ALBAWABA — Before the UN Security Council votes on the U.S. plan for Gaza, Israel is stepping up its protests. This shows that the rift between Israel and the U.S. is getting bigger. In Israel, people in charge now believe that neither China nor Russia will stop the American draft. This means the plan is likely to go through even though it doesn't answer Israel's main concerns.
Tel Aviv has been getting more and more angry about the changes that have been made to the U.S. resolution over the last few days. The resolution will be passed on Monday. The Israeli government called the Russian plan "bad," and it has also made it clear that it doesn't agree with all of the American ideas.
Ahead of the election, some of Israel's most important leaders said some harsh things that became known as "Israel's red lines." These words made it clear how different the US and Israel are.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, said again that Israel will not let a Palestinian state be set up on any land. He said that this strategy "has not changed." He also said that Israel would make sure that all of Hamas's controlled areas inside of Gaza's "yellow line" were dearmed.
Israel Katz, the defense minister, said the same thing again, adding that Israel is still very against making a Palestinian state. He also said that the Israeli forces would personally make sure that Hamas stopped having weapons inside the yellow line. To disarm "old Gaza," on the other hand, either the Israeli military or an international stabilization team would have to do it.
Israel is getting more and more angry at Washington.
News sources in Israel say that Tel Aviv is upset with the Trump administration for many reasons.
One big disagreement is what the suggested international stabilization force should be able to do. In Chapter VI of the UN Charter, which doesn't allow the use of force, the US put the force in place. Netanyahu wanted Chapter VII status, which would have let the force take down Hamas's military infrastructure by force. Israel feels like this choice is going away quickly.
Another thing that makes people angry is that Washington wants to speed up the move to the agreement's second step. There are reports that the Trump administration is thinking about moving right on to rebuilding Gaza, possibly putting off problems like Hamas's disarmament and the fate of the group's fighters in Rafah. Israeli officials are highly against this change, especially since only three bodies of the 28 detainees Israel wanted to see returned before moving on to the next step are still in Gaza.
The most worrying thing for Israeli leaders is that the U.S. draft resolution that is currently being voted on includes a clear, explicit plan for creating a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu and his far-right government do not want to happen.
A last-minute effort to change the outcome
With only hours to go until the Security Council vote, Israel is using all of its political and military power to try to change the final text or get last-minute promises from President Trump.
Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi added to the warnings by saying that the army is getting ready for the chance of quickly switching to a large-scale offensive to take over more land in Gaza beyond the yellow line, which currently marks Israel's control zone.
Halevi made it clear that the military is ready to act "if necessary." He also promised that Israel would keep destroying Hamas's military weapons "whether by agreement or by force."
