There’s nothing from the White House yet, but the incoming President of the United States says a peace deal has been reached in the Middle East today.
As rumors broke out that Israel and Hamas had come to a ceasefire deal that will see hostages held since October 7, 2023 released, Donald Trump jumped in front of the official announcement and took to social media.
“We have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East,” the 45th and 47th POTUS said five days before he is sworn in for the second time.
As Joe Biden’s team ran down the clock to get an agreement before the 46th POTUS leaves office, Trump has been repeating for weeks that ‘all Hell will break loose” if the hundreds of hostages weren’t free by noon on January 20th. As likely incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted in his confirmation hearing as the news broke, Trump advisors had been working closely with current Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s team on sealing the deal, with the Qatar government acting as vital intermediaries.
A fact that Trump noted in a follow up post:
The Qataris are set to give a press briefing soon to make the deal official. President Biden will also be talking to the cameras within a hour or so, the White House says. On the other hand, it can’t be denied that Hamas appears to have been building up its forces and filling the ranks the Israelis crushed.
Under the deal, 33 hostages are expected to be released as soon as this weekend as the first group under the tentative plan in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by the Israelis. Among all the hostages, two are American citizens. If it holds, the agreement is set to take place in three phases with IDF bombardment of the decimated Gaza halting for at least six weeks – if the fractured Israeli cabinet passes the ceasefire and it becomes permanent with aid from Arab nations. According to reports out of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says that a ceasefire deal has not yet been reached, that final details remain unresolved, but that it hopes “details will be finalized tonight.”
After 466 days of war in the region following the shockingly murderous October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, that saw over 250 people taken hostage, mass rape, over 1,200 dead. The attack was “the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” according to the State Department. A thunderous reaction by the Jewish state has seen tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, the Middle East once again in turmoil. As the Biden administration tried to tailor a peace deal, protests on US campuses and on the streets were paralleled with a deplorable rise in anti-Semitism around the Western world.
As the backdrop in the region has changed dramatically over the past year, the conflict in Gaza revealed deep divisions in Hollywood as well.
In a May 2024 speech at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s National Tribute Gala, where he was awarded its Humanitarian Prize, Ari Emanuel called out the Israeli prime minister as an impediment to peace. “The time for Bibi Netanyahu to go has come,” the Endeavor CEO declared as dozens in the Beverly Wilshire ballroom turned their back on Emanuel and walked out in an unusual protest.
Often overlooked in the backlash to Emanuel’s words then and now was the fact that he very clearly said “Hamas could end this war today. They could free the hostages today.”
Since the October 7 attack on Israel, 117 hostages have been set free, including the 100 released during a one-week ceasefire in late November in a swap for 240 Palestinians. Dozens and dozens of the hostages, of all ages and backgrounds, have died or been killed over the 15-months since they were seized.
This apparently phased deal and the pause towards a potential greater peace is pretty much what has been on the table for several months with much of the trappings of the plan President Biden put forth last year.
With a clear indication of the so-called “Trump effect” on the same day that President Biden has his farewell address scheduled, cable news went wall to wall on the deal. Centering on Trump cabinet confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, Fox News cut in a little later than CNN, the BBC and MSNBC, but were in full coverage mode within minutes.
“This is now Trump’s ceasefire,” said Alex Marquardt on CNN this morning summing up the realpolitik reality. “He will have to put it into effect. He will have to pressure the parties to make sure that this is maintained.”
“This is Biden’s structure, but now it is going to be owned by the Trump administration,” CNN’s chief national security correspondent added.
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