{"id":3805,"date":"2026-03-08T19:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/?p=3805"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:37:18","slug":"as-netanyahu-meets-trump-in-washington-what-hope-for-peace-in-gaza-expert-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/as-netanyahu-meets-trump-in-washington-what-hope-for-peace-in-gaza-expert-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"As Netanyahu meets Trump in Washington, what hope for peace in Gaza? Expert Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n

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The US government \u201cremains upbeat\u201d about the prospects for at least a ceasefire in Gaza, according to the latest reports from Washington, where the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been meeting the US president, Donald Trump.<\/em><\/p>\n

Netanyahu handed the US president a letter nominating him for the Nobel peace prize, saying he deserved it for \u201cforging peace, as we speak, in one country in the region after another\u201d. But as yet there are no signs that either Hamas or Israel have moved any closer to accepting each other\u2019s terms.<\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, reports emerging from the White House meeting are that the two leaders discussed the displacement of much of the Palestinian population. And a plan revealed by Israel\u2019s defence minister, Israel Katz, proposed the contruction of a \u201chumanitarian city\u201d at Rafah in the north of the Gaza Strip to house more than 600,000 Palestinians.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Conversation\u2019s senior international affairs editor, Jonathan Este, spoke with Middle East expert, Scott Lucas, of University College Dublin to address this and other questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

The two leaders\u2019 discussions in Washington seemed to centre around displacement of the Palestinian population in lieu of a two-state solution. What does this tell you about the chance of a ceasefire deal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am fascinated \u2013 and sometimes disillusioned \u2013 by how some media outlets, led by the nose, miss the main story. Last week Donald Trump pronounced on social media that Israel had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire and Hamas \u201cshould take this deal\u201d. <\/p>\n

But the Netanyahu government has not accepted the framework<\/a>, circulated by Trump\u2019s envoy Steve Witkoff, let alone consented to a halt of their attacks, which have continued even as the Israeli prime minister travelled to Washington to meet the US president.<\/p>\n

As Trump hosted Netanyahu in the White House on Monday, the line was that the US president was \u201cupbeat on Gaza ceasefire talks\u201d<\/a>. Meanwhile, few of them seemed to notice the important development. Hamas responded to the US framework with proposals<\/a> for the staged release of 28 of the remaining 50 Israeli hostages over the 60 days while Israeli troops withdrew from positions inside the Strip and humanitarian aid was restored.<\/p>\n

But the Israeli government has thus far not given a substantive response. Instead, while pursuing a plan for the long-term military occupation of Gaza, it may also be seeking the displacement<\/a> of a large portion of the more than 2.2 million population.<\/p>\n\n

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Sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter<\/a> from The Conversation UK. Every Thursday we\u2019ll bring you expert analysis of the big stories in international relations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Hard-right members of Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet, such as finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and internal security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, have long called for more than a million Gazans to be moved out of the territory. Reports over the weekend confirmed that this is not rhetoric. Israeli businessmen and venture capitalists have reportedly been working on plans for postwar Gaza, to include a \u201cTrump riviera\u201d<\/a>, mirroring the displacement declaration by the US President, and an \u201cElon Musk smart manufacturing zone<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, security cabinet member Ze’ev Elkin, a Netanyahu loyalist, proclaimed \u201ca substantial chance\u201d for a ceasefire<\/a>. But Qatari negotiators have said there are currently no talks<\/a>, only discussions with each side about the framework for talks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, citing the killing of five Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Sunday night by an improvised explosive device, Ben-Gvir said<\/a>: \u201cWe should not negotiate with those who kill our soldiers. They should be crushed to pieces, starved to death, and not resuscitated with humanitarian aid that gives them oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called for \u201ca complete siege, crushing them militarily\u201d<\/a> and reiterated the plan for \u201cencouraging [Palestinian] immigration and [Jewish] settlement \u2014 these are the keys to complete victory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Smotrich also called for a ban on any aid<\/a> to Gaza: \u201cIn addition, I demand \u2026 that any territory that was conquered and cleansed of terror with the blood of our fighters not be abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I am not optimistic at the moment.<\/p>\n

Looking at the region as a whole, two events have \u2018reset\u2019 the Middle East: the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel\u2019s recent 12-day war. Can you tell me more about the kaleidoscope effect these two events had?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In October 2023, there was no open-ended war in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s focus was on curbing the Palestinian Authority<\/a> in the West Bank, blocking any possibility of a two-state solution. His tactic was to ease the economic pressure on Gaza and Hamas, maintaining that organisation as a balance against its West Bank rivals.<\/p>\n

Hamas ripped up that approach with its mass murder on October 7 \u2013 the first of the two kaleidoscope moments which changed the whole picture in a matter of hours. The attack triggered the deadly Israeli response that continues 21 months later. That response did not \u201cdestroy\u201d Hamas, as Netanyahu pledged, but it led the Israelis to take on other foes in the region.<\/p>\n

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\"Israeli<\/div>
\n While the leaders talk, the bombardment of Gaza continues,<\/span>
\n EPA\/Atef Safadi<\/span><\/span>
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Pursuing its \u201coctopus doctrine\u201d<\/a>, Israel severely damaged one of the tentacles, Hezbollah, when it destroyed much of the Lebanese group\u2019s leadership<\/a> in the autumn of 2024. It assassinated senior Iranian commanders and officials in Damascus, and received a further boost when Turkish-backed factions toppled the Assad regime in December. <\/p>\n

The 12-day war in June aimed to destroy the head of the octopus: Iran. Israel\u2019s strikes and assassinations killed much of the country\u2019s military leadership and many of its top nuclear scientists. The supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, hid in a bunker, only emerging on July 6. But Israel failed to topple his regime, as it had hoped.<\/p>\n

The war was another kaleidoscope moment. Israel had its regional victory. But paradoxically, because there has been no resolution in Gaza, this has come at the cost of further international isolation<\/a>. Gulf States, having moved away from \u201cnormalisation\u201d with Israel, put out tougher statements about \u201cgenocide\u201d of Gazans and the violation of Iranian sovereignty. Saudi Arabia\u2019s state media highlighted a letter<\/a> from Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi to Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan for \u201cways to support and enhance [relations] across all fields\u201d.<\/p>\n

This implies that for any normalisation to occur, Israel must end its military operation in Gaza?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That question cuts to the chase. The Gulf states, with the notable exception of Qatar, are no friends of Hamas<\/a>. They might even have accepted the destruction of the group if Israel had been able to accomplish it quickly.<\/p>\n

But there is no way that they can publicly acquiesce in the killing of almost 60,000 Gazans, the large majority of them civilians, and the humanitarian blockade that threatens every single person living in the Gaza Strip. Nor will they want to see Israel export Gazans across the region in an echo of the 1948 \u201cNakba\u201d<\/a> whose legacy is the millions of Palestinians living in refugee camps across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu can pursue his \u201cabsolute destruction\u201d of Hamas by pursuing the destruction and displacement of Gazans. Or he can try to capitalise on his war with Iran through links with Arab countries. He cannot do both.<\/p>\n

Will Donald Trump get his Nobel peace prize?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know, for that is a question which does not have a logical answer.<\/p>\n

Herny Kissinger was the US secretary of state who oversaw an escalation of the Vietnam war in which up to 3 million Vietnamese, 310,000 Cambodians, 62,000 Laotians and 58,220 US service members died. The singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer aptly noted<\/a>: \u201cPolitical satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.\u201d <\/p>\n

We are in a world where having caused so much disorder and chaos, having enabled violence, including Israel\u2019s open-ended war, Donald Trump may succeed in a pose as \u201cpeacemaker\u201d. <\/p>\n

Some may see the least worst option as flattery, which seems to work as a strategy<\/a> for dealing with the US president. They may accept the White House theatre in which Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court<\/a> for war crimes, personally hands Trump a peace prize nomination<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, the number of casualties in Gaza rose to 57,575 people killed and 136,879 wounded<\/a>. Twenty hostages spent another day in limbo. That\u2019s what matters here.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

This article written by Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor<\/strong> and is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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