing with this war.” He repeated in English what he’s been telling Israelis now for more than a year, which is war, war, and more war. And so to see him yesterday on a stage in the White House looking fairly meek and saying we accept Donald Trump’s plan to end this war is a very very quick turnaround for him and it’s unclear whether his government will support him. Most likely um if this is brought to a government vote it will pass and he certainly has the support of the opposition. However critical they are of him and his policies, they will support this in a parliamentary vote if it comes to that because of wanting to end the war and getting the hostages back. But he is in a bit of a of a difficult thicket when he comes back home. What would you say then so far has been the reaction there in Israel? The reaction initially was very very harsh across the board because the White House in interestingly leaked just ahead of the press conference. The White House leaked that Donald Trump had compelled Netanyahu to apologize to the uh prime minister of Qatar. Uh in fact the White House issued a statement and then pictures of a phone call in which they said Netanyahu had expressed his quote deep regret for violating Qatari air uh the Qatari sovereignty in the strike in which Israel an air strike in which Israel attempted to get rid of uh Hamas’s leadership in exile in Doha. This was slammed across the board because Israelis know Qatar as the top fin and sear of terror in the world for many decades now. The press conference itself was received with somewhat more nuanced reactions and afterwards of course all of Netanyahu’s ministers almost across the board on orders from the prime minister’s office expressed great praise but the initial reactions were extremely harsh. Um, and still Israelis are very confused by what this means. And the hostages families who really are spearheading the reactions among regular Israelis, not the politicians, they’re expressing extreme caution, pointing out that Netanyahu has previously managed to scuttle deals, has managed to embed poison pill clauses that he knew Kamas could never um accept. And some family members have said explicitly that Netanyahu have lied to them to their faces many times about bringing their children home. And so they’re I would say in extremely cautious wait mode. No, thanks very much. Natanaposki joining us live there from Jerusalem. Well, let’s find out more then about the latest deal. Bring you as well the reaction from Washington. Here’s a correspondent in Washington, Fraser Jackson. This deal, as I said, is a bit of a win-win for Netanyahu. It ultimately calls uh for Hamas to uh give up all of the remaining hostages. There’s about 48 of them, about half of those believed to be alive at the moment. Around 20 or so believed to still be alive. At which point, Netanyahu said that his forces will retreat, but not fully. He said that the Israeli forces are going to be within Gaza for the foreseeable future. So, no timeline really given. And he said that the ultimate withdrawal will depend on the demilitariz demilitarization of Gaza by Hamas. So ultimately the Gazian uh the the Hamas fighters are going to have to give up the hostages, lay down their arms and then there’s going to be an amnesty for some of those fighters who do give up. But again, many questions remain on this because who is going to suddenly want to take in a lot of these Hamas fighters? A lot of pe a lot of international governments regard Hamas as a terrorist organization. So who would want to potentially thousands of uh of terrorists coming to their country? That is another question that has not been answered by the White House or by the Israelis themselves. Uh so that is going to ultimately be the disbanding of uh of uh Hamas. But in its place is going to be a a committee ultimately which is going to be an internationally uh run committee with Donald Trump at the head of it. Uh and his second in command it looks like is going to be former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who let’s remember has a checkered past in the region because of the 2003 Iraq war but also his almost decades as a peace envoy in that part of the world uh which has left him with let’s say not exactly a sterling reputation with the Palestinian people. Fraser Jackson in Washington there.

Israel’s far-right finance minister slammed a peace plan unveiled by US Donald Trump and backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day earlier to end the nearly two-year war in Gaza. In a long post on X, Bezalel Smotrich called the plan “a resounding diplomatic failure, a closing of eyes and turning our backs on all the lessons of October 7,” referring to Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war. Analysis by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Israel and in Washington, Noga Tarnopolsky and Fraser Jackson.
#Israel #Gaza #donald Trump

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen