that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has left the Mar-a-Lago mansion of his American counterpart, in Palm Beach (Florida); donald Trump is preparing to close the last fringes of the year as far as the other great pole of international politics and American interests is concerned. The situation in Gazawhere non-compliance accumulates for the . will do it with another president who also wants to talk about his plans in the region. Although They are not limited to the Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to the US for what will be his fifth meeting with Trump this year and in its last bars. The main course of the menu for this event is to advance in the second phase of said peace plan, at a time when the constant violations and actions from Israel raise fears that it could materialize. Neither is humanitarian aid arriving in the committed volume, nor has the Egyptian Rafah crossing been reopened in both directions. The same one from which he shoots at his discretion against anyone who crosses the so-called yellow line (‘yellow line‘).
It is inaction scenario does not please a Trump Administration hit by the latest leaks of declassified documents from the which also accumulates doubts about all those wars or conflicts that the American president boasts of having closed and that he aspires to end up receiving one day.
The US wants the peace board of its Gaza agreement “soon”
The US Government will seek to take steps in that second phase that involves the creation of a authority that administers the Strip with Palestinian technocrats and politicians, but with Hamas disarmed. His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was the one who made it clear last week that They hope he will be in office “soon”in order to later constitute the international security force. The same future organization that in the last month has also accumulated doubts about which countries will support it, given Israel’s position and Hamas’s refusal to hand over its weapons and power.
But Netanyahu is not only coming to address the future of the Palestinian enclave reduced to rubble. The Israeli agenda in the Middle East may coincide with Washington’s interests on several points, but Tel Aviv has its own script at a time when it has militarily surpassed and threatens to subdue its neighbors in the region. From Lebanon to Iran, passing through Syria. This is all that Netanyahu is going to put on Trump’s table tonight – in Spanish time, in Florida it will be half past three in the afternoon.
Iran: what to do with the remains of the ‘Midnight Hammer’
When he confirmed that there would be a meeting in Mar-a-Lago on December 22, Netanyahu said that the second phase of the plan in Gaza would be addressed, but that this would not be the only agreement they would talk about. It also includes Lebanon and Iran. The latter, the country with which tensions escalated until leading to missile launches and US intervention with the bombings of Iranian nuclear facilities in the .
Last week, the ayatollah regime announced new missile tests, the first since the end of the 12-day war that was sparked by tensions arising from the . Despite the operation against the heart of Iran’s nuclear program, Israel has returned to its usual warning rhetoric about Tehran’s capabilities, focusing on these ballistic missiles.
Right now, Washington has many open fronts, under maximum tension. Reigniting tension with Iran, when the US has tried a diplomatic approach for a nuclear pact that Tehran is reluctant to pursue, would be a step backwards.
Lebanon: constant shelling despite ceasefire
Israel also needs carte blanche to maintain its power in another scenario similar to that of Gaza with Hamas. Despite the fact that a ceasefire was signed, Israeli bombings on Lebanon, supposedly against members and infrastructure of the Shiite group Hezbollah, have been constant. The US also sponsored this peace agreement in November 2024.
The main Israeli interest is to complete one of the points of the agreement, the complete disarmament of Hezbollah, considered an armed group linked to the interests of Iran. However, this is a process that Hezbollah itself is resisting and in which the Lebanese authorities must participate. The deadline set for this disarmament is one year and Beirut assures that they will be able to comply. What Israel seeks is to be able to continue maintaining military pressure, ensuring that it prevents this militia from rebuilding.
Syria: ‘protect’ the Druze by conquering and not letting go of the Golan Heights
There is another pending issue in the region that perhaps has gone more unnoticed, given the internal conflicts that that country faces. This is post-Assad Syria. Despite the closer ties between Tel Aviv and Damascus – with US mediation – the Israeli Army maintains the historic occupation of the Golan Heights, a territory it seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967.
But to this it has added new episodes of incursions beyond the occupied Syrian territory and bombings against military bases of the Syrian Army with the pretext of protecting the Druze minority from the new Government in the hands of the Islamists. , violating the 1974 armistice agreement. He has done so by arguing that “we will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon,” in the words of Defense Minister Israel Katz himself.
However, Trump has also made his overtures to the new Syria and has facilitated international relations, a process that was portrayed in President Ahmed Al Sharaa’s visit to the White House. The reality is that the investment required to rebuild this country devastated by the civil war also translates into million-dollar economic opportunities.
