Hamas has accepted Trump brokered peace deal along with Israel, potentially ending the Gaza War.

 

Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. Fox News/Getty.

Hamas has accepted a Trump brokered peace deal along with Israel, potentially bringing an end to the Gaza War. Fox News. Trump said on Truth Social that Hamas had accepted the deal and that all hostages would be released by Hamas. In return Israel would pull out of the Gaza Strip in a phased withdrawal. Hamas would also lay down their arms and give up power in the Gaza Strip for an international coalition. The deal is expected to be signed on Thursday. The full details of the agreement has not been released. The living hostages will be released by 72 hours but the bodies of the dead hostages will take longer as Hamas no longer has control of all of them, due to them being buried in ruble in the fighting. Roughly 2000 Hamas and Gazan prisoners would be released as well. 

My Comment:

Time will tell if this cease-fire and peace deal holds, but as of now it looks likely that it will. Hamas pretty much has no choice, they are done as a fighting force and extending the war any further would just cause the ones that are left to die. It's an easy decision for them to make and as long as they and Israel agree, the war should end, and fairly quickly too. 

To be fair, even if the deal falls apart, it will probably be after all the hostages are released. That's the casus belli for Israel and starting the war again after that would probably cost them America's support. Both Hamas and Israel are under intense pressure from Trump, and other powers in the region, to keep to this deal. The only question I have is if both sides are made of rational actors. Hamas have proven that they aren't, much of the time, and Israel has their hardliners too. 

Even if the only thing that happens is the phase 1 release where the hostages are let go, it would be a massive win for President Trump. Not only would he silence the anti-Israel parts of the right (short of the truly nuts ones like Candace Owens), it would be removing the issue as a motivating factor for both the Democratic Party and the far left. If the war starts again after the hostages are released, he would take a hit, but it would still be a major win for him to hold his hat on. 

It would also fully cement Trump's legacy as a peacemaker. You can say what you want about  Donald Trump but it is clear that he does care about making peace. Ending the war in Gaza would be the biggest feather in his cap and it would be a huge victory for him. And he could rightly claim that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, even though there is no chance that he will get it. 

I do wonder how the far left is going to react to this news, if the peace holds. They have been demanding a cease fire since the war began and now they are getting one, but it's because of Trump's diplomatic actions. 

My guess is that it won't do too much. The far left hates Trump and Hates Israel and I never thought that they actually cared about the people of Gaza. I am guessing that if the peace deal holds, they will still hate both even though Trump gave them what they wanted. They will probably say that because the deal doesn't result in statehood for Palestine, it's not good enough, even though it will end the war. 

As for Trump, if he pulls this off, he will only have the Russia-Ukraine war to deal with, and I still say that would be the toughest nut to crack by far. Hamas took this deal because they were on the verge of antihalation and they had no realistic chance to fight, let alone win, against Israel. 

That's not the case in Ukraine. Though I have argued that Ukraine will absolutely lose the war, they still control a lot of territory and have just enough military power that the war will have to continue. And there is always the reality that Zelensky would be killed if he tries to actually make peace. 

If Trump were to pull it off he would be the biggest peacemaker in modern history. Indeed, even if he can't crack the Ukraine-Russia nut, ending the Gaza war alone would be enough to call him that. The man likes to end wars, what can you say?