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Whether the detailed GREAT Trust proposal represents Trump's intended approach remains unclear. However, major components, according to two people familiar with planning, were specifically designed to actualize the president's vision of a "Riviera of the Middle East."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never provided clear vision for Gaza's future beyond stating Hamas must be disarmed and all hostages returned. The prime minister has insisted Israel must maintain security control of the territory and rejected future governance by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, as well as Palestinian statehood prospects.

"I've studied this very closely over a lot of months, and I've seen it from every different angle," Trump stated, as reported by The Washington Post. "I don't want to be cute. I don't want to be a wise guy. But the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so magnificent."

Trump's February vow to own and redevelop Gaza offered both authorization and a roadmap for the group of Israeli businessmen, led by entrepreneurs Michael Eisenberg, an Israeli American, and Liran Tancman, a former Israeli military intelligence officer. They had moved on to address the postwar challenge in consultation with international financial and humanitarian experts, potential government and private investors, and some Palestinians, according to individuals familiar with the planning.

Initial costs would be financed using as collateral the 30% of Gaza land that planners have stated is already "publicly" owned and would immediately belong to the trust, according to The Washington Post. That is "the biggest and easiest. No need to ask anyone," Tancman noted in the margin of one trust planning document seen by the paper. "I'm afraid to write that," Eisenberg replied in a note, "because it could look like appropriation of land."

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Milgrim, a 26-year-old American, and had been working at the Israeli mission's department of public diplomacy. She had also worked as a Jewish educator on top of being engaged in peace efforts during her academic studies.

The shooter, identified as Elias Rodriguez, apparently wanted to kill Israelis at the American Jewish Committee event hosted by the museum in order to protest Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and even shouted "Free, Free, Palestine," according to those at the scene.

Milgrim spent five weeks in Israel researching the role of friendships in peacebuilding for her final master's project, according to a LinkedIn post she shared two years ago. Milgrim focused on the experiences of 12 Israeli and Palestinian participants in a seminar organized by Tech2Peace at Neve Shalom / Wahat al-Salam, documenting their stories and the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Her work built on a previous stint with Tech2Peace the prior summer, where she developed a passion for capturing the stories of participants. "While working for Tech2Peace last summer, I fell in love with documenting the amazing stories of their participants, and I knew I needed to do more," Milgrim wrote. Her project aimed to highlight how personal connections could contribute to peacebuilding efforts in a region marked by longstanding tensions.

Milgrim expressed gratitude for the opportunity to return to Tech2Peace, emphasizing the sense of community she found there. "It was an honor to rejoin Tech2Peace and their amazing community, where I made new life-long friends while doing work that is so important to the region," she stated. She also thanked Hela Lahar and the Tech2Peace staff for their warm welcome and acknowledged American University School of International Service for supporting her travel.

The LinkedIn post received positive engagement, with comments from peers reflecting admiration for her work. Stephanie Khoury, a biomedical engineer and seminar participant, commented, "We are lucky that you have joined our seminarGood luck with your master degree." Milgrim responded, "Thank you so much, Stephanie!" Another commenter, Isaiah Anthony Luna, who works in international affairs and sustainability, wrote, "So proud of you, Sarah!" to which Milgrim replied, "Thank you, Isaiah ."

Tech2Peace is a nonprofit that brings together young Israelis and Palestinians to collaborate on technology and entrepreneurship projects, fostering mutual understanding. Similarly, Neve Shalom / Wahat al-Salam, meaning "Oasis of Peace" in Hebrew and Arabic, is a cooperative village where Jews and Arabs live together, serving as a model for coexistence (Jerusalem Post, https://www.jpost.com). These settings align with Milgrim's focus on how personal bonds can contribute to peacebuilding.

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Behind the French initiative stands not only French President Emmanuel Macron but also his Israeli advisor on Middle East affairs and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ofer Bronchtein. The pair are set to host a historic diplomatic conference in Paris on June 11-13, serving as extensive preparation for the international conference scheduled at United Nations headquarters in New York between June 16-18. Both conferences share a single objective – promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state without depending on a diplomatic process with Israel.

The Paris conference is expected to draw Israelis and Palestinians from across society – politicians, business leaders, academics, artists, and civil society activists – alongside opinion leaders from Europe, Arab countries, and throughout the world. According to those behind the initiative, this represents the first such effort of its kind since the Oslo Accords and their accompanying international efforts, aiming "to build broad popular and professional support for practical steps toward regional peace, and to prepare the ground for the hoped-for breakthrough in New York."

"Recognition of Israel by Arab countries"

The Paris conference will introduce a "Paris Call for Peace and Two States" advocating immediate steps: an immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza, immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; continuous access to coordinated humanitarian aid addressing Palestinian population needs; and launching an immediate international plan for Gaza reconstruction in partnership with local, regional, and international stakeholders.

According to Bronchtein, though other initiators don't explicitly connect to this aspect – the goal also includes fostering recognition of Israel by Arab countries and the Palestinian state.

"The Paris conference will serve as a crucial preparation mechanism for the international conference in New York," Bronchtein explained in conversation with Israel Hayom. "We expect that direct dialogue between hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians, together with opinion leaders from Europe and Arab countries, will formulate joint positions that will be presented to world leaders in New York as a new foundation for Middle East diplomacy and will showcase practical implementation paths for the two-state solution. The New York conference will receive broad support from European and non-European nations, including Arab and Muslim countries, and we believe that the US will play a central role in advancing this initiative."

According to the individual widely considered the driving force behind the French initiative and who advises the French president, "We believe the time has come to transition from conflict management to a genuine diplomatic solution ensuring long-term security, which we are committed to as part of the deep partnership between France and Israel. The French-Saudi initiative offers a practical and realistic pathway toward this goal, while safeguarding Israel's strategic security and fostering a stable, prosperous regional environment," Bronchtein said.

In Israel, officials express growing concern regarding the series of unilateral European initiatives to recognize a Palestinian state, particularly the planned New York conference. However, it appears the diplomatic campaign against such moves is virtually nonexistent, as senior officials learn about these developments primarily through our media reports. This pattern continues against the backdrop of humanitarian aid approvals amid diplomatic pressure related partly to the French-Saudi initiative, reflecting the understanding that international actors are beginning to formulate approaches over Israel's head, with containment attempts resembling belated measures against an already accelerating process.

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It's becoming exhausting to repeatedly explain to Americans that the issues they face at home are not the issues of the Middle East.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is widely regarded as one of the leading voices in modern American literature. In his latest book, "The Message," he explores three distinct regions and societies, with Israel taking up the most significant portion. In his narrative, Coates draws a comparison between Israel's administration of the Palestinians and the systemic racial segregation of Jim Crow-era America – a conclusion he reaches after spending just ten days in the region.

This is a trap that many who view the world solely through an American lens often fall into. In the United States, conversations about race, white supremacy, police brutality, and the contradictions of America's founding principles dominate the social discourse. However, applying this framework to the Middle East reveals a fundamental misunderstanding.

Coleman Hughes poignantly critiques this misapplication in "The Free Press," where he writes, "Coates inherited an anti-Israel bias – based on crude, inaccurate analogies to American racial politics – on father's knee." Hughes highlights the dangers of simplifying a deeply complex conflict by projecting America's racial struggles onto it.

It's hard to ignore that the release of Coates's book coincided with the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre. Thankfully, CBS co-anchor Tony Dokoupil asked pointed, necessary questions during his interview with Coates, including, "Why leave out the fact that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it? Why not mention that Israel deals with terror groups committed to its destruction? Why omit any reference to the First and Second Intifadas, the café bombings, the bus bombings, the children blown to bits? Is it because you don't believe Israel has the right to exist under any circumstances?" Coates failed to offer any substantive answers. What should have been seen as basic journalism was instead criticized by many in the American media, who labelled the interview as "hostile."

If you try to understand the Israel-Hamas conflict through the lens of American racial issues, you'll never grasp its true nature – and you'll be doing a disservice to the communities in the region directly affected by the war. Western media has a tendency to project its own social issues onto foreign conflicts without fully understanding the region's history, without speaking the language, and being burdened with their own preconceived narratives. Israel, like any nation, is not immune to issues of racism, but this conflict is not about skin color. Many Americans wrongly interpret the conflict as one between "white" Israeli Jews and "black" Palestinian Muslims, while Europeans, too, tend to see it through the prism of their own colonial histories.

Coates's narrative contains glaring omissions – there's no mention of Hamas, Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, or Iran, all of whom play a significant role in shaping the policies and realities on the ground. In Coates's version of the conflict, these critical actors don't exist, let alone influence the region's dynamics.

If commentators like Coates continue to impose their own racial and social frameworks onto the Israel-Palestine conflict, they will only perpetuate a shallow and misguided understanding of the region's complex history and the realities its people face.

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1.

More than eight months have passed since the October 7 massacre, a relatively short period in historical terms, even more so when it comes to the history of our people. On that day, the barbarians invaded our borders and massacred, raped, and burned alive women, children, and the elderly; they wiped out entire families and destroyed whole communities – communities where many had previously worked for the welfare of Gazans. They kidnapped hundreds of Israel, alive and dead, and murdered some of the hostages in captivity. Had they been able to, they would have continued their murderous path and killed all of us.

They didn't carry out these atrocities because of the "occupation" or due to "repression" or to economic problems. Today we know, despite the enemy's propaganda and lies, that there was no siege of Gaza. Via huge tunnels crossing into Gaza from Egypt, Hamas smuggled in everything imaginable. There was no occupation of Gaza: In the summer of 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza taking with it even its dead who had been buried there. The only repression that existed in the Strip was that imposed by the Hamas reign of terror which used its citizens as human shields, hid arms and missiles in kindergartens, schools, mosques and hospitals, and, of course, in the offices of the UNRWA aid agency.  Over the past twenty years or so, all these places served as launching grounds for the tens of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and communities during that time.

Hamas's motives are discussed in detail in the Hamas Charter, the group's founding document, where it speaks of a total commitment to the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews wherever they may be. The reason is explicit: their religious beliefs, which explains our longstanding blindness as we analyzed the motives of our enemies in terms of rational interests.

2.

The Gaza Strip was the biggest attempt at setting up an independent Palestinian state. What this attempt has shown is that territories that Israel vacates become terror fortresses and citadels of death both for Israel and for the residents of these territories. Moreover, evacuation of territory under pressure of terrorism was interpreted – and rightly so – as a display of weakness by Israel: Perhaps under pressure the Jews will abandon all the land. Compare this with Judea and Samaria where in 2002 in Operation Defensive Shield we restored security control and in the years that followed we methodically purged the territory of its terror nests and prevented the possibility that a terror entity would be established on the mountain ridge right opposite our population centers.

So little time has passed since October 7, yet already there are voices among us who call for an end to the war, for compromise, for the release of murderers from their jails and, most importantly, for the establishment of a Palestinian state. It is unbelievable how memory can fade and deceive us.

The current military campaign requires time and patience. We have to maneuver not just between terror tunnels and terrorist nests as we try not to inflict harm on the civilian population, but we also have to maneuver amidst enormous international pressure to end the war before we have achieved our goals. Even our most faithful ally pressures us with public statements against our military measures and with bureaucratic slow-downs of arms deliveries. And we must not forget that another campaign awaits us in the north, and we must also deal with the head of the octopus, Iran, which finances and supports Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the Shi'ite militias in Iraq and Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, and other hostile elements.

3.

Sinking Europe is afraid of millions of its Muslim immigrants and is trying to gain a few more years of quiet by scapegoating Israel. The credit we received at the beginning of the war stemmed from the massacre we experienced. For a brief moment, we returned to our "traditional" role – eternal victims, crucified like Jesus. But as soon as we rose from the dust and fought back, global support began to erode: the deep antisemitic currents that are thousands of years old negatively influence how the world reacts when Jews refuse to be victims and refuse to be crucified, but instead slay their attackers. Jesus came down from the cross, wrapped himself in a prayer shawl and returned home to be a Jew in Galilee. This time he is no longer willing to be crucified; He has weapons, and he knows well how to use them.

As in the 1930s, Europeans will find themselves facing the bitter truth, and then we will see their moral standards as they fight for their lives in the streets of their cities. About one million Jews live in Europe. Why do they cling to a dream that is over? Why do they not come to Israel, what are they waiting for? Dear Jews, danger is already knocking on your door. Stop grazing in foreign fields, come home.

4.

Were someone unfamiliar with the situation to browse social networks or watch almost all the news channels, they would get the impression that the war with our external enemies is over, and in fact the real enemy is within us, in the form of a political rival, even though his sons too are fighting for the security of the people. A certain group, the same group that led the protests in the dreadful year preceding the massacre, is once again disseminating appalling messages against their brethren (even if they are political opponents), especially against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A certain person who received a religious education, calls the prime minister "Satan," compares him to Saddam Hussein, and polishes off by saying, "We will erase the memory of Netanyahu." Shame on him. What blasphemy to quote the eternal biblical commandment [to erase the memory of Amalek] that is appropriate for the Nazis and the Hamas terrorists and apply it to those who lead the military and diplomatic campaign against our enemies and would-be murderers. Why didn't the media and the intelligentsia cry out that we must eradicate evil from our midst? And where is the Attorney General? After all, people were arrested on charges of incitement and sedition for far less than that.

5.

This Shabbat we will read about the spies that Moses sent to scout Canaan and gather intelligence ahead of its conquest. The spies returned from their mission and spoke in praise of the land, but instead of concentrating on the facts that Moses had asked for, they made themselves advisors and expressed reservations at what they had seen: "However, the people that dwell in the land are fierce, and the cities are fortified, and very great; and moreover, we saw the children of Anak there."Moreover, the land was full of might peoples, and they "spread an evil report of the land which they had spied out." The people were swayed by the spies' report, and they blamed the leadership for bringing them out of Egypt only to kill them in a war for "this land" (the land had become a hateful object). What use did they have for war and international pressure? The peoples of the region want to remove us from our land and the effort required amidst this reality to maintain a strong society with Torah and science, economy and education, cultural foundations, is enormous. We would be better off in the desert or in Germany, France or the United States, and live at the mercy of others, they say.

The people said: "Let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt." They had forgotten in little time that they had come from the House of Bondage, from the concentration and labor camps, from newborn males being thrown into the Nile, from the cruelties and the horrors they had suffered for so long. At that moment, fear dictated their thoughts. The night that the Children of Israel cried and despaired they would never enter the Promised Land has since been marked as the root of all our troubles; our sages noted the date, Tisha B'Av! (the 9^th of Av) Since then and throughout history, the sin of the spies hung as a sword over the people, disenchantment with the land our fathers yearned for, a poison chalice for the destruction of the first and second temples and for our long exile.

The great test was the atonement for this sin, returning from exile despite the dangers, and clinging to the land while settling in it and making it bloom. The test is not over. Hamas and Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority and Iran and other enemies seek to expel us from our country. The war does not end with eradicating evil and destroying terrorists; it requires us to strengthen our hold on all parts of the Land of Israel and deepen our roots there. In the face of cries of despair, we repeat today the immortal cry of Joshua and Caleb: "The land that we traversed and scouted is an exceedingly good land."

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China's foreign minister told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks between the two sides, in its latest effort at mediation in the region.

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In separate phone calls to the two officials on Monday, Qin Gang expressed China's concern over intensifying tensions between Israel and Palestinians and its support for a resumption of peace talks, the Foreign Ministry said in statements issued late Monday. Last month, Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a deal in China to restore diplomatic ties that were cut off in 2016. It was a dramatic moment of diplomacy for China that Beijing touted as evidence of its ability to be a diplomatic player in the Middle East.

Qin stressed in his talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that Saudi Arabia and Iran have set a good example of overcoming differences through dialogue, a statement about that phone call said, He told Cohen that Beijing encourages Israel and the Palestinians to show political courage and take steps to resume peace talks. "China is willing to provide convenience for this" At the same time Cohen expressed his country's commitment to reducing tensions, but said the problem appeared to be difficult to resolve in the short term, the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

While Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Qin and Cohen discussed "the importance of maintaining quiet at the Temple Mount, particularly in the final days of Ramadan," the Muslim holy month, but made no mention of peace talks with the Palestinians.

It said that Cohen conveyed "the threat that we see in Iran's nuclear program" and called on China to help prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Qin also told Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki that China is willing to play an active role in the resumption of talks, a second statement said.

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Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki criticized United States President Joe Biden on Thursday for moving too slowly to reverse all of the Trump administration's adverse policies against the Palestinians and not using Washington's "special" relationship to pressure Israel to abandon what he claims is Jerusalem's "rejection of a two-state solution and peace negotiations."

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Al-Maliki told the United Nations Security Council there were hopes that the end of Donald Trump's administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "would be enough to pave the way for renewed momentum for peace."

But while the Biden administration reversed several "unlawful and ill-advised" Trump policies, he said it has been slow to act, especially on the US commitment to reopen its consulate in east Jerusalem which would restore Washington's main diplomatic mission for the Palestinians in the contested city.

After Biden took office a year ago, the Palestinians thought the United States "could try to move the Israeli position toward us," Al-Maliki told reporters later. "But we have seen that the Israeli position has been able to move the American position a little bit towards them – and this is really what troubles us very much."

Tor Wennesland, the UN Mideast envoy, told the council that six Palestinian men were killed by Israeli security forces, another died in unclear circumstances, and 249 Palestinians were injured, including 46 children, in the West Bank in the past month. He said 15 Israelis were injured in attacks by Palestinians.

UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan accused Al-Maliki of making "regurgitated accusations and baseless claims," and of ignoring the more than 200 terror attacks carried out by Palestinians against Israel in the last month, including rock throwing incidents and grenades and Molotov cocktails.

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A Facebook group called Israelis and Palestinians for Peace aims to bring its thousands of members closer together through online dialogue.

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The group is unique in that it encourages users to participate in real-time discussions with others through its regular Zoom meetings

"The problem is we don't have decision makers who can make brave decisions," an unnamed Palestinian member explained.

"So we started the first step to create a new generation away from politics."

Founder Mori Sela, the founder of the group, spoke with i24NEWS on how Israelis and Palestinians for Peace works.

"On Facebook, we have about 4,000 people, 3,000 of them are very active every month," Sela said.

He collaborates with a team of activists who review the group and ensure discussions remain civil.

"We did have quite a few people that we had to block or mute for a while until they learn what the language in this group is," the founder explained.

"We sometimes call them when they make some comments that [are] not respectful or has some violence," Warda Sada, the group's co-director added.

"It's a challenge," she said, "to have Palestinians from (Gaza), from the West Bank, from all over the world… speak about their narratives, and to listen to the Israeli narratives too."

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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The Arab Israeli sector is less than thrilled with the performance thus far of the Bennett-Lapid government, a new political survey conducted by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation in the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University reveals.

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Respondents also rated the governments' attempts to contain rampant crime in the Arab sector very low (2.13 on a scale of 1-5).

How does the Arab public in Israel view the Ra'am Party joining the coalition? A total of 40.5% said they thought that the move by Ra'am would inspire more Arab voter turnout in the next election, whereas 22.7% said they thought it would lead to decreased voter turnout.

When asked if they would vote in Knesset elections if they were held now, nearly two-thirds (61.1%) of respondents said they would vote, compared to 32.9% who said they would not vote.

A large majority of respondents (71.4%) said they supported the reformation of the Joint Arab List ticket, which until the last election included the parties Hadash, Ta'al, Balad, and Ra'am. Only 23.7% said that they did not support the idea of reforming the list.

Slightly more than half (51%) of respondents said they do not expect the current coalition to last four years, compared to 29.1% who said they expected the government to last its elected four-year term.

On a scale of 1-5, the average grade respondents gave the government was 2.37. When asked how much faith they had in the government's plans to fight crime in Arab communities, the grade was also low: 2.13 on a scale of 1-5. Their grade for the government's five-year plan to invest in the Arab sector was similarly low: 2.29.

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More than half (56.2%) of respondents said that Ra'am should ask for a ministerial or deputy-minister position in the cabinet, and not be satisfied with coalition membership.

Slightly more than half (51.8%) of respondents said that the wave of rioting and attacks in mixed cities that erupted during Operation Guardian of the Wall against Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip in May of this year had caused severe damage to relations between Arabs and Jews in Israel.

When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 23.7% of respondents said they believed the ideal solution would be a two-state plan based on Israel's 1967 borders, whereas another 26% said they thought the best solution to the conflict would be a single Jewish-Palestinian state. Interestingly, 37.9% said they foresaw no solution in the near future and expected the situation to remain as it is.

When asked if they believed that the Abraham Accords normalizing ties between Israel and Arab states would help stabilize the Middle East, 63.2% of respondents said that they did not expect the accords to do anything to promote a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, but 55.8% said they believed that the accords were a "positive development" for Israel's Arab citizens.

According to Dr. Arik Rodnitzky, "The new survey illustrates the changes taking place in Arab society, which on one hand wants to increase the rate of integration into Israeli society and be a major player in the coalition and the government, and on the other expresses a lack of trust in the government and its abilities to change the reality and take care of Arab citizens' well-being."

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