Israeli Minister Calls for Occupying Gaza as Witkoff Describes Talks on Trump Plan as ‘Constructive’
NEWS
Israeli Settlement Affairs Minister Orit Strock has sharply criticized US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace,” describing it as a “bad plan” and calling instead for Israel to reoccupy the Gaza Strip.
Speaking on Sunday to the far-right settler radio station Galey Israel, Strock said Israeli soldiers should not be put at risk for what she described as a flawed initiative, warning that she could quit the government if the plan advances.
“We are not supposed to endanger our soldiers for this bad plan, and I may have to leave the government,” Strock said.
Her comments came days after Trump signed the founding charter of the “Board of Peace” on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, formally launching an initiative he has promoted as part of a broader Gaza plan.
Calls for Israeli Control over Gaza
Strock openly advocated for Israeli control of Gaza following the disarmament of Hamas, rejecting any alternative governance arrangement.
“Let’s assume the Israeli army really enters and occupies Gaza—who would we hand it over to?” she said. “To the Palestinian Authority? We did that in 2005 and saw the result.”
Israel withdrew its troops and dismantled settlements in Gaza in 2005 under the unilateral disengagement plan led by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Strock argued that Israel should remain the sole authority in Gaza after defeating Hamas, dismissing proposals for a technocratic Palestinian administration.
She said she could not imagine any minister in Israel’s Security Cabinet voting to send troops into Gaza only to later transfer authority to Ali Shaath, head of a Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with administering post-war Gaza.
“Until I see the prime minister rein in this direction, I may eventually have to say: enough,” she said, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ceasefire Phase Two and Hamas Position
The second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which began on October 10, includes provisions for the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions, an additional Israeli military withdrawal, and the start of reconstruction.
Hamas has rejected demands to surrender its weapons, proposing instead that they be “stored” or “frozen,” while stressing that it is a resistance movement operating under conditions of occupation, as recognized by the United Nations.
US Envoy: Talks with Netanyahu ‘Constructive’
Meanwhile, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said discussions with Netanyahu regarding the second phase of Trump’s Gaza plan were “constructive.”
In a post on X, Witkoff said US and Israeli officials held meetings on Saturday and agreed on the importance of continued coordination and on “next steps,” without providing details. The meeting was also attended by Jared Kushner, senior adviser Ariyeh Lightstone, and White House adviser Josh Gruenbaum, according to Israeli media.
Axios reported that the talks focused on reopening the Rafah border crossing and Gaza’s reconstruction, while Yedioth Ahronoth said Israel has conditioned the reopening of Rafah on the recovery of the body of the last Israeli captive held in Gaza.
Israeli Army Radio later reported that an agreement had been reached on Rafah during the meeting, though no official details were disclosed. Palestinian officials have said the crossing could reopen next week.
Security Control at Rafah
According to Haaretz, Israel has asked Washington to consider deploying US private security companies at the Rafah crossing, potentially replacing Palestinian personnel. Diplomatic sources told the newspaper the idea had been raised previously and abandoned, but has now resurfaced.
Israel seized control of the Rafah crossing in May 2024 during its ground assault on the city, destroying large parts of the terminal and keeping it closed since.
Ongoing War in Gaza
The debate over Gaza’s future comes amid Israel’s ongoing war on the enclave. Since October 2023, the Israeli genocide has killed more than 71,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 171,300, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Despite the ceasefire framework, Israeli attacks have continued, with the Gaza Health Ministry reporting 484 Palestinians killed and 1,321 wounded since the truce took effect.
Although the “Board of Peace” charter describes the initiative as an international body to promote stability and governance, critics note that it grants Trump sweeping lifelong powers and makes no explicit reference to Gaza or Palestinian self-determination, raising concerns that it seeks to bypass existing UN mechanisms.
(PC, AA, AJA, US Media, Israeli Media)
The Republican Party itself has long maintained an essentially unconditionally pro-Israel foreign policy, and first-term Trump even appointed his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to head his administration’s Israel-Palestine Abraham Accords portfolio (which created a conflict of interest for Jared). But the neoliberal Democrats/DNC, including Hillary Clinton, were/are not much, if at all, morally superior to Trump’s and the Republican Party’s unconditional political and military-arms support of Israel.
Netanyahu's Israel definitely has powerful connections.
The Biden/Harris administration had essentially been saying to the Israeli government and/or Israel Defense Forces: ‘Here are our best bombs for your unconditional use, as per usual; but, for the political and news-media record, I ask that you please do not use them against non-combatant civilians.’ … Israel’s reply undoubtedly was a figurative ‘Duly noted’ while continuing its brutal mass-slaughter business-as-usual, largely against Palestinian children.
In 2024, while campaigning to become the next president, then-VP Kamala Harris’s publicized view on such reckless American arming of Israel and its anti-Palestine onslaught was simply that, “Israel has the right to defend itself”. Meantime, in her/their phoniness (at least on this issue) the Democrats/DNC want(ed) to both have and eat their cake by recklessly arming/funding Israel’s blatant war crimes against Gazans while also expecting the political support of pro-Palestinian and anti-war Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Americans.
With similarly great hatred and rage as that felt and expressed by Israelis following the brutal October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, that simplistic mentality and war-monger justification [“Israel has the right to defend itself”] was effectively utilized by the Cheney-Bush U.S. administration immediately after 9/11 — especially for the plainly unjustifiable American/British foreign invasion of oil-laden Iraq. (I refer to it as the Cheney-Bush administration, since it was mostly run by Cheney, with George W. essentially symbolically president.)
It's difficult to believe the 10/7 attack was truly unexpected by Israeli intelligence, albeit it may have been deadlier than the hypothetical Israeli insiders had anticipated. Regardless of the increasingly self-compromised mostly-corporatized Western mainstream news-media (unlike genuinely independent news outlets) basically deeming it non-newsworthy, it's no real secret that Israeli officials had been warned in advance by at least one credible source.
Those Israeli lives lost may be considered by the increasingly immorally opportunistic prime minister, and ilk, as a good investment or return — i.e. the future mass cleansing of Palestinians from their land, followed by its annexation along with its coveted natural resources. The 10/7 assault conveniently enabled the Netanyahu government/IDF to justify or excuse extreme emergency war measures, then force through his/their ‘democratic reforms’ and do who-knows-what-more to Palestine.
Still more twists and turns. Story is not over yet.