While Netanyahu and Trump meets in Washington, doubts remain about how many Israel’s leader wants to end the war

The liberated hostages of Israeli hold emotional gatherings, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians try to restart their lives in the destroyed Gaza communities, as he announced an agreement on a tribute on January 15th. But whether it is tenically to calm down to stop at key conversations in Washington, which will start on Tuesday.

Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with US President Donald Trump, and the outcome will be central in determining whether almost 16-month war between Hamas and Israel will move in Next phase of tributeor if the struggles rush to life.

“I think the pressure from DC on Netanyahu is actually applied to reach Phase 2,” said Hellyer, an analyst in the Middle East from the British Royal United Services Institute (Russians).

“The question will be how much influence is.”

Some Israeli families with loved ones still hold hostage in Gaza fearing any pressure that the US president will be ready to bring will not be enough.

And they worry that Netanyahu may deliberately establish negotiations on the interruption of the fire so that he can calm down the extremely right -wing parties holding him in power.

“Netanyahu and his associates have not stopped trying to sabotage the agreement,” Dani Elgarat quoted Israeli mediaspeaking at the Tel Aviv set over the weekend. His brother, Itzik, among the dozens of prisoners, was still held by a militant group, although he said he believed his brother was dead.

Families have to worry, Hellyer said.

“I don’t think the Israelis want to end the war,” he told CBC News.

Hellyer said the maintenance of the status quo leaves the weakened Hamas in control of Gaza, but it also rejects making difficult decisions on how the territory is managed forward.

In his public statements, Netanyahu said that every conversation about sabotaging a ceasefire or leaving the remaining Israeli hostages is nonsense.

While he went to Washington, Israeli Prime Minister said His meetings with the US president will focus on achieving a “victory over Hamas”, publishing “all of our hostages” and continue to “draw” a map of the Middle East.

Trump, who has was busy with the launch of trade wars Contrary to his closest to Canada and Mexico neighbors, they can have a slightly different series of goals in the Middle East.

Saudi normalization

The US president has long tried to enter into the normalization of the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and for two weeks in his term, he indicated his desire to move forward quickly. Attack under the guidance of Hamas on Israel 7 October 2023 stunned the previous attempt from the administration of bidet to progress at such an agreement.

Last week, his envoy in the Middle East Steve Witkoff visited both Israel and Saudi Arabia, and at the same time stopped briefly in Gaza.

Wikoff appeared as a key player in providing an initial interruption agreement in January, allegedly pushed Hamas and Israel to make concessions to achieve this.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Repeatedly said There will be no closer with Israel without dedication to the Palestinian state. Representatives of several Arabic nations made a similar one A statement last weekend as part of a joint communication.

While the Palestinians and their Arabic supporters see the solution of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an existential issue, for Trump, cementing the relations of Saudi Arabia-Israel is the main prize.

“Gaza is a stumbling block for that,” Hellyer says. “But I don’t think he sees Gaza as a problem in herself.”

Among the Israelis, support for the “Decision with two countries” as a means of completing a 70-year conflict had been sliding for years before attacking Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

Since then, most surveys propose That’s all the time.

Key Member of Netanyahu’s cabinet, ultimate right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, said Yes while supporting the Normalization Agreement with Saudi Arabia, that cannot be a contingent about the creation of the Palestinian state.

Heavy compromises

Still, the distinguished Israeli supporters of the concept say that Trump’s unpredictability, along with the Saudi Normalization Award, could eventually push both Israel and Hamas to make compromises that could not be ready to do.

Although poorly weakened by the continuous attacks of Israel bombing in the last year and a half, Hamas remains controlled in Gaza, and his fighters have afforded brave public performances in the handover during the handover of Israeli hostages in the last weeks.

“The best of my judgment, he [Trump] It does not seek a new war, I think he looks at a much broader picture, “said Ehud Barak, 82, a former Israeli prime minister who tried and failed to negotiate a solution with two countries with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the David camp in 2000.

“It may not be very difficult with Netanyahu or Israel about details, but it may be quite rigid about the process he wants to lead.”

In an interview with CBC News at his home in Tel Aviv, Barak – a longtime political rival Netanyahu – said he believes Israel will have to give up on how to manage Gaza in the future.

The Palestinian administration, which currently serves as a form of municipal government on the west coast, said she wanted to take over from Hamas in Gaza-Vlada arrangement Netanyahu decisively rejected.

Replacement of Hamas

Barak says Netanyahu may have some choice than to accept and in Gaza, if it means to get rid of Hamas. Palestinian administration under the leadership of Fatah Lost control of Gaza to Hamas in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Unlike militant groups, he continued to advocate for the non -violent conflict and negotiations with Israel to secure the state.

“You have to replace Hamas with some other entity, another entity that is legitimate international law and … our Arab neighbors and Palestinians themselves. And this entity cannot only be … a version of Palestinian authorities,” said CBC News.

Instead, many in the Netanyahu government have been pushed to expand the military interest of Israeli Israeli Palestinian areas by establishing a settlement in Gaza and formally annexation of large parts of the West Coast.

Barak says that, with the measure, Israel risks to become either “non-Jewish” or “undemocratic”, because permanently denying the Palestinians the same rights as Israeli Jews are not democracy.

“For our own future, our own destiny, our own identity, we have to find a way to exclude Palestinians – it is not currently a topic we will talk about in Hebrew, but it does not cease to be the basic truth.”

Depending on the outcome of Trump-Netanyahu’s discussion, negotiations on phase 2 details could start in Qatar later this week.

The goal is to have an agreement on the future of Gaza, together with the publication of all the remaining Israeli hostages in place up to 42 days, about 25 days.

In the commentary, the British Russian Think-Tank hit a positive note.

“With Saudi normalization with Israel high on the US wish list and the capacity of Saudi to fund Gaza reconstruction, Saudi Arabia has what Trump craves in any agreement – influence.”