FM Gideon Sa’ar to attend the Board of Peace meeting in Washington in place of Netanyahu - report

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will fly to Washington this week to attend the first Board of Peace meeting instead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli media reported on Saturday evening. 

While Prime Minister Netanyahu had originally been scheduled to attend the annual AIPAC conference in D.C. the same week as the Board of Peace meeting, he has decided not to attend, the reports said. 

Last Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Netanyahu would participate in the AIPAC conference remotely, and would not return to Washington this week. 

The Board of Peace, formed under the Gaza Peace Plan overseen by U.S. President Donald Trump, and authorized by a UN Security Council resolution in November, will hold its first official meeting this week.

Some Hebrew media outlets reported that with elections coming soon, Netanyahu may have preferred not to be seen at the Board meeting, which includes a large number of Arab and Muslim nations that have not normalized relations with Israel. In Israel, there is a sense that the Gaza Peace Plan is stuck, with Hamas continuing to refuse calls for its disarmament.

During the inaugural meeting of the initial Board of Peace members in Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting, Netanyahu did not appear, as he did not attend the Davos summit. President Isaac Herzog, who was in Davos, also did not attend, with Israeli media reporting that Netanyahu forbade him from participating. 

The meeting in Washington this week is expected to focus on fundraising for the new body, and will be attended by several heads of state or representatives. Around 20 countries are expected to send representatives to the meeting, which will be chaired by President Trump. 

At least two items are expected to be on the agenda for the meeting: the establishment of an international reconstruction fund worth billions of dollars, and the formulation of an outline for the International Stabilization Force (ISF) to be stationed within the Gaza Strip. 

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia, which is also on the board, said it would not be able to commit funds to the reconstruction in Gaza without more clarity regarding the implementation of the second phase of the peace plan. 

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, said his country remains “fully supportive” of the Gaza Peace Plan, but said, “We need to see a real end to the conflict.” 

“That means we need to have clarity on when Israel is going to withdraw, when Hamas is going to disarm, when everyone is going to comply with all 20 points of the 20-point plan,” Prince Faisal said. 

“The US is working on that. There’s a meeting on the 19th that will give us a lot more clarity,” he added, referring to the meeting this week. 

The Board of Peace was originally designated as the body to oversee the implementation of the Gaza Peace Plan, but President Trump later said that it would expand its role to tackling other global conflicts.