The bottlenecks in the deal

In addition to Israel and Hamas having to meet all of their obligations under the signed agreement, and to cease and desist from all violations and breaches, there are several things that must happen immediately – some of them in parallel, in order to prevent the war from restarting. We must create the conditions on the ground to have an enabling political and security environment necessary to provide security for the people of Gaza and for the people of Israel.

Unfortunately, none of these steps will have an impact on the horrible situation of the West Bank, where Israel is committing crimes against the Palestinian people on a daily basis. I believe that the West Bank is not exploding in violence not only because of the exhaustion of the Palestinian people, but because no one there wants to take the chance of having the West Bank turn into what Gaza is today – total ruins. But Ben Gvir and Smotrich continue every day to engage in provocations that have the potential to lead to an explosion – which is what they want to happen in order to move forward with the plans of the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. I am not making this up – they say it every day.

In the meantime, President Trump made it clear to Netanyahu that there will be no annexation and no ethnic cleansing – not of Gaza and not of the West Bank.

The Palestinians, I believe, should be gearing up for elections – because that is the only way to recreate Palestinian unity – through the ballot box. President Abbas promised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and French President Emmanuel Macron and the New York conference supported by 141 nations that Palestinian national elections for President and Parliament would take place within one year. Abbas also promised a revised Palestinian election law that would permit only political parties to participate that support the PLO political position of the two-state solution and peace with Israel.

A large turnout of Palestinian voters electing leaders that support peace with Israel would also be the best way to positively effect the Israeli electorate to give a majority support to Israeli leaders who would be prepared to negotiate genuine peace with the Palestinian people on the basis of two states – Israel and Palestine – living side-by-side with deep cooperation between them – not on the basis of higher walls and stronger fences. Sequencing is very important, and positive forward-looking Palestinian election results would deeply impact the Israeli electorate. And, no, it is not too early to talk about Palestinian elections. And the sooner we have new elections in Israel – the better. This current Israeli government must be sent to history.

We need to always remember that Israel will never have security if Palestine does not have freedom, and Palestine will never have freedom if Israel does not have security. That’s the deal, and this Gaza war MUST be the last Israeli-Palestinian war.

Out of our trauma will come the awakening for Israelis and Palestinians that we must now get to the difficult work of making peace!

These are the urgent steps that need to happen right now to ensure that the end of the war agreement will hold:

• The creation of the new transitional Palestinian professional non-Hamas government for Gaza (the responsibility of the United States, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority – without interference from Israel).
• After that, the deployment of over 1000 Palestinian police cadets who have been trained in Egypt and Jordan over the past months (the responsibility of the United States, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority – without interference from Israel). The enlistment of thousands of other Palestinian police/security forces for Gaza, subordinate to the new Palestinian transitional Gaza government.
• The passing of a UN Security Council Resolution providing international legal legitimacy for the agreement and the mandate for the multi-national stabilization force in Gaza (the responsibility of the United States).
• The deployment of the multi-national stabilization force in Gaza, including its clear mandate, rules of engagement, command structure, and funding (the primary responsibility of the United States, with the Arab neighbors, additional Muslim countries, some European countries, and perhaps some other countries).
• The creation of the Peace Board headed by President Trump to raise the billions of dollars necessary for the reconstruction of Gaza, and the monitoring of the reconstruction and the use of the money.
• The immediate deployment of at least $2 billion for the immediate construction of temporary housing for up to two million Gazans, repairing infrastructure -mainly water, electricity, sewage, and roads – including clearing of rubble of bombed buildings to make space for the temporary housing.
• Creating the enabling environment for the Gaza private sector to restart the essential work of rebuilding the Gaza economy – including the reopening of banks.