Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night touted his “historic” visit to Washington, speaking before returning to Israel after U.S. President Donald Trump presented his plan to end the Gaza war.
“It was an excellent visit, both the start at the United Nations and the conclusion in Washington,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew video on X.
Instead of Hamas isolating the Jewish state, “We turned the tables and isolated Hamas,” the prime minister continued, noting that “now the whole world, including the Arab and Muslim world, is pressuring Hamas to accept the terms we set together with President Trump.”
“We will bring back all our hostages, both the living and the dead alike, while the Israel Defense Forces remains in most of the Gaza Strip. Who would have believed that?” Netanyahu said of the proposed agreement.
He noted that past negotiations had often sought to pressure Jerusalem to accept Hamas’s terms for a deal to release the 48 remaining hostages.
“That’s not happening. And President Trump added that if Hamas refuses, he will provide Israel full backing to complete the military operation and eliminate them,” according to the Israeli premier.
He denied claims that the agreement contained a clause regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state, noting Trump also made clear this would be “a huge reward for terror and a danger to the State of Israel.”
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, a member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, said the offer presented by Trump represented “peace through strength—surrender or be destroyed,” adding, “And of course, a Palestinian state will never arise in the land of our forefathers.”
Likud Party Knesset member Avichay Buaron tweeted, “This is what total victory looks like!”
Fellow Likud lawmaker Moshe Saada told JNS on Tuesday that the plan demands from Hamas things “we know it cannot do, such as releasing all the hostages without receiving anything in return and disarming.
“The whole world sees that Hamas is recalcitrant and does not want a deal under any circumstances, according to the Likud MK. “This gives the State of Israel a green light to continue destroying Hamas, continue occupying Gaza City, and allow voluntary emigration out of Gaza.”
Likud’s Tally Gotliv told JNS that it was “clear as day that the cruel and murderous Hamas will not agree to return all of our hostages within 72 hours” in accordance with the proposed terms.
“Hamas has found a way to undermine the resilience of Israeli society by holding our hostages. I have no doubt that the prime minister agreed to the Trump plan in order to secure their return,” the lawmaker stated.
“Only those who do not understand the Hamas ethos” will believe that the terror group will accept the plan and release the captives, Gotliv declared, adding: “There will be no Palestinian state.”
Amit Halevi, another Likud lawmaker, told JNS on Tuesday that he believes the U.S.-backed plan effectively paves the way for a Palestinian state in the Strip—an outcome he called dangerous.
“I can understand all the work that our prime minister does and his remarkable efforts on the diplomatic scene and the pressure on Israel,” he said. “This agreement, though, is not a realistic agreement. There are more than 100,000 terrorists in Gaza: 40,000 formal fighters and another 60,000 employed by Hamas’s genocidal machine in different roles. They will not disappear, and their charter, which calls to destroy Israel and implement the radical Islamic worldview, will not disappear.”
Halevi insisted the bottom line must be full IDF control of the Gaza Strip, slamming any other outcome as “a disaster for Israel’s future.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denounced the plan as “a resounding diplomatic failure,” saying it ignores the lessons learned from the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel.
“In my view, this will end in tragedy,” the Religious Zionism Party leader wrote on X. “Our children will once again be forced to fight in Gaza. As Einstein warned, it is the very definition of folly to repeat the same actions over and over while expecting a different outcome.”
“I have much to say, and with God’s help, I will do so after a series of consultations,” he added. “We will consult, consider and decide, with God’s help. But the celebrations since yesterday are simply absurd.”
Religious Zionism Party lawmaker Moshe Solomon told JNS that while Trump’s plan “includes good and meaningful elements” for Israel, Jerusalem’s goals must be met before ending the war in Gaza.
“There must be no threat to Israeli citizens in Gaza, whether from Hamas, other terror groups, or the Palestinian Authority,” he said. “If those conditions are met, then this is a good agreement. But moving forward, we will not agree under any circumstances to a Palestinian state.”
Solomon also stressed that released prisoners should not be pardoned, saying: “Whoever was a terrorist will always be a terrorist and should be absorbed by another country. Those who lay down their arms and cease terrorism can live, we will not eliminate them—but not here.”
Meanwhile, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit Party), the coalition’s fiercest critic of the leaked terms, had yet to react to the plan on Tuesday morning.
Religious Zionism lawmaker Ohad Tal told JNS that the deal could only be judged once additional details become available.
“We have many reasons for concern. The only achievement I can see is hopefully getting back all the hostages—if that even happens—and the fact that the IDF would remain in the buffer zone,” he continued.
“Beyond that, we are accepting that Hamas will stay in Gaza. I don’t expect Hamas to change its nature. They will still want to kill Jews, rearm, reorganize and regain their strength. We will not control the Rafah crossing, and everything will go back to how it was before Oct. 7,” he added.
While international forces in Gaza might make it harder for Hamas to grow, prepare and rearm, there is no chance they could prevent it, he said.
“That’s their nature—the purpose of their existence. And who will enforce the agreement? Tony Blair? The Emiratis? Will they fight and lose soldiers to protect Israel and make sure Hamas doesn’t rearm? I don’t believe that in a million years,” he added.
He also warned that if the deal assumes a Palestinian state could be created as a result, it would cause enormous problems.
“It doesn’t really matter whether the Palestinian Authority undergoes reforms or not. As long as you give legitimacy to a Palestinian state after Oct. 7, the message it sends is that killing, raping and kidnapping Jews pays off—and that’s a horrible message,” Tal added.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday night welcomed Trump’s proposal, calling on the international community to pressure Hamas to accept it.
Trump’s 20-point plan “offers real hope for the release of the hostages, for ensuring the security of Israel, for ending the war, and for changing the reality in the Gaza Strip and the Middle East toward a new era of regional and international partnership,” tweeted the head of state.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid Party) hailed the U.S. proposal as “the right basis for a hostage deal and ending the war.”
Senior ultra-Orthodox lawmaker Aryeh Deri, whose Shas Party exited the coalition in July but has still been included as an observer in Netanyahu’s Cabinet meetings, also voiced his “full support.
Deri said he was praying that “by the upcoming Sukkot holiday, our abducted sons will return to their families, our reservists will come home and that we will all merit a true ‘sukkah of peace,’” per Ynet.
Benny Gantz, who leads the opposition Blue and White Party, praised the White House’s “extraordinary efforts to secure a hostage deal and safeguard Israeli security.”
Trump’s plan “must be implemented, our hostages brought home, Israel’s operational freedom maintained, Hamas’ terror regime in Gaza replaced and moderate Arab States instated instead,” he tweeted.
Trump’s plan calls for an immediate ceasefire, a phased IDF withdrawal from most of the Gaza Strip, Hamas freeing Israeli hostages in exchange for the Jewish state releasing nearly 2,000 terrorist prisoners, amnesty for Hamas members who lay down arms and creating a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” to rule Gaza on a transitional basis.
Speaking at a press conference after the White House released the plan, Trump said that Hamas has not agreed to the proposal but that Arab and Muslim countries were negotiating with the terror organization.
“If Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible—they’re the only one left, everyone else has accepted it—but I have a feeling that we’re going to have a positive answer,” he stated. “If not, as you know, Bibi, you’d have my full backing to do what you would have to do.”
