Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has presented a plan for a regional commission in Riyadh to end the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza, corral the region against Iran’s nuclear ambitions, further normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia and commence negotiations with a revamped Palestinian Authority toward a “future separation” from Israel.
Speaking at the Mitvim Institute’s Strategies of Hope conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Lapid said the current government “is extending the war needlessly, because of the prime minister’s political problems, and the fantasies of annexation and the return to Gaza from the messianic wing.”
“There is no victory without a diplomatic maneuver,” said Lapid.
He called the election of United States President-elect Donald Trump “an opportunity for Israel.”
“This is an administration that is not afraid of grand initiatives,” said Lapid, who has rarely criticized the current White House in the four years since Trump’s first term.
The opposition chief proceeded to outline a grand regional maneuver that would begin with the release of all the hostages from Gaza and a six-month halt to the fighting there and in Lebanon.
Then-US president Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, September 15, 2020. (AP Photo/ Alex Brandon, File)
During the truce, an Emirati-Egyptian-Moroccan-PA force would enter Gaza and take over the distribution of humanitarian aid and rebuilding.
Israel would state clearly that it has no intention of resettling Gaza or remaining in southern Lebanon, but would reserve the right to operate beyond its borders, Lapid said.
Within a month, said Lapid, Saudi Arabia would host a conference with Israel, the US, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Lebanon and the PA to work out the following five-part deal:
1) Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah will retreat 9-10 kilometers from the border with Israel, and the Lebanese Armed Forces, backed by the US and France, will move into southern Lebanon.
The new LAF force in southern Lebanon will be trained by the United Kingdom and France, and its soldiers will receive a monthly salary of $500 for conscripts and $1,000 for officers — up from $220 a month, the current average wage. By contrast, the average Hezbollah operative is paid some $1,300 a month, according to a February 2023 report by dissident Iranian news outlet Iran International.
Rescue workers and people search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit central Beirut, Lebanon, November 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Israel sent troops into Lebanon in late September to stem Hezbollah’s months-long, relentless rocket fire, which has prevented the return home of some 60,000 northern residents who were evacuated soon after Hamas’s shock assault in the south, out of fear of a similar Hezbollah attack in the north.
2) The civil governance of Gaza will be overseen by a body comprising Saudi, Egyptian, European and American officials, as well as officials from Arab countries that are party to the Abraham Accords between Israel, Morocco, the UAE and Bahrain. The body will be augmented by a “symbolic” civilian delegation from the PA, which will be barred from accessing funds or choosing other officials.
The US has expressed support for the PA to oversee Gaza after the war, provided the deeply unpopular body undergoes substantial reform.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly denied that Israel would resettle Gaza, members of his Likud party, and his coalition partners Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have expressed support for the idea. The two far-right ministers have characterized the PA as essentially indistinguishable from Hamas.
Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, has supported a role for the PA in Gaza the day after the war there, and accused Netanyahu of failing to present a plan for Gaza’s post-war governance. Gallant warned this week that Israel was heading toward military rule of the Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attend a vote at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
3) A regional coalition will act through military or diplomatic means to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and from achieving regional hegemony through its armed proxy network.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other countries Lapid mentioned had in April reportedly participated in such a coalition, led by US President Joe Biden, to help Israel fend off Iran’s first-ever direct attack. In October, when Israel was planning its response to Iran’s second-ever attack, Gulf Arab countries were said to fear an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil facilities could trigger an Iranian attack on their own.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has in recent weeks cooperated with Iran on military exercises.
The remains of a missile fired from Iran into, seen in the forests of Safed, October 6, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
4) Israel will deepen its ties with Saudi Arabia and the Abraham Accords countries by means of joint professional committees devoted to specific topics, based on the Negev Forum Regional Cooperation Framework.
Saudi Arabia appeared poised to normalize relations with Israel before the war in Gaza, with two Israeli ministers making unprecedented visits to the desert kingdom in the weeks before the war was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Riyadh has since conditioned normalization on an end to the war and a path to a Palestinian state, which could topple Netanyahu’s government. Washington, which had long pursued Israeli-Saudi rapprochement, has reportedly pursued its own security arrangements with Riyadh, separate from a normalization deal.
A handout picture provided by the Palestinian Authority’s press office (PPO) shows PA President Mahmoud Abbas (L) meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Riyadh on August 27, 2024. (Thaer Ghanaim/PPO/AFP)
5) A declaration will be made that the participants will work for a “future separation” between Israel and the Palestinians, pending reforms in the PA.
Israel has also accused the Ramallah-based PA of encouraging terrorism in its education system and through the payment of stipends to Palestinian terrorists and their families.
In Lapid’s vision, the PA will commit to fighting terrorism and incitement, and Israel will commit to refrain from annexing the West Bank, on which the PA plans a future Palestinian state.
“The only reason this doesn’t happen is that the current government is unwilling to accept that the PA will be part of any agreement, even in the most minimalistic and non-committal fashion,” said Lapid. “Why? because Smotrich and Ben Gvir are opposed.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (R) with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (L) at a ‘Victory Conference’ calling for renewed Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, January 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Smotrich has urged sanctioning the PA over its perceived role in international legal proceedings against Israel. Treasury chiefs worldwide, and Israeli security forces, have warned of a grave security threat to Israel as a result of the potential economic chaos in the West Bank, where Israel cooperates with the PA on security arrangements.
“Even today, the ‘full-on right wing’ government works full-on with the PA,” said Lapid.
The opposition leader’s address came a day before he underwent surgery to remove a benign tumor from his shoulder. He is expected to return to full activity by Sunday.
