Israel’s Netanyahu to meet with Trump to discuss Gaza peace plan and Iran: Here’s what to expect

Sarah Eisen (Anchor) 00:00.040

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to meet with President Trump today at Maralago to discuss next steps for peace in Gaza as the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas shows some signs of strain. Israel condemning delays in Hamas' return of hostages while

Sarah Eisen (Anchor) 00:14.560

Gaza's health ministry says Israel has killed nearly 400 Palestinians since the cease-fire went into effect. Joining us now is Richard Hass, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and Senior Counselor at Center View Partners. It's great to have you, Richard. You

Sarah Eisen (Anchor) 00:28.560

know, the the other problem is Phase two of the plan is Hamas is supposed to dearm and not be in charge of Gaza. Not sure what the what the status of that is, but what are your expectations here?

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 00:39.600

Well, when it comes to Gaza in the Middle East more broadly Sarah, it's probably a good idea to keep your expectations extremely low. Hamas is not going to disarm and there would be no way to verify it if they did. They could hand over a thousand rifles tomorrow, but you would

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 00:54.120

know if they had 2,000 more stored someplace. They have no real political competition yet. in Gaza. So, at best this is a very uneasy, limited cesfire really more of a hostage return and prisoner exchange. And I just don't see at the moment the prerequisites for for moving

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 01:13.840

forward between Israel and Hamas.

Sarah Eisen (Anchor) 01:16.800

What So, what do you think comes of the meeting today? Anything?

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 01:21.360

Well, my guess is the Israelis are going to want more of the meeting not to be about Gaza. We'll continue to emphasize the need simply to get Hamas to disarm which again and is unlikely to happen. My guess is they're going to want to change the focus to Iran. Israel's worried

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 01:35.640

not so much about Iran's nuclear capability, which was set back dramatically over the last year, so much as their missile capability, ballistic missiles and the like. So, they're going to basically want something of a green light to attack there. Another question which I I I

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 01:50.760

don't know if it's going to be raised, but it should. It also deals with the Palestinians, sir. It's what happens in the West Bank. Uh, three out of five Palestinians don't live in Gaza. They live in the West Bank. And what you have there is a kind of creeping annexation by

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 02:05.800

Israel where settlements are being built and expanded and so forth. So if this administration has any hopes down the road for quote unquote peace in the Middle East, it has got to do something about slowing down or stopping this Israeli process of changing the the face of the

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 02:24.000

West Bank.

Sarah Eisen (Anchor) 02:25.400

I mean, the bigger picture here, Richard, is that Trump's trying to get other other Arab nations to join the Abraham Accords, which which have been transformational and have held up through October 7th and through the the war in Gaza. What is the status of that, particularly

Sarah Eisen (Anchor) 02:40.440

Saudi Arabia, which I think is one that the president has explicitly said and so has the Prime Minister Netanyahu would be incredible if they could achieve.

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 02:49.560

You're absolutely right. Saudi Arabia is the crown jewel, given its wealth, given its size, given its position, its unique position, not just in the Arab world, but the Islamic world. The problem The problem is after you might describe as October 8th after the Israeli response

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 03:04.960

to October 7th Saudi public opinion has dramatically changed and even someone as in as in control as the Crown Prince who was recently in Washington basically says I am not free to normalize relations with Israel until there's real meaningful visible progress towards the

Richard Haass (President Emeritus / Senior Counselor) 03:23.120

Palestinian state and there's not going to be that progress. So I think the Israeli Saudi relationship will remain limited a little bit under the table, perhaps some intelligence cooperation in the light, but there's not going to be anything public anytime soon.