Netanyahu under pressure from right-wing govt members, specialist says

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00:00He's a professor of US and international politics at the Clinton Institute, University

00:06College of Dublin.

00:08Thank you very much for joining us.

00:11So first, the two presidential camps, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, worked together to

00:17bring about the talks that led to the pose in the conflict.

00:21So what was specifically Trump's role in that deal?

00:26So a few days after Donald Trump's election victory last November, when Joe Biden had

00:31invited him to the White House, there was a conversation.

00:36And Biden, knowing that Trump deals in terms of transactional politics, what makes Donald

00:41Trump look good, said, look, wouldn't it look good for you if on inauguration day, which

00:47is tomorrow, you had a ceasefire deal between Israel and Gaza?

00:54And Trump was really taken by that idea because, of course, he can, you know, at the middle

00:57of the spectacle tomorrow, he can talk about this great deal in the Middle East.

01:01And so he had a Middle East envoy, a golfing buddy and a financier named Steve Whitkoff.

01:11And Steve Whitkoff worked with the Biden team in that final stage of negotiations in Doha,

01:16in Qatar.

01:17So it was Trump's envoy, the main American diplomat for the Middle East, Brett McGurk,

01:24and the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.

01:27And there was a specific one-on-one meeting between Whitkoff and the Israeli Prime Minister

01:31Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Whitkoff let Netanyahu know Trump wants a deal, Trump really

01:37wants a deal.

01:38There was even the implication that if Trump didn't get a deal, there might be some type

01:42of punishment of Netanyahu.

01:45And the Israelis did agree to the first stage, albeit only after severe dissent within the

01:50Israeli cabinet.

01:51So I think for that first stage of the deal, Trump and Biden did work together.

01:55The real issue is going to be, as we try to get a second phase of the ceasefire, which

01:59I think is going to be very, very difficult, what will Trump do?

02:03Will he be coherent enough or will he revert to this kind of incoherent social media politics

02:10that might cause more harm than help?

02:13That was going to be my next question.

02:15So once in office, what do we know about his plans?

02:17Is he going to prioritize a long-term solution for Gaza or will his focus remain on supporting

02:23Israel's security efforts?

02:27The chatter out of the Trump camp really turns on two different things.

02:33One is, is that they really want Israel to get back to the Abraham Accords, and that

02:40is the accords with Arab countries for normalization.

02:43We know that there was normalization during the first Trump term with Bahrain, with other

02:49Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia supporting this in the background.

02:53But we also know that the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia in particular, said, look, there's

02:56going to be no normalization with Israel unless we get back to a path for a two-stage Palestinian

03:00solution.

03:01And of course, you can't get that without a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

03:06But on the other hand, Donald Trump has told Benjamin Netanyahu.

03:09He told him in October, do what you have to do for your security.

03:14And Trump repeated that on social media just a few days ago.

03:18So you can't hold these two together.

03:20You cannot pursue an Israeli-Gaza ceasefire and normalization with the Arab states and

03:25give Netanyahu a blank check.

03:28And again, the problem here is that I think the biggest influence on Netanyahu will not

03:32be Donald Trump now.

03:33It will be those right-wing ministers that are threatening to bring down his government.

03:38And what does Donald Trump and his officials do about those ministers, rather than Netanyahu?

03:46Well, thank you very much, Lucas Scott, for this analysis of your professor of U.S. international

03:53politics at the Clinton Institute.

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