Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) embraces President Trump’s 20-point plan – a comprehensive initiative reflecting a vision for a better future for Israel and the entire region. Everything must be done to turn it into a binding plan and agreement. First and foremost, it is the key to releasing 48 hostages, 20 alive and the others deceased. This is a supreme value of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement, the Jewish people, and the IDF. Above all, doing so is a crucial universal human imperative.
This initiative is a historic game changer: for the first time since the outbreak of the war, it lays out a plan for the “day after,” supported by virtually all countries in the region and the Palestinian Authority, and imposes it on both Hamas and the Israeli government, which has avoided addressing the issue during two years of war. It reflects the principle that after military success, political solutions are mandatory.
The political solution proposed by Trump’s peace initiative will “save” Israel from the folly of sinking further into the Gaza quagmire, from a war that is shattering Israel socially, morally, and economically, and increasingly degrades its status and relations with world Jewry and the international community.
The plan, along with the President’s declaration that he will not allow Israel to annex territories, dispels messianic delusions of occupying Gaza and Judea and Samaria. It boldly confronts the reality of millions of Palestinians that Israel ignored until they became an existential threat. The plan addresses this reality with a practical and constructive approach: Palestinians will control the Gaza Strip, ultimately by a reformed Palestinian Authority, with assistance from Arab countries and under an American and Western umbrella.
The initiative offers a regional political and security alternative to Israel’s “forever-war” policy. This path will help defuse and even eliminate conflict in the various theaters, provide an effective response to the Iranian threat and will neuter Hamas of its political agency and military capabilities. It will revolutionize Israel’s position in the Middle East and restore its status and relations within the international community. And alongside all these, implementation will drive an economic revolution through regional cooperation. This, while maintaining Israel’s military power and security as demonstrated against Iran and Hezbollah. This is the key to the future.
True, this is not a complete plan but rather a framework, and the path to an agreement and its subsequent implementation is complex and full of obstacles. However, part of its strength and traction lies precisely in its being “open,” a specification of principles (and not details) and in being wisely built in stages. Notably, the plan does not deviate in the main from previous proposals, and reflects CIS positions made public since the beginning of the war: return the hostages as the supreme priority, end the war, engage regional and international players in restoring Palestinian (yet non-Hamas) governance in Gaza, and promote a regional coalition, while addressing the issue of Palestinian self-determination constructively, as an Israeli interest.
In sum, Israel should embrace the initiative with both hands and do everything in its power to advance and realize it. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s acceptance of the plan is an important and excellent first step. We should all thank President Trump, not only for the initiative but also for his personal involvement and hands-on management of the process. Going forward, the President’s continued vigilant leadership will be a critical condition for the plan’s success – to release the hostages, stop the war, ameliorate the humanitarian situation in Gaza, stabilize the region, and bring about the desired transformation of Israel’s national security and its standing in the region and the world.
