Netanyahu's government is stalling Trump's Gaza plan, US general warns

US Security Coordinator Lt.-Gen. Sean M. Salene has made a speech in which he, as softly as possible yet firmly, went after the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for stalling aspects of the Trump administration that strengthen the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, especially regarding training a new Palestinian police force.

Speaking recently at the Reichman University Institute for counterterrorism (ICT), Salene did not name Netanyahu, but said that counterterrorism is a much broader campaign than just using military force.

He stated that counterterrorism, in his view, meant that "you cannot address it only through the military lane. Addressing counterterrorism also has to address the ideology, has to address the education, and has to address the societal conditions which support the evolution of a terrorist organization."

"While some of these would be outside the authorities and the arena that I have, I will also share with you that there are very few serving officers in the United States military who focus on the West Bank problem set, 16 to be exact," he continued.

In contrast to Salene's argument, which is definitely supported by many counterterror academics and also some in the Israeli defense establishment, Netanyahu has focused almost entirely on using military force to defeat Hamas.

Netanyahu has publicly opposed making plans for any "Day After" in Gaza for three years. Regarding even the October 2025 Trump ceasefire plan he signed on to, top US officials have accused him of delaying those aspects designed to replace Hamas with new Palestinian political and security mechanisms in Gaza.

Salene also framed Israeli society as having jumped toward a new state of hyper risk-aversion when facing terrorism and other security dilemmas, "Because in your society and where we are right now, with the open fronts and the open question of Iran, I know that the risk tolerance here is very low, perhaps non-existent. The risk tolerance is low and non-existent."

"I would also share with you a reflection: the way that it appears to me that the IDF and other security professionals view threat. Normally, our doctrine tells us we view threat…as capability plus intent. What I have noticed now is that they reflect threat as capability. That many IDF security professionals view capability as equal in a threat, I think they're reflecting some of the policy guidance they receive and some of the societal pressures that they feel. But in this regard, it's helping to understand this environment," he noted.

In other words, Salene, while sympathetic to Israeli trauma after October 7, was telling his Israeli audience that going to the extreme of always focusing on the worst-case scenario of what enemy capabilities are is counterproductive and problematic.

While he wanted to support Israeli military officials in some respects, he challenged them to consider whether politicized policy guidance and social pressures, rather than expert judgment, are shaping their professional assessments.

Next, he warned that the threat of Hamas itself is also much broader than its immediate forces on the ground confronting Israel.

"Hamas is then not confined just to one place. It's not confined to just Gaza. It's not confined to Judea and Samaria. It exists in Jordan and in Syria, and in Lebanon, and we have financiers in Florida, and in Europe. So this understanding is priority number one for counterterrorism: a broader view of Hamas as an ecosystem," stated the US general.

Here, Salene encouraged Israeli political and defense officials to look beyond the obvious physical battle space before them to think of Hamas as a movement, idea, and series of relationships which extend across the globe, and cannot be shut down by more force in Gaza and the West Bank alone.

In addition, Salene specifically complimented IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth, saying, "You have an incredibly principled leader. An incredibly principled leader in IDF Central Command. Very difficult environment inside of your society. I'm speaking as a military officer to see another military officer attempting to enact his policy with the instruments he had, which now touches your political level."

With these remarks, Salene laid bare problems which Bluth and the Shin Bet have highlighted in terms of a lack of support from the political echelon and from the police in cracking down sufficiently against Jewish extremist violence and terror in the West Bank, even as all Israeli forces have worked well together to keep the larger Palestinian terror problem down.

Discussing security coordination with the PA, he said, "Security coordination. What is it then the United States can do to support the security coordination? There are two parts. The first part, respect and understand what exists and not get in the way."

"The second part is when that begins to break down and becomes very difficult. Where is it the United States can step in in order to assist if it gets difficult, there's tragedies this summer you can tell," he added.

Moreover, Salene said, "Tragedy. How is it that it didn't spiral? I will just share with you. There was effective security coordination. There was communication. There was an effort to de-escalate and contain the crisis so it did not spread. Why? If I zoomed out for a moment and said that if the crisis has spread and destabilized, would the destabilization only be confined to Judea and Samaria?"

Continuing, he asserted, "A destabilization is likely to affect the stability of Jordan. As a US Central Command officer, the stability of Jordan matters. It's important to you. It's important to us. It's important to the bigger picture, to the wider strategic question, which remains open."

Here, Salene was arguing that when Israeli and Palestinian security officials work well together, his office can just stay out of the way, but when they are not, he has stepped in at crucial moments to calm tense situations which could have blown up into much larger unnecessary conflicts.

Salene also reminded everyone that a destabilized West Bank can have concrete national security implications with Jordan, which has been an invaluable ally in counterintelligence against Palestinian terror.

Trying to convince some of the skeptical Israelis listening that US and Israeli security coordination with the PA pays off, he said, "21 years ago, we received funding from my government to provide police forces non-lethal training…we're not paying for an army. We don't support an army. We support police forces, and I offered that there were questions about what it is for the IDF and the security services."

He said that his office helps "enable the training, in accordance with international standards, human rights, and the rule of law, of a security partner to counter Hamas and terrorist threats. This is a particularly difficult conversation today. It's a particularly difficult conversation to have in this environment, but it is a necessary one."

He then asked rhetorically: "Because what is the alternative? What is the alternative? Is the alternative that the security forces in Judea and Samaria are not on the field? Would the gap remain open, or would it be filled? And if it be filled by a terrorist organization, or it be another command upon the IDF."

Realizing how hard it might be to convince some Israelis of the necessity of a US coordinator is necessary to help train PA forces, he volunteered that skeptics exist in the US as well, noting, "There are folks in my own government who say, 'Why should we spend another dollar? Over here in the Palestinian Authority, that's a corrupt institution. Yes, there is corruption. This is the instrument that we have. I am not a politician.

This is a political discussion, and it will quickly get to the political. I will speak to the practical and the technical."

Continuing, he stated, "In a practical and technical institutional capability in accounting, I will share with you that there are people on the other side who work on de-radicalization, who push on education, who know that their structure is wrong."

These comments hit Netanyahu at his most sensitive point. Of all of the aspects of the October 2025 ceasefire which Netanyahu did not like, but signed on to get the Israeli hostages back, allowing PA police into Gaza, trained by the US, Egypt, and Jordan, was the provision he opposed most vehemently.

Yet, where Netanyahu viewed creating a new Gaza police force associated with Fatah as strengthening PA military power which could confront Israel in the Strip, Salene said that any other alternative will lead to Hamas or Palestinian power brokers who disregard human rights and any vision of a stable future for Gazans.

Next, he revealed strengths and weaknesses of the process of the US and other countries coordinating with the PA.

He said that these allies are "a coalition of nations who also support the security of Israel, even when the political place gets very difficult at the technical place, at the military place to maintain this military architecture together for the day when the political winds have shifted, but the architecture remains for the support for defense of Israel."

"Now, the coalition that we lead has nine other nations inside this coalition. The United States coordinates inside this coalition to ensure it is not too far left, not too far right, down the middle to align these efforts. Other actors are on the stage who are not in our coalition. I want to argue there are other actors that have a relationship with the Palestinian authorities that's not in our interest. Russia and China would come to mind," he cautioned.

Waxing philosophical, Salene then asked some additional rhetorical questions about some of the x-factors which go to the heart of the counterterrorism mission, "Back to the fundamental question: Which way is the terrorist ideology the people who are being marketed to being recruited, which way are they going to go? I would argue it is in our interest for those people to stay with the negotiation track, de-escalation, coordination to support a future negotiation, not to succumb to Hamas and the call to jihad."

Next, he stated, "So in this case, the provision of basic social services…undermines the Hamas' argument, which then helps us in the wider picture in a struggle with the movement, which extends far beyond this country."

"These are the ways that we do at the security system to disrupt, coordinate capability, legitimacy, and order, to get to a more durable stability, to one day open the stage for a larger conversation," he added.

Here, Salene tried to convince Israelis that providing a better life to Gazans is in Israel's interest since more stability will bring less conflict.

While a hard sell to Israelis after October 7, Salene argued there is still no real alternative.

CENTCOM and Lt.-Gen. Salene's office declined to comment regarding the article.