Since Donald Trump’s triumphalist speech before the Israeli parliament on October 13, American officials have been arriving in Jerusalem at a pace never seen before. Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy for the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, his predecessor in this role (and Trump’s son-in-law), were followed by US Vice President JD Vance and then by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Such high-level involvement stems from the evolution of the US-Israeli alliance into a form of co-belligerence in the war to annihilate Gaza.

But this feverishness on the part of the United States also stems from the profound fragility of the “Trump plan” for Gaza, which remains at the mercy of a resumption of fighting, as demonstrated by the bloodbath on the night of Tuesday, October 28, when more than a hundred Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombings.

Shadow of Hamas

The deadlock the US created by refusing to involve the Palestinians in its plan has become increasingly obvious. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now that he has recovered the Israeli hostages, is taking a hard line, the only one capable of ensuring the stability of his coalition government.

Even Kushner had to publicly warn Israeli leaders: “Now that the war is over, if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better.”

Though Trump’s son-in-law maintains a transactional approach, he had pointed out an obvious fact: Without tangible improvements in the lives of Palestinians, momentum toward normalizing relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords will stall. This was illustrated by the notable absence at the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit on October 13 of both Mohammed bin Zayed, president of the United Arab Emirates (represented by his brother), and Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi leader (represented by his foreign minister).

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