Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday, political chaos disappeared from President Trump’s insistence on seizing and tragic destruction and forced its Palestinian residents.
The trip was Mr. Rubio’s first trip to the region as Secretary of State, and Israel and Hamas were originally in negotiations to turn the fragile ceasefire in Gaza into the permanent end of their war.
But Mr Trump’s impossible vision of turning Gaza into a US-owned “Middle East Riviera” obscures high-stakes discussion, and Mr Rubio will certainly be forced to be more clear in order to visit Israel on a visit to Israel During the visit, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It is unclear whether Mr. Rubio has any details to offer, not only because Trump’s plan is both vague and controversial – it is unclear whether Mr. Rubio himself literally takes over the president.
Mr. Rubio, a former Florida senator, is more traditional than the president’s traditional worldview and style, and he has repeatedly suggested that Mr. Trump’s idea is primarily a negotiation strategy designed to inspire Arab leaders to take on Palestinians more. More responsibility.
Trump surprised the world with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a February 4 press conference in Washington on February 4 with his plan to Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu has not yet confirmed this idea, and some Israeli officials believe it is unrealistic.
After Arab officials in the region immediately condemned it, Mr. Rubio advised reporters that Mr. Trump was just trying to “get a reaction” and “stimulate” other countries to provide more aid for post-war Gaza.
However, since then, Mr. Trump has redoubled his efforts, telling reporters two more times, and in a Fox News interview, he intends to continue interviewing the program. On Friday, Mahmoud Abbas, who ruled the West Bank as president of the Palestinian authorities, said the Palestinian people “must retain” on their land.
International law scholars say that being forced to expel Palestinians would be a crime of ethnic cleansing and war. In October 2023, Israeli military retaliation killed more than 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Most of the dead on both sides are civilians.
Mr Trump said Jordan and Egypt should allow Palestinian residents in Gaza to move to their countries. The idea has long been elevated by Israeli rights, but has been frankly rejected by Arab and Palestinian leaders as well as past U.S. presidents. Jordanian King Abdullah II publicly rejected Mr. Trump’s proposal at a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, and Mr. Rubio attended.
In a radio interview Thursday, Mr. Rubio reiterated that Mr. Trump’s idea was a specific goal, but a diplomatic stinking bomb targeting Arab countries.
“All of these countries say how much they care about the Palestinians, but they don’t want to bring any Palestinians. In this regard, they have no history of doing anything for Gaza,” said Mr. Rubio. “So the president said, OK, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to keep going. We have to move.”
“This is the only plan right now,” he added. “Now, if someone makes a better plan – we hope they can do it – it would be great if the Arab countries have better plans.”
Mr Rubio suggested that any Arab proposal should address the massive mission of rebuilding Gaza and deploying transnational security forces to reconcile Hamas remnants.
“I can tell you that any plan to stay Hamas will have problems because Israel will not tolerate it,” he said.
Mr. Rubio made such a plan without mentioning months of work by the Biden administration led by former Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. By the end of last year, Biden administration officials said they were approaching a complex agreement that would bring Arab security forces and reconstruction funds to Gaza and raise greater responsibilities to the Palestinian authorities, President Joe Biden said, This should play a leading role in this area. After the war Gaza.
But any such plan is only possible after the war in Gaza is over, and the progress towards this depends on the extension of the ceasefire agreement to end in March and the exchanges around hostage prisoners.
Mr Rubio arrived in Israel on Saturday – Hamas released three Israeli hostages, including dual U.S. citizens, in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel and the U.S. governments have forced Hamas to release hostages in a bid to maintain a ceasefire in mid-January with the interests of Biden and Trump aides. Trump warned last Monday that Israel could cancel the deal and that if Hamas did not release all remaining hostages by noon Saturday, “all hell will erupt.”
Mr. Rubio is the Secretary of State’s second trip. He spent several days at the Munich security conference, landed in Israel on Saturday night and planned to fly to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after the Jerusalem conference. Mr Rubio had planned to stop in Qatar earlier, but this was not on the announced schedule.
In Saudi Arabia, Mr. Rubio and two other senior Trump aides plan to meet with Russian officials to discuss an end to the Ukrainian war.
Mr. Rubio’s trip has caused little public reaction in Israel, compared to the influence of the secretary, and to Steve Witkoff, the president’s Middle East envoy, and other advisers to Mr. Trump.
More broadly, Israeli government officials warmly welcomed the Trump administration’s support for Israel. Mr. Netanyahu issued a statement on Tuesday saying “the president’s revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza”. He also credited Mr. Trump on Saturday to help ensure the ceasefire is kept intact over the weekend.
Nevertheless, it is unclear whether Mr. Netanyahu believes Mr. Trump’s plan to expel Gaza residents from a post-war viable strategy, even if the idea has been praised by Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right allies. .
Mr. Netanyahu himself avoided direct comments on the premise of Gaza’s US-led construction projects. Instead, Israeli leaders seem to be more focused on a short-term goal – if the ceasefire collapses, make sure we support the recovery of war. Mr. Netanyahu repeatedly said that the war could not end before Hamas was defeated, but it would be difficult to renew the battle without Trump’s blessing.
Isabel Kershner Contribution report.
