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Any peace agreement must contain all necessary details. There are a lot of gaps in Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza. Virginia Pietromarchi from Al Jazeera explains.

Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa, the South African ambassador, was discovered dead in a Parisian high-rise hotel. The cause of his death is being looked into by police.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he complied with the president’s proposal to end Israel’s occupation of Gaza on Monday while standing next to Donald Trump.

However, a few hours later, Netanyahu reaffirmed that statement by saying that he had no intention of supporting a Palestinian state and that the Israeli military would remain in the majority of Gaza. He did this again speaking in Hebrew rather than English.

Trump’s 20-point plan appears to be in line with many of Israel’s stated war objectives, including the return of Israeli prisoners, the dissolution of Hamas as a military and political force, and the establishment of a temporary international administration in Gaza that is unlikely to pose a threat to Israel.

Netanyahu, who has kept his government together largely because of his insistent support for the war, has political and personal costs in accepting any deal. Is he finally at peace with the Palestinian conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 66,000 people? Or will he discover a new strategy to aggravate the conflict?

Manoeuvre by Risky

Trump’s plan for Gaza allows Netanyahu to establish himself as a victorious war leader before the upcoming elections as well as any potential investigation into government misconduct that might have contributed to the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. It also fulfills the majority of Israel’s demands.

According to Israeli political scientist Ori Goldberg, “Trump’s deal allows him to portray himself as the complete package.” He can say, “Look at me,” I fought the conflict, I said. Gaza was completely destroyed by me. I went further than anyone could have imagined. I’ve demonstrated my love for Israel and its security, but cooler heads should rule now. ’”

It’s not just facts, they say. It’s all about the narrative, Goldberg continued.

Netanyahu is concerned about that because any decision to end the war is a risky one. Despite being Israel’s longest-serving leader, Netanyahu faces fierce opposition in his own nation in relation to his own domestic policies, corruption allegations, and disagreements over his failure to reach a deal to release the prisoners in Gaza.

Therefore, he has relied on the backing of far-right cabinet members, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to keep the conflict in Gaza and even grow.

In addition, critics have suggested that Netanyahu may be attempting to prolong the conflict in order to avoid a potential prison sentence in his ongoing corruption trial or to prevent an official investigation into his administration’s failures before Hamas’s October 2023 attacks, inquiries that had previously resulted in the resignations of Israel’s chief of staff and the head of its domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet.

Former Israeli ambassador and consular general Alon Pinkas said, “These risks haven’t diminished.” Trump doesn’t like Joe Biden, according to the article. Netanyahu can’t rely on all of his Republican Party friends to try to deceive the president. That power is no longer present. Netanyahu is aware that Trump can make life very difficult for him if he wants to, and he is aware of that. ”

According to Pinkas, Netanyahu was given the order to travel to the US and declare his allegiance to the plan. Trump, in my opinion, would have predicted that Netanyahu would have been more than capable of revealing a completely different reality if this had been agreed in secret. He can’t do that, he claimed, by making this agreement known in public.

opposition to the far right

Nearly the entire conflict has been fueled by calls for negotiations to end the war and release the Israeli prisoners held in Gaza, and many polls have suggested that the majority of Israelis want to see the war end. Opposition MPs have offered to support Netanyahu on a regular basis within the Knesset, or parliament, thereby making it politically feasible and popular to accept US terms.

However, Netanyahu has instead chosen to throw in his lot with the far right, which refuses to support the war’s end and demands that Israel formally annex Gaza and negotiate settlement with Jewish Israelis while putting Palestinians to the test.

According to Spotrich, the Trump plan is a “resounding diplomatic failure, a closing of the eyes, turning our backs on all the lessons of October 7,” and it will also, in my opinion, result in tears.

Ben-Gvir is expected to oppose the agreement, despite the fact that his anger has so far been focused on Netanyahu’s alleged apology to Qatar, which he reportedly made under US pressure, for Israel’s obscene attack on Hamas’ negotiating team in Doha in September.

The proposed plan is disappointing but not unexpected for the far-right settler movement. Ben-Gvir sees it as a blip in a populist agenda that seeks to stoke division and make Palestinian lives harder.

There you go, Goldberg warned, “Smotrich and the settlers will be disappointed.” They all believed that this would be the final God-given conflict that would result in their victory. They are now realizing that this isn’t the same old pantomime as Netanyahu. Ben-Gvir will likely take into account his options. He’ll likely make up his mind that it won’t take place. He won’t ever support it in public, but he won’t be in a rush to resign from the cabinet.

However, the cabinet is not the only subject. Those who call themselves ‘liberals’ rallying round to back what they will claim is a ‘peace deal’ are bound to back this. However, it’s not really clear what a “peace deal” means in the context of a genocide. ”

Adding to the complexity of the image

Analysts claim that Netanyahu is trapped by circumstance and focused on his only possible existence, despite the possibility that he may attempt to become Israel’s savior.

Pinkas predicted that he would use a soft stance to try and kill it. He will say that we are carefully studying it, that there are some minor security issues to be resolved, and that there are some things to worry about. He will also increase the number of Israelis killed in Gaza and increase his rhetoric against Iran. In a few weeks, Trump’s mind will have changed, his strategy will no longer be in effect, and he hopes his thoughts will have already waned. ”

Netanyahu’s horizon is defined by “political survival,” according to Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg. Netanyahu may call elections, claiming victory by referring to Hamas’s destruction, the return of hostages, and the presence of foreign troops in Gaza, according to Mekelberg. Hamas was declared to be dead. Most of the hostages were saved, at least by us. He might rebut his argument. “Look what we have done.” ”

Netanyahu might become isolated with rivals in Likud, the far right, the opposition, and ultra-Orthodox allies as soon as the war is over, according to Yet Mekelberg, who warned against this. Netanyahu is a master manipulator, so you can never bet against him. He is still increasingly confined to a corner. ”

Donald Trump has addressed hundreds of US generals in Virginia on subjects ranging from climbing stairs to the Ukraine crisis, frequently repeating his points and jumping between subjects.

Trump spoke for more than an hour and ten minutes on Tuesday, growing increasingly popular as his self-described “weave” grew larger.

He praised his own foreign policy, expressed familiar grievances about his political foes, and demanded that warships be more attractive.

The generals were informed, however, that the US president would concentrate on domestic missions.

Five important lessons can be learned from Trump’s speech:

concentrating on the “enemy within”

Trump repeatedly made the suggestion that he wanted the military to deal with alleged domestic threats, including what he perceived as riots and unauthorised immigration.

He claimed that he signed an executive order last month to train a quick response force capable of halting civil unrest.

Because it’s the enemy from within, we must deal with it before it spirals out of control, the people in this room are going to be big fans of it.

Trump has mandated the deployment of military installations in Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles, California, Washington, DC, and Memphis, Tennessee.

He suggested sending the military to other major cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York on Tuesday, citing the threat of war.

Some of the people in this room will be major players in this area. That also constitutes war. Trump remarked, “This is a war from within.”

The campaign has posed legal questions about the US military’s role and potential legal infringements. It is already facing legal challenges in court.

The states are granted all duties that are not otherwise deemed to be federal by the US Constitution, including policing.

Additionally, the US military is prohibited from conducting civilian law enforcement in the country unless “expressly authorized” by the law under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.

Ironically, Trump’s Republican Party has long opposed to expanding federal authority.

arguing the Nobel Peace Prize

As he enumerated several global crises that he claimed he had personally resolved, including the May clashes between India and Pakistan, the US president attempted to portray himself as a peacemaker.

He argued that his efforts merited a Nobel Peace Prize.

“Will you receive the Nobel Prize?” Absolutely not,” Trump said. They’ll give it to a man who did nothing wrong.

If he doesn’t receive the award, he added, it would be a “big insult” to the US.

Trump has launched attacks against Caribbean boats he claimed are armed with drugs during his first nine months in office, bombing Iran and Yemen, and intensifying drone strikes in Somalia.

However, his administration hasn’t provided specific evidence that the deadly airstrikes targeted drug smugglers. Trump and his supporters have joked that the US military’s campaign has caused fishermen’s waters to no longer be safe in the nearby waters.

Plan to end the conflict in Gaza

Trump argued that a ceasefire in Gaza is imminent, claiming that Hamas needs to agree with his peace plan because Israel, Arab and Muslim countries, and other countries have accepted it.

His prediction was that the entire region would be settled by his 20-point plan.

“I asked, “How long have you been fighting?” Three thousand years, sir. That’s a long time, but we finally settled it, in my opinion. The US president said, “We’ll see.”

The first Arab-Israeli conflict broke out in 1948 after the Zionist colonization of Palestine.

Trump stated earlier on Tuesday that Hamas would need three or four days to respond to his suggestion, or it would have a “very sad end.”

Putin’s disgrace is disappointing.

Trump blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the ongoing conflict, saying that he is still working to put an end to the Ukrainian war.

Trump also made the claim that Russia is struggling militarily with the conflict, claiming that every week thousands of soldiers are killed on either side.

Trump remarked, “I’m so disappointed in President Putin.

I said I believed he would finish this matter. That war ought to have been finished in a week for him. And I said to him, “You know, you don’t look good,” You’ve been fighting a war for four years, which ought to have lasted a week. Are you paper tiger-like?

Trump and Putin had direct discussions last month in Alaska, and he has been pushing for a summit with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the president of Ukraine.

However, US diplomacy has so far failed to put an end to the fighting.

Trump claimed last week that Ukraine could reclaim all of the Russian-occupied territory, reversing earlier claims that Kyiv would need to relinquish some of its territory in order to reach a peace agreement with Moscow.

Biden grievances

Trump made fun of Joe Biden throughout the speech, claiming that Putin’s revolt was the result of his administration’s erratic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He repeatedly referred to the Biden administration as “incompetent.”

He told the generals, “You’ll never see four years like we had with Biden and that group of incompetent people that ran this country that should have never been there.”

Trump said he carefully avoids falling, as Biden did on a few occasions while he was president.

Hamas has “three or four days,” according to the US president, before responding to his proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.

A United States judge has ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump unlawfully targeted pro-Palestine student activists with deportation to silence criticism of Israel, violating their right to free speech.

In a blistering opinion on Tuesday, Federal District Judge William Young, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem misused their powers in the deportation campaign.

“They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals … the freedom of speech that is their right,” Young wrote.

“Moreover, the effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.”

The ruling represents a major rebuke to the Trump administration’s efforts to penalise non-citizens who participated in campus activism against the war on Gaza last year.

Rubio has said that he revoked the visas of hundreds of students – including legal permanent residents – over their Palestine activism.

The case was brought forward by the American Association of University Professors, which has been pushing back on Trump’s campaign to reshape higher education to align more with his right-wing worldview.

During the proceedings, federal officials acknowledged relying on Canary Mission – a shadowy doxxing website that critics describe as a hate group – to identify foreign students for removal.

Young concluded that Trump’s aides cracked down on the students in order to make an example out of them, “terrorizing similarly situated non-citizen (and other) pro-Palestinians into silence”.

Columbia University’s Mahmoud Khalil was one of the first students to be targeted. He was detained in an immigration facility for three months and missed the birth of his first son before a judge ordered his release.

In another high-profile case, Turkish Tufts University scholar Rumeysa Ozturk was nabbed by masked federal agents and spent weeks in jail for co-authoring an op-ed in her school’s newspaper.

The article called on the university administration to uphold the student senate’s resolutions, including a call for divesting from companies complicit in Israeli human right abuses.

A federal court ordered federal authorities to release Ozturk in May. But she, Khalil and others continue to face deportation proceedings.

It is not immediately clear how Tuesday’s ruling will affect those cases individually.

To deport the activists, Rubio has been invoking a seldom-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act on the basis that the students’ presence has “adverse” effects on American foreign policy.

The Trump administration has been arguing that foreign students and non-citizens in general have minimal rights and could be removed for abusing the privileges of being in the US.

It has accused the students – without providing evidence – of supporting “terrorism”, promoting anti-Semitism and spreading Hamas propaganda.

While Judge Young agreed that non-citizens are guests, he stressed that they have constitutional protections.

“How we treat our guests is a question of constitutional scope, because who we are as a people and as a nation is an important part of how we must interpret the fundamental laws that constrain us,” he wrote.

“We are not, and we must not become, a nation that imprisons and deports people because we are afraid of what they have to tell us.”

The judge also rejected equating criticism of Israel with support for “terrorism”.

“If ‘terrorist’ is interpreted to mean ‘pro-Palestine’ or ‘anti-Israel,’ and ‘support’ encompasses pure political speech, then core free speech rights have been imperiled,” he said.

Young added it is not clear whether Trump directed the deportation campaign, but he noted that the US president celebrated and “wholeheartedly supported it”.

The White House’s official X account posted “SHALOM, MAHMOUD” after Khalil was detained in March.

The judge said Trump’s backing of the deportation drive amounts to a violation of his oath of office to protect and defend the US Constitution.

“After all, the facts prove that the President himself approves truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech on the part of two of his senior cabinet secretaries,” Young said.