The UN Security Council faced one of the most acrobatic resolutions in its history, namely the resolution regarding the ISF international stabilization force that should be deployed in Gaza: they should control the border, destroy Hamas’s military infrastructure, and demilitarize the Gaza Strip. There has been an agreement that if Hamas finishes handing over the remains of the kidnapped victims, then it must proceed to the second stage. First, all the hostages live or die, the mission is almost complete, but if Hamas does not disarm, no one will carry out the plan.
Egypt and Israel, if participating, should be the two main interlocutors, while many other member states will be part of the project. Israel will withdraw when various troops are deployed and the US will remain as guarantor for a longer period of time. Easy? The difficulty of the plan is summed up in a single line outlining “the path to a Palestinian state.” Today’s expected guest in Washington, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also wants him for his first visit since the killing of Amal Kashoggi led to an ice wall with President Biden. Saudi is the cornerstone, the greatest ambition of Donald Trump’s grand geopolitical plan for the Middle East, the axis of balance between Israel, Qatar and Turkey. The possibility of Saudi relations with Israel guarantees Bin Salman America and Israel protection from Shia arrogance and from parts of the sunnah associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, to Islamic conquest led by Turkey and Qatar. Now that Trump is preparing to mend the rift with the Saudis, he knows that Iran in this perspective has restarted everything they can: Hezbollah was defeated by Israel and its proxies have emerged from their torpor, weapons are arriving in Judea and Samaria, in Iraq and Yemen, Iran is pushing hard, and they need a lot of money and weapons. Hamas, which has nothing, is also preparing weapons depots in East Africa, ready to release them at the right time.
Trump knows that he has to pay a price, or rather two, to Bin Salman: the first is the sale of the F35, the second is a guarantee that we will again talk about a Palestinian state. In the background, they offer guarantees not only of their weapons, but also of Israel’s strengthening thanks to the victories achieved in this long war. And when Netanyahu responded to opposition accusing him, from both the right and the left, of accepting a Palestinian state to please America, he said: “Our opposition to a Palestinian state has not changed at all.” And he also repeated that Israel is ready to intervene if Hamas does not accept Trump’s plan. Meanwhile, Hamas said it would not hand over its weapons except to the Palestinian Authority. A joke, that’s all. The voting document said that “as the Gaza plan progresses and the PA’s reform program is implemented, conditions may finally be in place for a credible path to self-determination and the creation of a Palestinian state.” This seems like a science fiction perspective, which still follows the strategy of the Abrahamic covenant. In this case, if solidarity with the US is maintained, then Israel is preparing for a safe fate.
The important thing is to keep Erdogan and Qatar out of the way while Saudi Arabia steps in. As for bin Salman’s F35, it is true that it is dangerous in the hands of powerful Islamic rulers. However, the most important thing now is to remain strong and be allied with the US.
