Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
“Hamas and Israel reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza that mediators said would take effect on Sunday and include a release of hostages held there during 15 months of bloodshed that devastated the Palestinian enclave and inflamed the Middle East. The complex phased accord outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed. Hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel…
“Trump's Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff was in Qatar along with White House envoys for the talks, and a senior Biden administration official said Witkoff's presence was critical to reaching a deal after 96 hours of intense negotiations.” Reuters
The left is cautiously optimistic about the deal, but disappointed that it took so long.
“Far from turning up the heat on Israel, Trump telegraphed a further embrace of its positions during his 2024 campaign… But this posture may have helped deliver both sides: Hamas could reasonably surmise that it would not get a better deal during Trump’s presidency, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government likely acceded to the arrangement in order to stay in the new leader’s good graces as he assumed office…
“[The Israeli far right] had previously threatened to collapse the government should a deal be reached without Hamas fully vanquished from Gaza. But amid Trump’s return, the radicals have their eyes on bigger prizes, such as the annexation of the West Bank…
“Put another way, it’s not that Trump had a stick with which to beat Israel that Biden didn’t have; it’s that his presidency holds out the prospect of carrots that Biden would never offer. It was less the president-elect’s pressure than his potential promise that brought the Israeli far right onside. With Trump, everything is a transaction, and for his would-be suitors—not just Israel, but also Hamas’s sponsors in Qatar—the Gaza cease-fire is a down payment.”
Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic
“If, as [an] Israeli report claims, Trump has secretly offered support for more settlements in the West Bank in exchange for Netanyahu backing the Gaza ceasefire, a return to large-scale violence against West Bank Palestinians (as opposed to the smaller- scale violence that they endure every day) is simply a question of when, not if…
“So long as the Palestinian people live under occupation, and the Israeli government steadily consolidates that occupation as a single undemocratic state, neither Israelis nor Palestinians will ever know the security and peace that both peoples desire and deserve.”
Matt Duss, MSNBC
“I think it’s pretty clear that this reveals the degree to which the United States is actually able to shape policy with client states like Israel in a very direct way, and that everything that the Biden administration was saying, or at the very least implying, about the limits of American power was in effect bullshit. This should be something that people should remember going forward: the United States, as the global imperial hegemon, has incredible influence all over the globe.”
Daniel Bessner, Jacobin Magazine
“Any decent person should hope that the ceasefire holds, but even if it does, the end of the genocide is not the end of the story. Palestine is still not free, and we have not even begun to come to terms with what Israel has wrought on Gaza. It may take years for us to know the true death toll, though it will be much, much higher than the official figures. We will never be able to fully quantify how deeply Gaza’s population has been scarred by these atrocities… The struggle for liberation continues.”
Mohammad Alsaafin, The Nation
The right is disappointed that the deal appears to leave Hamas in control of Gaza.
The right is disappointed that the deal appears to leave Hamas in control of Gaza.
“Under the framework as it stands, Israel may ultimately have to release thousands of terrorists to get back the 94 remaining hostages (both living and dead). There is obviously more here than we know. It’s possible that with the pressure from the Trump team came reassurances that Israel would have more latitude to reenter Gaza as necessary to go after Hamas than it would have enjoyed under Biden…
“It’s also possible that there are bigger issues at stake (such as Trump’s being supportive of a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities). Given Trump’s pro-Israel record in his first term and his appointees, he does deserve a certain degree of benefit of the doubt. That said, all appearances are that Israel has been forced into making more concessions because Trump was concerned that he’d be embarrassed if January 20 came around with no hostages released and he’d be forced to operationalize ‘hell to pay.’”
Philip Klein, National Review
“The key variable will be Mr. Trump’s willingness to back Israel if Hamas refuses to return the rest of the hostages, disarm and agree to a non-terrorist government in Gaza. Six weeks from now, will Mr. Trump give Israel the backing to exit from the deal and finish Hamas? He pledged Wednesday to ‘work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven.’…
“Israel always had to fear that the Biden Administration would try to force it to stop short of destroying Hamas, which held out hope that Mr. Biden would force Israel into a premature deal. That’s why talks went nowhere until Mr. Trump’s election victory. If Mr. Trump were to go back on his word and seek to stop Israel from ending Hamas rule in Gaza, this deal’s legacy will likely sour as emotions fade. If he stands by Israel, it will be a signal to Iran & Co. that the Biden appeasement is over and American power is beginning its comeback.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“Hamas has been greatly diminished by more than a year of intensive Israeli military action. The group has lost thousands of fighters, all of its senior leaders, and general freedom of movement and action. Hamas now lacks the ability to carry out an attack anywhere near the scale of that which it effected on Oct. 7. Nevertheless, Israel has now given Hamas a literal existential win. Hamas will continue to possess a monopoly of force in Gaza, one that allows it to retain political dominance over the territory’s 2.1 million people…
“Still, for Israel, this was a deal that had to be made. While Israel has had great success in gutting Hamas of its military power, it has only been able to rescue a small number of Israeli hostages. Israel has also faced escalating diplomatic pressure and international popular concern, now at crisis levels, to reduce the suffering of Palestinian civilians… Israel has made a necessary deal with the devil.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
