Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he was working with U.S. officials on a 21-point Gaza peace plan put forth by Washington and hopes to finalize it in coordination with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In an interview on Fox News ahead of his White House meeting on Monday, Netanyahu said the proposal is not yet complete, expressing “hope we can make it a go, because we want to free the hostages, we want to get rid of Hamas rule and have them disarmed, Gaza demilitarized and a new future set up for Gazans and Israelis alike and for the whole region.”
Pressed on the details of the peace plan, Netanyahu expressed deep skepticism that the Palestinian Authority could be reformed and play a positive role in some aspect of governing Gaza.
“Yeah, I haven’t changed my positions. I think the credibility—the likelihood—of a reformed Palestinian Authority that completely changes its stripes, that accepts a Jewish state, that teaches its children to embrace coexistence and friendship with the Jewish state rather than living their lives to annihilate it or strapping on suicide bombs to pursue it, and that ends practices like ‘pay for slay,’ where they pay terrorists to murder Jews and reward higher numbers of killings, would mark a tremendous transformation. Well, good luck. Some people may believe it will happen. I don’t think it is going to happen,” said Netanyahu.
He sounded a more optimistic note regarding the future of the Abraham Accords, asserting that the normalization agreements have “been remarkably resilient and strong” and have “held up very well” throughout the nearly two years of war.
“The defeat of the Iran terror axis and the defeat of Hamas and the ending of the hostage situation in Gaza will improve it even further,” the prime minister said. “I think there’s many possibilities for peace which I’m discussing with President Trump and his team and we plan to seize them. I think you’ll see that not only are the Abraham Accords not endangered, they will be expanded to other countries.”
