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There's been big news today out of the Middle East where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
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has rejected the plan for Gaza put forward by President Trump's Board of Peace
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He says the Israeli military will not make any kind of military withdrawal from Gaza
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unless and until Hamas is fully disarmed, which appears to put the moccas on President Trump's
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recent claim that he had secured an agreement that would lead to peace in our time
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The Israeli leader also said that for as long as he is Prime Minister, there will be no Palestinian state in either Gaza or the West Bank
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Of course, how long he remains Prime Minister is a bit of an open question at the moment
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because Israel is going to the polls on October 27th. Let's talk now to Oliver McTernan, director and co-founder of Forward Thinking
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an organisation based in the UK that focuses on resolving conflicts in the Middle East
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He is also a former hostage negotiator. Mr. McTernan, thank you very much indeed for joining LBC this afternoon
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I mean, this is the end of what only, I think, a week ago, maybe 10 days ago
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President Trump was suggesting was an agreement that was going to put the Gaza conflict behind us
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see an Israeli military troop withdrawal peace in our time and the possible beginnings of the redevelopment of Gaza I mean that always seemed questionable but this definitely puts the kibosh on it doesn it
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Well, I think Netanyahu's response was totally predictable, and for the very reason that you have
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already expressed, that it is a question now whether he will be Prime Minister or not after
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October. I think had he agreed to the process where it stands now, the Board of Peace's
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proposal, there's no doubt I think he would have put his future totally at risk. But that said
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I think also he had no intention ever agreeing with the Board of Peace plan. I was in Israel
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about six months ago. I've been there since, but about six months ago it was explained to me
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by a very senior Likud person, a very real influencer within the Likud party
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He said the thinking is basically mess with us, there are consequences
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And the consequences, we take your land. So there is no way that the 70% of Gaza now occupied by the IDF will be given up
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That will be the interim border. And I stress interim because the intention basically is to eventually get involuntary migration that the two million people still in Gaza will move into the Sinai That is the I think goal that has been very clear since October 723
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Well, and also, of course, the Board of Peace itself in its original presentation of that
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whole Trump-Gaza plan imagined the forced movement of a substantial number of people
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I mean, President Trump at one point said, well, they'll just have to go while we're rebuilding the place and then maybe some of them can come back
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I mean, it's also worth just making the point that this Board of Peace plan had already been scaled down
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So where do you think this leaves the Board of Peace? Well, that's a very good question, because as I understand, it was at a total impasse
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I was talking with some of the appointed commissioners in Cairo, the Palestinian commissioners who were supposed to go in and run it
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They made very clear, A, the issue of disarmament wasn't clarified then, but there was no money
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The money pledged in Davos hadn't been delivered and there was no security arrangements for them if they moved into Gaza
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So I think we were at a total impasse and I think we are still there
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So basically the problem I think is that this has been presented as if Gaza is purely a technical problem Present resources and know and we solved the problem
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It's not. It's a political problem. It's essentially an issue of grievance, of resistance and driven by grievance
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And I think it has to be addressed politically, not by people who are successful on the economic level
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maybe in real estate or whatever. That will not work. I noticed too this afternoon, Amasa have already issued a statement saying that they are still committed to the border peace plan and that they hope that the mediators and the US will put pressure on Netanyahu to abide by the terms of that
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I think it was a very, very clever move on their part. Well, yeah, I mean, and that's presumably taking advantage politically of what Benjamin Netanyahu said today
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because there's no possible downside anymore in them saying anything differently. Mr. McTernan, thank you so much for joining us on the programme
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Oliver McTernan, director and co-founder of Forward Thinking. I mean, he was saying that it's essentially a political problem
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It is also, of course, a human problem. I mean, first of all, in terms of were you to move ahead with that Board of Peace plan
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what happens to the people living in Gaza? And secondly, over the short term, what's going to happen about humanitarian assistance
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that needs to get into the territory? I'm sure we're going to be talking about this a lot more in the days ahead
