This comes amid talk of efforts to change the American official in charge of managing communications with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying that Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the US President, and Nikolai Mladenov, the High Commissioner of the “Peace Council” for Gaza, are seeking to reduce the role of Aryeh Lightstone, who has been assigned by the White House so far to follow up on the plan’s implementation and communicate with Israel.
The sources said that Kushner and Mladenov believe that Lightstone is "not firm enough" in managing negotiations with the Israeli side, and that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in turn, expressed reservations about the level of his knowledge of the details of the file.
According to the newspaper, the name of Josh Halpern, President Trump's personal lawyer and legal advisor to the Peace Council, is being circulated to assume a more central role in the talks with Netanyahu. However, a source in the council denied that there was an intention to remove Lightstone, describing talk about reducing his role or replacing him as “a complete fabrication.”
"Haaretz" said that the discrepancy is not limited to the negotiating team, but rather includes Israeli security institutions, including parties in the National Security Council, the Ministry of Defense, and the Army's Southern Command, whose officials, sources said, express a public refusal to cooperate with the "Peace Council."
The newspaper quoted an informed source as saying that Israeli officials accused the American side of dealing with Israel as a “granted matter,” considering that implementing the road map agreed upon with Hamas may leave the impression among Israeli public opinion that the government is “selling out Israel.”
The newspaper pointed out that the differences are reflected in executive files in Gaza, including the operation of an advanced radiological examination device provided by Germany and placed at the Erez crossing or the Beit Hanoun crossing, with the aim of accelerating the inspection of shipments and expanding the entry of aid into the northern Gaza Strip, taking into account Israeli security requirements.
But the operation of the crossing for goods is still suspended, after Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz announced that there are no instructions to open it, despite previous arrangements related to placing the device, according to what the newspaper reported. Sources say that this has increased the state of ambiguity regarding the implementation schedule for the plan to introduce aid through additional paths.
Haaretz added that, according to its sources, Israel is obstructing the entry of a proposed international stabilization force into Gaza, and is also preventing thousands of members who were selected to join a new Palestinian police force from leaving the Gaza Strip to receive training in Egypt.
The main dispute revolves around arranging the steps to disarm Hamas and withdraw the Israeli army from Gaza. The Netanyahu government insists that complete disarmament must precede withdrawal, while the vision proposed by the “Peace Council” is based on mutual and gradual implementation: achieving disarmament steps in a specific area, followed by an Israeli withdrawal from it and the deployment of an international stabilization force, and then the process is repeated in other areas.
According to a source in the Peace Council, any final agreement is supposed to include handing over all weapons to Hamas and ending its role in managing Gaza, with technical details, including timetables, remaining under discussion between the parties.
The newspaper said that the Israeli intelligence services presented, during a meeting in which Netanyahu, Kushner, Mladenov and Blair participated, concerns related to the possibility of Hamas not committing to disarmament, in addition to information that it said was related to Turkish financing. On the other hand, a source in the Peace Council said that these fears are not new, and that the plan was essentially built on a mutual verification and implementation mechanism.
These differences emerge, according to Haaretz, at a time when the Israeli government is facing internal political pressure with the approaching elections, while the mechanisms for introducing aid, the deployment of the international force, the training of the Palestinian police, and the practical sequence of withdrawal and disarmament remain without a final solution.
