(New York) The scene was reminiscent of another. An aide to the President of the United States approaches him to whisper important information in his ear during an unrelated activity.
On September 11, 2001, White House chief of staff Andrew Card did this to inform George W. Bush of the disaster that was unfolding that day at the same time in New York, while he was in an elementary school in Florida.
On Wednesday, it was Secretary of State Marco Rubio who did this to communicate good news from the Middle East to Donald Trump, while he participated in a meeting at the White House on the antifa movement.
PHOTO JIM WATSON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio handing President Donald Trump a handwritten note that he said assured Hamas and Israel were “very close to an agreement”
Shortly after, the president relayed this news to the world on his Truth Social network.
“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both approved the first phase of our peace plan. This means that ALL hostages will be released very soon and Israel will withdraw its troops to an agreed line, which will be the first steps towards a strong, lasting and eternal peace,” he wrote.
There is obviously a long way to go from this first phase to eternal peace to which Donald Trump alludes in his message. But we must return to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
Certainly, the 20-point peace plan that the head of the White House is proud of is not strictly speaking his own. It was inherited largely from the Biden administration, and specifically former Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
But its first phase would probably not have won the support of Israel and Hamas without the contribution of Donald Trump. Even if he indulged in flattery that was not disinterested, Mark Carney acknowledged this fact during a recent interview with the weekly The Economist describing Donald Trump as a “decisive, game-changing leader on Ukraine, Middle East peace, global trade and many other areas.”
Radical shift
Donald Trump will have taken a radical turn in the Middle East. For months, he let Israel carry out its offensive in the Gaza Strip as it saw fit. Everything changed after Israeli strikes on September 9 targeting Hamas representatives who were participating in talks in Doha, Qatar, on the possibility of a peace plan to end the war.
The President of the United States has endorsed the anger of the leaders of Qatar and exerted unprecedented pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, who has often sent American presidents to waste, from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden via Barack Obama.
However, during the most recent visit of the Prime Minister of Israel to the White House, Donald Trump handed his visitor a phone and forced him to apologize to the Qatari Prime Minister. The White House subsequently made sure to broadcast the photo of this scene which took place in the Oval Office in the absence of journalists and television cameras.
In Israel, the media and commentators spoke of a humiliating situation for Benjamin Netanyahu. Especially since Donald Trump’s peace plan presented the same day contained a clause promising a “credible path” towards the creation of a Palestinian state, an objective against which the Israeli prime minister has long fought.
Of course, this clause is conditioned by several other provisions, including the reform of the Palestinian Authority and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, among others.
To further illustrate the new balance in the Middle East, the American president also signed an executive order aimed at providing Qatar with an American security guarantee accompanied by conditions similar to those provided for in Article 5 of the NATO treaty, that is to say that any attack against the Gulf country would be interpreted as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.
“Nothing to celebrate”
After the announcement of Hamas’ support for Donald Trump’s peace plan on October 3, Benjamin Netanyahu told the President of the United States that there was “nothing to celebrate.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” he added to his interlocutor, according to an American official who spoke to a journalist from the Axios news site.
Donald Trump responded, pronouncing the word beginning with an f: “I don’t know why you’re always so fucking negative. It’s a victory. Accept it. »
Faced with messianic partners who could bring down his government, Benjamin Netanyahu perhaps has another definition of victory.
He is also aware that the next phases of Donald Trump’s peace plan will surely be more difficult than the first. This plan notably requires that Hamas agree to lay down its arms, an Israeli request to which Arab and Muslim countries have agreed.
Critics say the plan contains loopholes that could allow Israel to halt the withdrawal of its soldiers from the Gaza Strip. But success in the first phase of the plan could create momentum toward ending a two-year-old war.
All this will probably not help Donald Trump realize one of his dearest wishes, that is to say being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the next winner of which will be announced on Friday.
In fact, in an interview that aired Wednesday night on Fox News after his Truth Social announcement, the president returned to his most common concerns: the benefits of his tariffs and his campaign to restore order in Democratic-run cities.
But this will not detract from its merit in the Middle East, if this first announced phase materializes.
