How is the Gaza War Managed Between Netanyahu's Maneuvers and Trump's Deceptions?

Author: اسماعيل جمعه الريماوي

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As all declared political paths to stop the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip collapse, the American promises of an imminent "agreement" emerge as a cunning deception, used to manage the scene rather than resolve it, and to buy time instead of ending the war. The repeated statements made by U.S. President Donald Trump about a "forthcoming" agreement have turned into tools of media pressure, cloaking a solid project aimed at maintaining Israel's upper hand and neutralizing any international pressure or legal accountability that may loom on the horizon.
The Trump administration, which claims to seek a political solution, has not exerted any real pressure on Israel; rather, it has gone far in providing unprecedented political and military cover to expand its war on the Gaza Strip and cement new realities on the ground. Washington has been an intrinsic part of the bloodshed stage, investing in the illusion of the "near agreement" to mitigate the intensity of international protests and promote a supposed commitment to halt tensions, while behind the scenes, its understandings with Tel Aviv have drawn red lines for any settlement that does not ensure the continuation of occupation and deepen Israeli control over the Gaza Strip.
In this context, it was not Hamas that impeded reaching an agreement; rather, the opposite is true. The movement has made significant concessions across multiple issues, but to no avail, as the major obstacle was not in the negotiation details, but rather at the very top of the Israeli hierarchy: Netanyahu, who today rules under the blackmail of the far-right, faces a deadly moment of uncertainty—the first of its kind since his political rise in 1996. He now finds himself caught between two fires: either accepting a deal that ends the war but at a high domestic political cost, or proceeding with an open-ended war that may backfire domestically and ignite uncontrollable conflicts.
Netanyahu has exhausted all tools of political manipulation: with the Cabinet, the army, Israeli society, and the international community, even with the American administration, which now realizes that the real obstacle lies not in Hamas's conduct but in its impossible conditions, such as disarming the resistance or expelling it from Gaza. These conditions are merely a direct response to pressures from the fascists within his government, led by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who threaten to topple him if he dares to make any real concessions.
At its core, Netanyahu's obstinacy cannot be understood without invoking the Israeli political mentality that has been shaped since the Nakba. This mentality is based on gradual expansion and imposing facts rather than negotiating over them. Since the partition decision in 1947, Israel has transformed from 45% of the land to 55%, then to 78% after the Nakba of 1948, and after the 1967 occupation, it controlled more than 83% of historic Palestine. This explains the persistent Israeli thinking: "What has been taken is ours, and what remains can be negotiated over," and thus, any talk of compromises is just a facade to legitimize the occupation and reinforce its results.
What Netanyahu is actually after is not a just agreement, but a surrender deal imposed on Hamas in the name of "political solution," based on legitimizing the Israeli military presence in vast areas of Gaza, by slicing off Rafah province from the south, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun from the north, and a large part of the eastern border, turning them into areas under Israeli security control, with implicit or coercive Palestinian consent, which means transforming the occupation from a temporary situation into a permanent reality cloaked in an international agreement.
This is the essence of the dilemma: Netanyahu is not seeking an exit but solidifying control, and if he does not obtain a deal resembling surrender, he is prepared to embark on a long war of attrition, justified by unlimited support from the Trump administration, which provides him political cover, neutralizes pressures, and mobilizes the American media to polish his image, despite the humanitarian disaster he causes every day in Gaza.
In this distorted political scene, the challenge is no longer to reach an agreement but to confront an Israeli will determined to redraw Gaza's geography by force, backed by an American cover that grants the occupation what it wishes and prevents accountability. Negotiations have turned into a tool of war, mediations into propaganda facades, and the "imminent agreement" into a mirage that drowns the region in more blood, as long as Netanyahu holds the strings and the Trump administration sees that time is still on the side of the Israeli project, and that Palestinian blood is the right fuel to pass it.
Here, the struggle in Gaza becomes a revealing moment of the decline of the international system, exposing American rhetoric and scandalizing the logic of political solutions that serve the occupation and force the victim to sign their defeat, and amid Trump's evasions and Netanyahu's maneuvers, Gaza remains alone in the heart of hell, burning to give the nation a final chance to rise or fall forever.