Derives us from the allies as he shruggles to the plane of Gaza of Israel

The declaration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu according to which Israel intends to take control of all Gaza bands signals an escalation which flies in the face of certain categorical international warnings.

But it is the one who, at least so far, the US government has welcomed with a revealing shoulder.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that it was “about Israel” to fully occupy him with Gaza. And when he was asked the next day if he gave Israel a “green light”, he rather talked about American strikes on Iran earlier this year.

Washington’s ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was even more direct – and his answer was that the Netanyahu Gaza plan is not the concern of America.

“It is not our job to tell them what they should or should not do,” he said. “Admittedly, if they ask for wisdom, advice, advice, I am sure that the president would offer it. But ultimately, this is the decision that the Israelis and only the Israelis can take.”

Netanyahu faced a certain opposition to his plan-notably from the Chief of Staff, the lieutenant-general Eyal Zamir who, according to the Israeli media, had argued against a large-scale occupation.

In the case, an announcement after a meeting of the Israel security firm did not say that Israel would take control of the entire territory of the Gaza strip, but rather that it “would prepare to take control of Gaza City”.

However, he mentioned that one of the five principles to end the war was “control of Israeli security in the Gaza Strip”.

Some have suggested that a full control of Gaza has always been on the table.

“Netanyahu had always planned to take control of Gaza, he was just waiting for the right time,” the BBC Amin Saikal, emeritus of emeritus of emeritis, in Central and Islamic Asia of the Australian University, told the BBC.

Netanyahu suggested that Israel does not want to keep the territory, but “put it back to the Arab forces” – without specifying which one.

Whatever the plan, however, the Trump administration gives Netanyahu no public indication that he is wrong.

This represents a marked change in the White House policy. Trump was previously more than willing to describe his point of view on the future of Gaza – even when he caught Netanyahu and the Israelis by surprise.

In February, just a few weeks after his second presidential term, he said that the United States could be deeply involved in the reconstruction of Gaza as a seaside resort and suggested that the Palestinians may have to be relocated outside the territory.

And while the United States has joined Israel to attack Iranian nuclear installations in the brief confrontation between the two June nations, Trump suffered publicly and forcefully Israel to respect the ceasefire that ended this conflict.

The Americans also expressed their misfortune to Israeli attacks against Syria last month – publicly disapproving, while offering even more clear criticisms in private.

“Bibi acted as a madman,” said a White House official on the Axios news website. “He bombes all the time.”

The White House was also invested in the end of the Gaza War, even putting pressure on Netanyahu for a cease-fire before Trump took up his duties in January.

Steve Witkoff, the real estate magnate with a large diplomatic portfolio at the Trump’s White House, was the point of these negotiations, seeking to negotiate a permanent cease-fire with the release of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas during its attack on October 7, 2023.

A month ago recently, the White House was optimistic about the reach of an agreement.

“We hope that at the end of this week, we will have an agreement that will take us to a 60-day ceasefire,” said Witkoff on July 8, adding that this could lead to “lasting peace in Gaza”.

But a little more than two weeks later, cease-fire talks had collapsed and Witkoff publicly accumulated Hamas to be selfish and not to act in good faith.

“Hamas didn’t really want to conclude an agreement,” Trump said on July 25. “I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad.”

Trump’s comments – and his decision to abandon talks with Hamas and remain ambivalent of what could represent a new massive Israeli military operation – could be a scheme designed to force the Palestinian group to make new concessions to the negotiating table.

If this is the case, it will become apparent soon enough.

“The Trump administration has a lot of lever,” said Professor Saikal of the Australian National University. “I think Netanyahu would not make this decision unless he has a kind of consent or tacit support from Washington.”

This American change in the course of public disappointment to obvious distancing could however be part of an effort by the president to return to his non -interventionist perspectives – a position which he temporarily abandoned during Iranian strikes, to the great consternation of certain parts of his political base.

“It is increasingly concerned that this is incompatible with a policy focused on America, that the United States increasingly deepened this horrible war is not something on which the president arose,” said Frank Lowenstein, special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the administration of Barack Obama, said the BBC.

“But for the moment, anyway, I think Trump will let Netanyahu do what he wants.”

If this is the case, Trump’s position contrasts strongly with the recent declarations of France, the United Kingdom and Canada on the recognition of a Palestinian State. These movements have been designed to exert additional pressure on Israel to complete its military operations and reach a negotiated regulation with Hamas.

This diplomatic recognition, as the United States has studied indifference to the prospect of a long Israeli military occupation-and perhaps indefinite, take the United States and its allies in clearly different directions.

But the two represent tacit recognition that the current situation is untenable and that a negotiated peace is further than ever.

With Trump, we don’t know how long this trend will last. But when Trump changes again, Israel could be of course on a path in Gaza which will be very difficult to reverse.

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