'Amendments to the agreed peace plan' or the country's internal politics and pressure: Why did Pakistan distance itself from Trump's Gaza plan?

'Amendments to the agreed peace plan' or the country's internal politics and pressure: Why did Pakistan distance itself from Trump's Gaza plan?

                                             

According to Ishaq Dar, Trump’s plan does not include important points such as a ceasefire, provision of humanitarian aid and an end to forced displacement, so Pakistan does not support it and said: “This is not our document.”

It should be recalled that hours before the peace plan was shared at the White House and the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had welcomed the peace plan and said, “I welcome President Trump’s 20-point plan, which aims to ensure an end to the war in Gaza.”

On the occasion of the announcement of the peace plan, President Trump also claimed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir are “100 percent” supporters of his Gaza plan.

But as soon as the details of the plan were published on the White House website, Pakistani concerns apparently increased.

 

Why the sudden change in Pakistan’s policy?

Speaking to the BBC, he said, “In a country where shaking hands with Jewish political leaders can prove costly for your career, it is difficult to adopt new and unconventional solutions.”

According to Professor Shoaib, the amendments made by Netanyahu are a problem, but “the Israeli Prime Minister wants the situation to improve and then he will withdraw the army, but they (the Islamic owners) want the IDF to leave Gaza already.”

He said that Pakistan will not completely distance itself from the agreement. “The real goal is for the Arab and Turkish leadership to take over and Pakistan can take the position that we stand with Muslim countries. Such a stance will play an important role in positively influencing public opinion in the country.’

‘And in the broader perspective, the most important thing is that there will be a ceasefire and aid will start flowing, and as long as Trump is standing, this may be possible.’

Regarding the change in Ishaq Dar’s stance, he says, ‘It is difficult to satisfy the hard-line sections in the country with what was said in front of Trump. There will be a difference in this, and it is necessary to do so to resolve a difficult and big issue like Gaza.’

‘There is a joke that even if the US, Saudi Arabia, Hamas, Netanyahu all agree, the social media warriors and hard-line religious sections are not agreeing, they believe that the solution is what they are saying.’

Remember, in Pakistan, everyone from social media to political parties seems to be criticizing Trump’s plan and it is being said that the two-state solution is not clearly mentioned in this proposed agreement.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) termed the plan as a ‘violation of UN resolutions and international law’ and said that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and legitimizing the occupation of the Golan Heights is a threat to regional peace.

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman criticized the government’s policy on Gaza and support for Trump’s plan, saying that Trump’s ‘praise for the peace plan which is based on the bodies of 66,000 Palestinians’ is tantamount to standing with the oppressors.

Ambiguity in the peace plan could lead to its failure: Jeremy Bowen’s analysis

The end of the war in Gaza and the reconstruction of the devastated area are the factors for which the US president has issued the framework for the agreement.

Although most of the details of this framework have been provided by the US president himself. Arab and other Islamic countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Indonesia also pushed for the agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognized it, although he is against an independent Palestinian state.

In order to move quickly on the agreement, Trump gave the militant organization Hamas a "two to three days" to accept or reject the agreement.

And if Hamas says "no", then the war will continue.

The proposed plan is largely the same as the one announced by Joe Biden almost a year ago. Over the past year, there have been massive Palestinian deaths, destruction and food shortages in Gaza, while Israeli prisoners in Hamas's custody have suffered even more.

According to Israeli media reports, former US President Biden's deal could not go ahead because Netanyahu, under pressure from those in his cabinet, increased his demands.

This framework is a significant opportunity and is the first time that US President Donald Trump has put pressure on Israel to end the war.

Trump has made himself a difficult leader to refuse, because no one wants to be humiliated in the Oval Office like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but things often change after leaders of different countries leave the White House.

When Benjamin Netanyahu left Washington DC to return to Israel, his staff made a video based on various statements by his prime minister. One part of the video was on the two-state solution with Israel regarding the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, which Britain and other Western countries are trying to recognize.

President Trump has also supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the proposed plan. The plan states that the redevelopment of Gaza and the implementation of the Palestinian Authority’s reform program will create conditions conducive to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the desire of the Palestinian people.

The vague possibility of a Palestinian state is also very high for Netanyahu. He strongly supported Trump at the White House, saying in English, “I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which we believe is fulfilling our war objectives.”

In the video, Netanyahu is giving a message to his people in Hebrew before returning to Israel, when he is asked if he is willing to have a Palestinian state.

He said, “No, absolutely not. It is not even written in the agreement. But we have said one thing. That we will strongly resist the establishment of a Palestinian state.” He said that Trump has also agreed to it.

The strength of the plan is that it is continuous. The weakness of the plan is that it does not contain many details, which is a key component of Trump’s diplomacy.

The document endorsed by Trump and Netanyahu also includes a roadmap for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the war-torn area, but it is not certain whether this diplomatic agreement designed to end the war will continue or end.

If the agreement is to move forward, tough negotiations are necessary, but in such a case, it is likely to end.

 

All major Israeli parties have currently endorsed it, but the extremist nationalist parties in Netanyahu’s coalition government, which are happy with Trump’s plan to build a new city in Gaza, are condemning the proposed plan.

 

The video that was released of the relocation of the population of Gaza and turning it into a tourist destination, in which Americans and Israelis were enjoying themselves on the Gaza beach, was released.

 

Israeli right-wing hardliners were happy that the Riviera plan would relocate more than two million Palestinians from Gaza to another location. Jewish extremists want to seize the land and build Jewish settlements here.

The new proposed plan states that Palestinians will not be forced to relocate. Israel’s finance minister, a hard-line nationalist, is comparing Trump’s deal to the Munich Agreement of 1938.

In this agreement, the United States and France forced Czechoslovakia to give up its land to Nazi Germany.

If Hamas accepts the deal and Netanyahu seeks to appease his coalition government and other extremists like Smotrich, he will have many excuses to fail the negotiations and blame Hamas for the failure.

The framework of Trump’s deal gives Israel multiple opportunities to veto any terms it does not like.

In such a situation, it is not possible to end this serious conflict that has lasted for more than a century. In addition to Israel and the United States, many countries, including Britain, believe that no solution without the liberation of Palestine can establish lasting peace in the long term.     

According to the joint statement issued by the Arab and Islamic countries after the agreement, they have agreed to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the two-state solution for the reconstruction of Gaza, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the establishment of peace under international law, in which Gaza will be part of the Palestinian state along with the West Bank.

This can be cited as legal reference to the decision of the International Court of Justice that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land is illegal.

Netanyahu believes that Trump’s agreement has given him an advantage over the militant organization Hamas. He does not recognize any Palestinian rights to the land between the Jordan River and the sea.

The plan is one but two different versions to understand. The framework for both interpretations is quite vague, which is not a promising start.