Good morning. At the White House yesterday, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu marked their shared “peace plan” for Gaza by giving two entirely different press conferences at the same time.
To Trump, it was the ushering in of “eternal peace”: the end of the war and the start of a new harmony unknown for, “if you’re a scholar, you would say thousands of years.” To Netanyahu, it was an outcome which achieves Israel’s war aims, did not bring a Palestinian state closer, and left open the right to “finish the job”. To Hamas, meanwhile, it was a set of proposals that they still had not seen when the event came to an end.
Those differences of interpretation underline why these proposals have been met with such a mixed reception: because, for all the warm words in the state dining room, the participants’ descriptions of the basic tenets appear so far apart as to be very hard to reconcile. Today’s newsletter, with the Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison, explains a peace plan that many observers say looks more like an ultimatum. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
Labour conference | Keir Starmer will attempt to brush aside critics of his economic strategy by insisting it can be the “antidote to division” being sown by the populist right. His conference speech comes as Ipsos found that he was the least popular prime minister in the history of their polling.
Labour conference | Rachel Reeves has said that Labour figures “peddling the idea” the government could abandon fiscal responsibility were “dangerously wrong”. In media interviews before her speech, Reeves confirmed that she no longer stood by a pledge made last year not to raise taxes.
Covid inquiry | The pandemic disrupted the “very fabric of childhood”, the UK coronavirus inquiry has heard, on the first day of a four-week session devoted to its impact on children and young people.
Defence | Britain may already be at war with Russia, according to a former head of MI5. Eliza Manningham-Buller pointed to the extent of cyber-attacks and other hostile activity orchestrated by Moscow, saying that the situation had changed “since the invasion of Ukraine”.
UK news | Andrew Tate will face no criminal charges over allegations made by four women who are suing him in a civil case at the high court in London. The women accuse the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer of sexual violence.
In depth: ‘Netanyahu wants Hamas to be presented as the people who wrecked a compromise’
Donald Trump’s off-teleprompter remarks at press conferences could easily be repackaged as one of those sleepytime podcasts for insomniacs: mesmerising, repetitive, and quickly slipping into surrealism. Even so, Benjamin Netanyahu had to listen to every word of this one.
All the evidence suggests he has no desire to bring Israel’s assault on Gaza to an end – but that Trump’s loss of patience has forced his hand, and left him scrambling to claim co-authorship of the proposals, heavily trailed over the last week or so, by giving Trump credit for the things he wished he’d said. As one Haaretz headline put it: “Netanyahu Returns to White House to Take Credit for the Trump Gaza Plan He’d Rather Avoid.”
“His discomfort was palpable,” Emma Graham-Harrison said. “He tried to present it as not being a path to a Palestinian state. He said it would keep the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza, and leave Israeli forces in as much of Gaza as possible for as long as possible.”
Those assertions already appear to contradict the reported details of the proposals – and that’s even before Hamas have responded. “Netanyahu has a long history of expressing some sort of support for proposals and then dragging the process out until it disintegrates,” Emma said. “He would very much like to create a scenario in which Israel is seen as accepting a compromise peace deal, and Hamas are presented as the people who wrecked it.”
Crucially, she added, it’s not just Hamas that have been left out of the discussion: “They certainly don’t represent all Palestinians. But it seems to be a deal that’s been negotiated without any substantial Palestinian input.”
Trump, for his part, said that “if Hamas rejects the deal … Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do.” That leaves a question: has Trump railroaded Netanyahu into a peace negotiation that he never would have otherwise entertained? Or has Netanyahu extracted a green light for the eventual continuation of the war by rewriting the proposals on live TV?
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What’s in the plan?
There have been a number of proposals for Gaza’s future pushed in recent weeks, from a development plan produce by Tony Blair’s office to a set of proposals brokered by France that includes a UN-mandated force to provide security in Gaza, among others.
Trump’s plan was presented to influential Arab states last week, with US envoy Steve Witkoff claiming its broad regional support. In this excellent piece, Patrick Wintour reports similarities between Trump’s and Blair’s plans which points to the former prime minister’s influence in the White House: Blair would be on a “board of peace” overseeing the implementation of the US plan, Trump said yesterday.
Details of Trump’s 21-point proposal have been leaked in recent days, and form a broad outline of a way forward with crucial details left outstanding. Robert Tait has a useful summary here. Key details include:
• No role for Hamas in the future and an amnesty for members
• A phased withdrawal of Israeli forces
• The return of all living and dead hostages
• A new influx of aid and the reconstruction of critical infrastructure
• A promise of no annexation of Gaza or forced exile for Palestinians there
All of this would be accompanied by an economic development plan, overseen by a transitional authority and ultimately a reformed Palestinian Authority. There is vague language about a path to Palestinian statehood, but nothing definitive; the text also includes a reference to a “deradicalisation” process with little detail of what that would mean in practice.
“It does look, on its face, like several key elements would represent a loss for Netanyahu and his coalition – principally abandoning plans for ethnic cleansing through ‘voluntary’ migration and new settlements,” Emma said. “But it is equally a significant problem for Palestinians that there is only the vaguest mention of a potential Palestinian state at some undefined future point, and the PA is excluded until unspecified reforms are completed.”
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Why is Trump pushing it?
The reasons Trump is now interested in a deal are pretty clear, Emma said. Crucially, she pointed to the possibility that he views the US’s relationship with Arab countries – and his personal one – as more important than that with Israel: “They have invested a lot more in him, his family and his allies than Israel has,” she said. “And it seems as if he’s lost patience with Netanyahu. It was really interesting that he said he wouldn’t allow annexation of the West Bank.”
Meanwhile, his signature first term foreign policy achievement – the Abraham Accords, which normalised Israel’s ties with regional powers – is now under threat. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said last week that Trump “understands very well” the grave consequences of any annexation, while the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported yesterday that Trump told an Arab foreign minister: “I don’t intend to ask Bibi, I’m going to tell him.”
The other slightly mind-blowing factor is Trump’s apparent desire for a Nobel peace prize. While that still appears unlikely, he would obviously believe that a ceasefire in the Middle East would strengthen his case.
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Would Netanyahu follow through?
Netanyahu’s modus operandi since the beginning of the war has been to reject any move towards a viable peace plan in favour of more destructive military action in Gaza. That is partly because of the shape of his political coalition, with the far right crucial to his administration’s survival; and partly because his office enables him to delay and obstruct the long-running corruption trials that could theoretically end in his imprisonment.
“There has never been a serious attempt to plan for the day after,” Emma said. “Those domestic factors have not gone away.”
Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right leader who has said that Gaza will be “entirely destroyed” and called for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, yesterday published a series of red lines that appeared entirely incompatible with the US plan. He also compared a call between Netanyahu and Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, in which Netanyahu reportedly apologised for an attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler.
Smotrich could theoretically force an election if he pulls his supporters out of government. But if Netanyahu now feels that things have changed and Trump will not take no for an answer, he may have options, Emma said. “He could go to Smotrich and point out that on the current polling, his party wouldn’t even get any seats in parliament. So why not go along with this and use the year left until new elections to pursue his agenda?”
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What would it mean for people in Gaza?
However grubby the genesis of this scheme, and even if it is riven with compromises, it would obviously be of colossal importance to Palestinians if it became a practical reality: Israel’s genocide would stop, and the epochal process of rebuilding Gazan society could get under way.
Still, there are huge outstanding questions about what any of this would mean for the victims of the war. Could a transitional power or the Palestinian Authority form a legitimate government in Gaza? Would the vague allusions to Palestinian statehood ever materialise? And what does “deradicalisation” mean in practice?
“Hamas has reportedly agreed to cede control of Gaza in past ceasefire proposals,” Emma said. “But it’s important to understand that in parallel to its military wing, Hamas has a political wing and deep roots in Gazan society.”
She pointed to the disastrous example of “debaathification” after the invasion of Iraq, which led to the collapse of many functions of the state. “If they try to cut everyone with Hamas links out of a future civilian administration, you could end up with so many people disenfranchised that the state cannot function.”
While there may be tentative reasons to be hopeful that Netanyahu and Trump’s discussion could be the beginning of the end, she added, recent history provides plenty of reasons to be sceptical, too. “Since the very early days the level of killing has seemed unbearable and inconceivable, and led people to think that it’s so extreme that it must end. But if you look back over the last two years, those hopes have been dashed again and again.”
What else we’ve been reading
Emine Saner speaks with campaigner Lee Lawrence in a bracing conversation about racial justice, “overpolicing and under-protection”, and dealing with trauma in the decades after his mother, Cherry Groce, was shot and paralysed by police, an act that sparked the Brixton riots. Craille Maguire Gillies, newsletters team
When the undersea volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai erupted in 2022, it effectively severed Tonga from the rest of the world. Samanth Subramanian’s long read is a riveting illustration of the fragility of our connected world – and the undersea cables that keep it humming. Archie
In need of a visual tonic? Do check out this gallery celebrating the ocean photographer of the year prize, if only for the impressive pectoral fins of the stingray and the pesto-green of the the solar-powered nudibranch. Craille
One-hit wonders always make for especially good How We Mades. The Ting Tings are fun on how That’s Not My Name changed their lives: three weeks after a few copies appeared illegally in a Manchester record shop, “we were at the Sanderson hotel in London, negotiating a deal with Sony.” Archie
Terry Gross of the NPR show Fresh Air has interviewed so many luminaries – from Updike to Didion, Lewinsky to Vonnegut – with such laser-sharp insight as to become one herself. ICYMI, she swaps places on a recent episode of Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso, most affecting for her raw candour about coping with the death of her husband. Craille
Sport
Football | Jarrod Bowen (above) cancelled out Michael Keane’s opener to secure West Ham a 1-1 draw with Everton in Nuno Espírito Santo’s first game as the Hammers’ manager. Nuno called the result “a very small step forward”.
Rugby | The 2025 Rugby World Cup was “the greatest of all time”, according to the head of World Rugby, Alan Gilpin, who said the men’s tournament could learn a lot from the way the women “showcased the best of our sport”. England became world champions on Saturday after beating Canada 33-13.
Cricket | Chris Woakes has announced his retirement from international cricket, bringing to a close a near 15-year England career that delivered two World Cup wins and an abundance of memories in the Test arena.
The front pages
The Guardian splashes today on the talks between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump at the White House, with the headline: “Accept Gaza peace deal or face the consequences, Hamas told”. The same story leads the Times, with “Israel supports Trump plan to end war in Gaza”, and the Daily Telegraph, which runs with “Trump to govern Gaza with Blair”.
Elsewhere Labour conference is the focal point. The Financial Times says “Labour opens door to Budget tax rise as Reeves appeals for fiscal discipline”. The Mirror runs with “Hospital appointment”, on a new Labour policy to have more specialist NHS appointments online. The Daily Mail goes with “Reeves plots a VAT attack on private health”. In the i, it’s “Reeves signals tax hikes – as workers face stealth rise of over £600”. And the Daily Express says: “It’s the same old tax rise pain with Labour!” The Sun, meanwhile, covers the relationship between JK Rowling and Emma Watson, with “JK Rowling and the gobful of ire.”
Today in Focus
OnlyFans, AI girlfriends and ‘stepdads’: the porn industry in 2025
The Xbiz Adult Industry Conference is Europe’s largest porn industry gathering. About a thousand content creators travelled to Amsterdam for the event earlier this month. The Guardian reporter Amelia Gentleman was there and describes to Helen Pidd the upbeat atmosphere in the venue, and explains the role that OnlyFans has played in transforming the industry.
Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Last year, Lucy Knight tossed the only dress she owned. She was not, she admitted to a friend “a dress person”.
In itself, this was not a radical act, but it represented something deeper. “When I came out as gay in my late teens,” she writes for this week’s The one change that worked, “it had a liberating effect on my fashion choices – I no longer felt a need to look like a stereotypical straight woman – but it also came with its own pressures.”
Lucy has, over time, found the clothes that are most her. And donating that last dress in her wardrobe has not only helped her find her own style, it has taught her to “love my childhood self” because, as she puts it “that little girl didn’t care about being different, or about looking the way a girl is ‘supposed’ to look”.
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
