Trump’s Gaza peace plan faces a bigger threat than a pre-election clash with Netanyahu - opinion

Gershon Baskin argues that while Washington is wisely avoiding a public confrontation with Netanyahu before the Israeli election, the real danger is Netanyahu's far-right coalition creating irreversible facts on the West Bank. The author urges Trump to set private red lines against escalation, annexation, and settler violence, while preparing the Gaza roadmap for immediate post-election implementation.

Gershon Baskin argues that the Trump administration's decision to postpone a public confrontation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until after the Israeli election is politically prudent, but it risks allowing Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners to create irreversible facts on the ground in the West Bank. The author warns that Netanyahu's political survival depends on the most extreme elements in his coalition, whose objectives include expanding Israeli control, accelerating settlement, and removing Palestinian communities. Baskin urges Trump to set private, unmistakable red lines against West Bank escalation, forced displacement, annexation, and organized settler violence. He recommends that Washington increase its presence on the ground, with Ambassador Mike Huckabee and senior officials regularly visiting threatened Palestinian communities. The author also stresses that delaying full implementation of the Gaza roadmap must not mean freezing it, and that the Board of Peace should prepare everything that does not require a public showdown with Netanyahu, including training Palestinian police, assembling the International Stabilization Force, and completing withdrawal maps.