Why White House envoys cannot sway Israel’s war leader

Any deal in any of Israel’s conflicts would be politically damaging for its prime minister.Published On 19 Aug 202619 Aug 2026On Monday, US Middle East envoy Jared Kushner visited Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The focus of the discussion was reportedly US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which the Israeli leader rejected last week after Hamas accepted it.Despite claiming to have had a “good meeting”, Kushner did not seem to have achieved much progress. In an interview with Fox News, he seemed to downplay the Israeli rejection.Unfortunately, such initiatives from the White House to try to jump start the stalled peace plan for Gaza amid growing criticism that the Board of Peace is failing are unlikely to work. Netanyahu will not step back from his insistence that Hamas has to disarm first before Israel fulfils any of its commitments. He holds the same position on Lebanon – a position that is seen as largely obstructive by those involved in the negotiations.The ultimate goal of the Israeli prime minister is to delay future negotiations and especially the closing of any deal. This is because he does not gain anything politically from a conc...