Ministers decide against reopening Rafah amid anger at US

Trump to hold Board of Peace signing ceremony in Davos, but participants may be limited

Only handful of the dozens of countries invited have announced that their head of state has accepted offer to join panel, amid discomfort with apparent US plan to use body to usurp UN

The US is planning to hold a signing ceremony for President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace later this week, as it seeks to jumpstart phase two of his Gaza peace plan while also establishing the nascent international oversight body as the address for conflict resolution around the globe.

The signing ceremony is scheduled to be held on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to a copy of the invitation circulating online whose authenticity was confirmed by a US official.

It’s unclear how many leaders will participate in the ceremony, though, amid mounting discomfort with Washington’s apparent effort to use the Board of Peace to usurp the United Nations.

The panel for world leaders headed by Trump was initially presented as one that would exclusively oversee the postwar management of Gaza, and, in November, the UN Security Council voted to give it a two-year mandate to do so.

But the charter, obtained by The Times of Israel on Saturday, makes no mention of Gaza and appears to take a swipe at the UN, saying that the new board should have “the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed.”

The document was attached to invitations to join the board that were sent to dozens of world leaders on Friday. Since then, the leaders of Albania, Australia, Belarus, Canada, Cyprus, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and Uzbekistan confirmed receiving an invitation, while only Argentina, Hungary, Morocco and Vietnam announced decisions to accept the offer.

President Isaac Herzog is slated to attend the Davos forum, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not. Netanyahu confirmed having received an invitation to join the Board of Peace on Monday, but he has criticized Washington’s decision to place senior representatives from Turkey and Qatar on the Board of Peace’s operational arm for Gaza, confusingly called the Gaza Executive Board.

It’s therefore unclear whether he’ll want to legitimize the latter panel’s makeup by joining the Board of Peace. The Board is technically an umbrella body, but is expected to play a marginal role in Gaza-related decision-making.

Netanyahu called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday to further express his frustration over the Gaza Executive Board’s makeup, Channel 12 reported.

Hours earlier, Netanyahu’s office claimed he had instructed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to make the call, but the latter has largely been boxed out of involvement in Israel’s ties with the US.

Netanyahu stressed to Rubio Israel’s opposition to Qatar and Turkey’s inclusion, and emphasized that Israel was surprised by the US statement announcing the makeup of the Gaza Executive Board, Channel 12 said.

Sources told the network that Netanyahu realizes, however, that there is no way to turn back the clock on the decision, now that the White House has announced it.

In the Knesset on Monday, referring to the Gaza Executive Board, Netanyahu asserted that Qatar and Turkey “are barely members of an advisory committee of one of the three commissions, in which they don’t have any authority or any influence or any soldiers.”It’s one body, but there are all sorts of bodies.” In fact, the Executive Board will be overseeing the postwar management of Gaza.

Amid Israel’s frustration over the makeup of the consequential Gaza Executive Board, the Ynet news site reported on Monday that a small group of senior cabinet ministers decided a day earlier against reopening the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, bucking US demands that the gate resume operating as envisioned by Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war.

Israel has argued that it shouldn’t reopen Rafah in both directions before Hamas agrees to disarm and returns the body of the final Israeli hostage, Ran Gvili.

‘Incompatible’ with existing commitments

Meanwhile, several key allies reacted coolly to the Board of Peace charter’s stipulation that members pay $1 billion if they want to receive a permanent spot on the panel after an initial three-year term.

“At this stage, France cannot accept,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday during a debate with French lawmakers, noting that the board’s charter goes beyond the scope of rebuilding and running post-war Gaza endorsed by the United Nations.

He added that it is “incompatible with France’s international commitments and in particular its membership in the United Nations, which obviously cannot be called into question under any circumstances.”

France is one of the five veto-wielding, permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with the United States, China, Russia and Britain.

Told late Monday that Macron was unlikely to join, Trump said: “Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon.”

“I’ll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and champagnes and he’ll join,” Trump told reporters in Florida before a flight back to Washington. “But he doesn’t have to join.”

A Canadian government source said Ottawa will not pay to be on the board, and hasn’t gotten a request to pay, after Prime Minister Mark Carney indicated he would accept an invitation to join.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has reportedly expressed concern over the inclusion of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk tweeted that joining the Board of Peace would require approval by the parliament, “and we will not let anyone play us.”

Paul Williams, professor of international affairs at George Washington University, told AFP that the offer of permanent membership for $1 billion showed Trump is “trying to turn it into a pay-to-play alternative to the UN Security Council but where Trump alone exercises veto power.”

Trump has regularly criticized the United Nations and announced this month that his country will withdraw from 66 global organizations and treaties — roughly half affiliated with the UN.

The world body — which suffers chronic funding shortfalls and political deadlock in the Security Council — pushed back Monday.

La Neice Collins, spokesperson for the president of the UN General Assembly, told reporters, “There is one universal, multilateral organization to deal with peace and security issues, and that is the United Nations.”

Daniel Forti at the International Crisis Group think tank said some world leaders may view joining the Board of Peace as a way to curry favor with Trump, but many member states would see it as power grab.

Trump would have the power to remove member states from the board, subject to a veto by two-thirds of members, and to choose his replacement should he leave his role as chairman.

Ian Lesser at the German Marshall Fund think tank told AFP he would be surprised if many countries are willing to sign up “at a time when most are focused on preserving the existing multilateral institutions.”