Israel fumes at Gaza oversight panel makeup as Trump invites Erdogan to peace board |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Saturday that the White House’s unveiling of a key international oversight panel for Gaza “was not coordinated with Israel and contradicts its policy,” in a rare break with US President Donald Trump’s administration that was met with a sharp rebuke from a senior US official.
Netanyahu appeared to be taking issue with the makeup of a new body called the executive board, which will include senior officials from Qatar and Turkey — two countries that have been highly critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.
While it will technically operate beneath the Board of Peace — which is headed by Trump and made up of world leaders — the executive board will be more directly involved in overseeing the postwar management of Gaza, playing a critical role as opposed to the more symbolic Board of Peace.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the premier had instructed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to raise Israeli opposition to the executive board’s makeup with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio. Sa’ar has largely been kept away from direct involvement in Israel-US relations, which have run through Netanyahu’s office and his top advisers.
After Netanyahu’s statement, an unnamed senior American official was quoted by the Axios outlet as lashing out at the Israeli leader.
“This is our show, not his show,” the official reportedly said. “We managed to do things in Gaza in recent months nobody thought was possible, and we are going to continue moving. If he wants us to deal with Gaza, it will have to be our way. We worked over him. Let him focus on Iran and let us deal with Gaza. We are not going to argue with him. He will do his politics and we will keep moving forward with our plan. He can’t really go against us.”
Added the official: “We are doing him a favor. If this fails he can say, ‘I told you so.’ We know that if it succeeds he will claim credit.”
The White House unveiled the makeup of the executive board on Friday, with Turkey to be represented by its Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Qatar to be represented by its senior diplomat........