Negotiations over a reported 21-point US plan were “at their final stages,” Trump told Axios on Sunday, suggesting the agreement could mark a turning point for the broader Middle East.
“Everybody has come together to get a deal, but we still have to get it done,” Trump said. “The Arab countries were fantastic to work with on this. Hamas is coming with them. They have great respect for the Arab world. The Arab world wants peace, Israel wants peace, and Bibi wants peace.”
However, Trump’s advisers said privately they are no longer confident Netanyahu will accept the plan and have begun preparing to cast him as responsible if it collapses.
“If Bibi doesn’t take the deal, he’ll be enabling Hamas and doing nothing for the Palestinians, who have so many humanitarian needs. People will continue to starve. Let’s hope we get there,” one senior adviser said ahead of the meeting.
“The Arabs have agreed to it 100 percent. Now we’re waiting for the president to work his magic on Netanyahu,” he told Axios on Monday.
Trump hopes to announce the plan after his meeting with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. The outcome may depend on how far Trump is willing to pressure the Israeli leader, who has appeared increasingly defiant.
In his UN speech on Friday, Netanyahu, speaking to a nearly empty UNGA hall after international delegations walked out on him in protest of his war crimes, vowed to “finish the job against Hamas" and reaffirmed his opposition to a Palestinian state, putting him at odds with key Western governments and Trump’s proposed framework.
“He has a clear preference for continuing the war,” said Natan Sachs, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “But I don’t think it’s impossible for Trump to convince him otherwise. It would need a lot of pressure from Trump and a very clear and sustained strategy.”
The recent Trump push for an end to the Gaza war comes amid growing regional and international condemnation of the Israeli genocide and stavation policies against 2.3 million Palestinians in the strip.
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians and wounded over 168,000, mostly women and children, since October 2023. It has also displaced over 90 percent of the population and destroyed most of the strip. In August, the UN officially declared famine in Gaza amid Israel's nearly eight-month blockade of Gaza.
Trump's push also comes amid a growing international recognition of Palestinian statehood, as more than 150 UN member states have recognized the State of Palestine.
President Trump has presented his peace push as the first step in a broader effort to reshape the region.
“If we get this done, it will be a great day for Israel and for the Middle East,” he said. “It will be the first chance for real peace in the Middle East. But we have to get it done first.," said the US President, who has set his eyes on winning the Nobel Peace Prize for ending multiple wars in the past several months.
“We have a real chance for GREATNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, FIRST TIME EVER. WE WILL GET IT DONE!!!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.
The reported 21-point plan reportedly includes the release of all Israeli captives and the disarmament of Hamas.
Under the plan, Gaza would be governed by a transitional international authority backed by the UN and Gulf states, with eventual control passing to a "reformed" Palestinian Authority.
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has been floated as a potential head of the transitional body.
The plan explicitly prohibits Israeli annexation of the West Bank or Gaza and includes a commitment by Israel not to attack Qatar.
In Tel Aviv, Netanyahu's hardliner allies have rejected the US-backed framework.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a key figure in Netanyahu’s coalition, has issued a list of “red lines” opposing the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the return of the Palestinian Authority.
Smotrich said he hoped to use the “historic opportunity of the Trump administration” to solidify Israeli control over the occupied West Bank, which he referred to by its biblical name “Judea and Samaria.”
Israeli officials and ministers, including Netanyahu, have been itching to formally annex the West Bank, in line with their Zionist vision of a Greater Israel that includes the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and parts of neighbouring Arab states.
Trump, however, has recently declared outright rejection of annexing the West Bank, despite ongoing threats from Israeli leaders to undermine any prospects for a two-state solution.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “No, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen.”
Trump team frustrated with Bibi
Frustration with Netanyahu has been mounting in Trump’s inner circle for months, as he has torpedoed multiple ceasefire deals in the past several months.
Aides say his perceived intransigence is undermining Trump’s credibility and delaying a potential diplomatic breakthrough.
“Everyone — and I mean everyone — is exasperated with Bibi,” one administration official familiar with the peace talks told Axios.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two of Trump’s closest confidants, met Netanyahu in New York for several hours on Sunday to try to close remaining gaps in the plan.
“Steve was handling Israel more and Jared was with the Arab states. But both are at their wits’ end with Israel,” the adviser told Axios. “They’ve just about had it with Netanyahu.”
The latest peace push was triggered in part by a failed Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, a key US ally, which Trump’s team believes helped unify Arab states around a shared diplomatic agenda.
“When Bibi sent those missiles into Qatar, he united the Gulf state Arabs,” the Trump adviser said. “They are all one. They speak with one voice … It was a rallying effect. And on this, for the first time, you really had a monolithic Arab world. And Witkoff and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio said: ‘Aha, this is the time.’ And that’s what’s happening.”
Trump has never publicly criticized Netanyahu over the war or the stalled ceasefire talks, but aides say that could change if Monday’s meeting ends in failure.
“He is obviously very worried about his trial,” one senior White House official told Axios, pointing to Netanyahu’s political calculations. “That’s probably why he’s being so aggressive.” The official described the Israeli leader’s posture as “invading and bombing every country on the map.”
Monday’s summit will be Netanyahu’s fourth visit to the White House since Trump returned to power in January.
According to Israeli media, Netanyahu has cancelled all meetings and arrangements, spending Sunday with advisers in his hotel ahead of the White House visit.
On Sunday, US Vice President JD Vance said he is “cautiously hopeful” about the prospects of a ceasefire in Gaza, describing ongoing negotiations as “very complicated” but potentially nearing a breakthrough.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Vance confirmed that talks involving Israeli and Arab officials had been underway for several days, with US mediation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Yes. So there’s a very complicated negotiation happening right now between Arab leaders, between the Israelis, and of course, between the Trump administration led by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” he said.
“So those conversations are happening as we speak. They’ve been ongoing over the course of the past couple of days. I’m going to let those negotiations play out, but I think the president’s optimism is warranted here. I feel more optimistic about where we are right now than where we have been at any point in the last few months.”
However, Vance urged caution: “Let’s be realistic; these things can get derailed at the last minute, so while I remain very hopeful, I am cautiously hopeful. I’m going to let the diplomats continue to work on this.”
“I think President Trump has been very clear: He actually wants Gaza and the West Bank to be controlled by the people who live there, and he wants the terrorist networks that are around the Israelis to be dismantled,” he said.
All eyes now turn to Washington, where a single meeting could tip the scales toward peace in Gaza.
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