White House not troubled by Netanyahu’s rejection of Gaza plan, sees his comments as election politics

Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that he rejects the 15-point plan by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and Hamas to completely disarm, White House officials reportedly say they are not troubled by Netanyahu’s stance, which they regard as a case of election politics. And they note that Israel has in fact halted strikes in Gaza for the past five days, and that IDF troops are not deployed deeper in Gaza than the so-called yellow line.

“We are not troubled by those comments from Netanyahu,” a senior US source tells Channel 12 news. “We understand his political needs [in this election period]. We have no problem with that, as long as he continues to do what we ask — especially as regards reining in the strikes in Gaza.”

According to the Channel 12 report, by US correspondent Barak Ravid, Netanyahu spoke last week to Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner and told him that he did not believe Hamas would agree to disarm, but that he was prepared to give the 15-point plan a chance — both by reining in strikes in Gaza and not deploying the IDF to the west of the yellow line.