Recent developments should sound a warning bell within the national camp. If indeed Trump’s points-based plan is advancing apace, the time remaining to shape a different reality is rapidly shrinking.
Trump speaks at the Board of Peace. Source: Wikipedia Commons
President Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza is not remaining on paper. As time passes, it is becoming clear that it is advancing step by step.
So far, eight of the plan’s points have already been advanced. Each step may appear technical or isolated, but together they form a single trajectory leading to a clear political end goal.
We are now being informed of another development: Hamas has announced its willingness to dismantle its governing authority in the Gaza Strip and transfer civilian administration to a Palestinian technocratic professional committee. This step corresponds to Section 9 of the plan, which stipulates that during the transitional period Gaza will be governed by a Palestinian professional committee rather than by Hamas.
However, Section 9 is not the destination but only a station along the way. Later in the plan appears Section 19, which states that after reconstruction and Palestinian reforms mature, conditions will be in place for a path leading to self-determination and a Palestinian state.
Anyone examining the plan as a whole understands that the steps being implemented today are not disconnected from one another, but rather constitute milestones in a broader political process.
Here lies the contradiction that the Israeli government will need to explain to the public: on the one hand, it is advancing a construction boom in Judea and Samaria at a scale not seen in many years, and on the other hand, it is, step by step, allowing the advancement of Trump’s 20-point plan, which explicitly includes at its conclusion a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The question that must be asked is whether the construction boom is intended to change the political reality, or whether it risks becoming a smokescreen that obscures progress along a dangerous political track. Construction, important as it may be, cannot replace a sovereign political decision to apply sovereignty.
Precisely for this reason, recent developments should sound a warning bell within the national camp. If indeed Trump’s points-based plan is advancing at pace, the time remaining to shape a different reality is rapidly shrinking.
We are on the eve of an election campaign. This is a moment of truth for elected representatives of the right. If they seek to prevent the advancement of the political path toward a Palestinian state, they must act now to anchor the status of Judea and Samaria through the application of sovereignty, because settlement construction alone will not prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
We have already heard promises for years. Now decisions are required.
Eight points have already been advanced. Section 9 is in the process of implementation. The path to Section 19 is steadily shortening. This is the last window of opportunity in this term of the national camp’s elected representatives to prove that their commitment to the Land of Israel is stronger than political pressures.
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