US President-elect Donald Trump has had his way. His advice to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "do whatever it takes" to finish off the Gaza operations ahead of his inauguration on January 20 has been heeded by the Israeli leader, bringing to a close 15 months of blood-letting on tꦕhe people of Gaza triggered by the Hamas attack on Israe﷽l on October 7.
The three-stage peace 😼deal overseen by Qatar, the US, and Egypt is on the lines announc💙ed last year by President Joe Biden, but it had got stuck thanks to the lack of political capital. The death toll at that time was 36,000 as compared to 46,700 today.
The ceasefire will come into effect on Sunday, January 19, and will ensure the rꦰelease of the first batch of 33 Israeli hostages and an estimated 1000 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women, children and the elderly not involved in violence. It will also lead to the staggered withdrawal of the Israeli army to the buffer zone on the border.
Much needed relief at 600 trucks a day will flow into the besieged Gaza Strip. Israel has the window of opportunity to continue its deadly attacks till the Sunday deadline. Since the announcement of the ceasefire on Wednesday, as many as 80 people have been killed by Israeli forces. Distribution of supplies to Gaza could pose an enormous logistical𓃲 challenge with Israel not willing to accept the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA ) operating in occupied areas. Two laws aimed at ending UNRWA’s work is scheduled to come into force. But despite these problems, people in both Gaza and families of hostages in Israel have welcomed the ceasefire and peace agreement.
The Trump Factor
In tru🍃e Trump fashion the announcement of the ceasefire deal was co🌜nfirmed by the President-elect on his social media account before either the Qatari negotiators or the White House could do so.
“This EPIC ceasefire agre🅘ement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would see🦩k Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” he posted on Truth Social.
Many Israelis as well🍒 as progress♑ives in the US have backed Trump’s claims and believe Biden was not in a position to deliver a ceasefire agreement, despite protracted efforts by his team led by secretary of state Antony Blinken and national security advisor Jake Sullivan.
Israel’s well respected and longest running daily Haaretz, has credited Trump’s envoy for being able to deliver. It reported that the involvement of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s ag💫gressive Middle East envoy, "revived the hostܫage talks with Hamas".
According to the newspaper, last Friday evening Witkoff called Bibi Netanyahu from Qatar an﷽d said he would be reaching Israel for a meeting with the PM on Saturday. Though the PM never works on Sabbath, a day Jews spend on prayers, he was ready to meet with the envoy.
"Witkoff has forced Israel to accept a plan that Netanyahu had repeatedly rejected over the past half year. Hamas has not budged from its position that the hostages' freedom must be conditioned on the release of Palestinian prisoners (the easy part) and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza (the hard one). Netanyahu rejected this condition and thus was born the partial deal proposed by Egypt,’’ Haaretz said🔯 in its report. Without the no-nonsense approach of Trump’s envoy and businessman, the ceasefire deal could not have been pulled off.
Netanyahu has to get the approval of his cabinet to agree to the ceasefire that was earlier vehemently opposed by his far-right orthodox co💝alition partners. While the PM was not ready to do this for Biden, he knows better than to oppose Trump’s wishes and will certainly get the approval of the entire cabinet late🐽r today.
Politico reported that though the outlines of the deal had not changed, the context had: "Biden is departing, and Netanyahu might be eager to take a different approach with the next administration. 'Trump has made clear what he wants, he has his own priorities, and I think it was clearly the unconditional support that Biden gave that provided cover for Netanyahu to🍷 continue to prosecute this war, and also that there would be no costs for ignoring either private or public criticisms from the United States,' said Duss, a former foreign policy aide for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). 'That calculus has changed'."
It is also well known that Trump is a close supporter of Netanyahu. During his first term in office, he had shifted the US embassy to Jerusalem--a move that had been promised by previous Presidents but never done. Palestinians worry that Trump would also help Israel’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Though none of this figures in the ceasefire deal, there is the fear that Israel will continue to support incorporating large parts of Palestinian land in the region. Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israel, has long rejected a Palestinian state. Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and a former TV host and Baptist preacher, had told the Associated Press in an interview in 2015 that he supported recognising the West Bank as Israeli territory. As a supporter of the orthodox Jews and their Biblical claim to the promised land he had said, "I feel that we have a responsibility to respect that this is land that has 🧸historically belonged to the Jews.”
