Für Trumps Gaza -Friedensplan zur Arbeit muss Netanyahu gehen müssen

We woke up on 7 October two years ago to the horrors of [Hamas’s attack on Israel](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/fighting-continues-hamas-attack-israel-warns-long-difficult-war-2671529?srsltid=AfmBOopx3JLfU8KA8k9Z2i4L3WXt0HjHRhADAkKA_41lEPstifNUiGWL&ico=in-line_link). In the days the followed, fear crept in that [Israel’s](https://inews.co.uk/topic/israel?ico=in-line_link) response would be swift, deliberately disproportionate, and laced with tragic consequences – motivated foremost by revenge and not with eliminating [Hamas](https://inews.co.uk/topic/hamas?ico=in-line_link) or getting the hostages back.

Still, it defies common sense and morality – and is testament to a collective international failure – that it has taken until now, after more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and many more maimed and [left hungry](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/human-gazans-resort-eating-bird-food-survive-3932253?ico=in-line_link), that serious negotiations are taking place to end [the war](https://inews.co.uk/topic/israel-hamas-war?ico=in-line_link).

If successful, the [negotiations taking place in Egypt](https://inews.co.uk/news/five-missing-pieces-trump-gaza-peace-plan-experts-3960218?ico=in-line_link) will lead to the end of the bloodshed, the hostages’ release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and will allow humanitarian aid to enter [Gaza](https://inews.co.uk/topic/gaza?ico=in-line_link) in adequate quantities. It might also build a better future for both sides through a genuine peace process.

However, for that to happen much will depend on political leaders. And that’s a worrying sign.

What Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu](https://inews.co.uk/topic/benjamin-netanyahu?ico=in-line_link) and his extreme right-wing government have inflicted on those in Gaza has been beamed straight to our screens, but they have also brought calamity to their own country that will take years to recover from. Israel is internally polarised and internationally isolated.

Even before the war, it was Netanyahu in his unabated cynicism and opportunism who legitimised prominent ultra-nationalists, as part of an attempt to [escape his own corruption trials](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/netanyahu-trial-things-know-before-forming-opinion-3423941?ico=in-line_link). For his own sake, he was prepared to polarise Israeli society more than ever by compromising on its democratic foundations.