Plans for a post-Hamas future in Gaza are beginning to take shape, as Azerbaijan and Indonesia were selected to play a leading role in the International Stabilization Force (ISF), which President Donald Trump’s peace plan proposed to maintain interim security in the Gaza Strip after Hamas’s removal. According to the peace plan, the ISF must consist of forces from Muslim-majority nations, but Trump administration officials agreed that the participants must be acceptable to Israel.

“We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting last Sunday. “This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days.”

Netanyahu’s remarks followed a trip by Vice President J.D. Vance, who came to Israel to steady the shaky ceasefire after multiple violations by Hamas elicited forceful responses from Israel.

The remarks came as Netanyahu rejected the notion that “the American administration controls me and dictates Israel’s security policy,” arguing that the two nations instead form a partnership. Vance had strongly condemned a vote in the Israeli Knesset to exercise sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria, the historical heartland of Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also visited Israel in recent days, affirming on October 24 that the ISF would be comprised of “countries that Israel’s comfortable with.”

Israel thus approved the choices of Azerbaijan and Indonesia to lead the ISF peacekeeping mission. Israel maintains close ties with Azerbaijan, including energy, military, and intelligence cooperation that has developed over decades. Israel sells weapons to Azerbaijan, which boosted the Islamic regime in its recent war of aggression against Armenia.

Israel is also comfortable with Indonesia, a moderate Islamic state that is also among the most geographically distant from Israel. Indonesia has a long history of contributing to international peacekeeping forces, including the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which created its own history of security cooperation with Israel.

However, Israel reportedly vetoed the participation of Turkey in the ISF. Turkey is positioning itself as a backer of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and a regional leader of Islamist supremacy. Former CIA operative Reuel Marc Gerecht called Turkey “perhaps the greatest danger to the Jewish state in the Middle East.” At a recent peace summit in Egypt, Turkish President Recep Erdogan effectively vetoed Netanyahu’s attendance.

A number of other nations involved in the Trump peace plan have chosen not to participate in the ISF. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates declined to participate, while officials say that Qatari forces were never seriously considered. President Trump also ruled out the possibility of American boots on the ground in Gaza.

The ISF remains theoretical, and planning remains in an early stage. One complication is that Indonesia insists — based on its long history with such missions — that any international force be authorized by a U.N. Security Council resolution. However, based on its own long history of U.N. hostility, Israel is wary of any U.N.-authorized security force.

France, which played no role in the Trump peace plan but does hold a permanent veto on the U.N. Security Council, has reportedly pushed to ensure that any resolution to establish an international peacekeeping force would also establish a Palestinian state.

Even if the U.N. Security Council did authorize a peacekeeping mission in Gaza, such a plan would only take effect after Hamas was removed from power in Gaza. Thus far, Israel is the only nation with the will and plan to make that happen. Israel has signaled its willingness to accept Azerbaijan and Indonesia as neutral overseers of the Gaza Strip, but that diplomatic dream remains remote until Hamas is disarmed and disbanded.