Political analysts stressed the need for the American administration to recalculate the issue of the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, and to stop placing the responsibility for always obstructing the negotiations on the latter party, “in order to guarantee its interests in the Middle East region.”
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced – in a joint statement last Saturday – that reaching an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the exchange of prisoners has become “closer than any previous ceasefire” if it is not put in place. Israel “new conditions.”
Meanwhile, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted an informed Israeli source as saying that the deadline for concluding the deal may extend until the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, after there was an intention to sign the agreement this month.
Former CIA Director Bernard Hudson said – in the analytical pause “The Course of Events” – that Trump’s team is currently monitoring the situation between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and he is likely to set conditions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to develop a temporary plan to solve the prisoner problem in the Gaza Strip. Gaza.
Hudson stressed that Trump’s priority will be the return of American prisoners held by the resistance in Gaza, and warned of a “major change” in American policy if these prisoners are not released. He said that Trump’s perception is that “anyone who holds an American hostage will become an enemy of the United States.” Pointing out that the change will come through providing greater support to Israel and other options.
For his part, the writer and political analyst Ahmed Al-Haila objected to Hudson’s words, and said that the American administration “does not see what Netanyahu is committing in terms of massacres and genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, and does not see that he and his former Defense Minister Yoav Galant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza.” .
The writer called on the incoming American administration to review its calculations from the perspective of interests, “because otherwise it will close the door to the issue of Israel’s integration in the region,” pointing out that the Americans and Israelis believe that they have weakened the Hamas movement and the Lebanese Hezbollah, but their reading of matters is “tactical” and cannot be built on strategically.
He did not rule out that Trump would resort to stopping the war in Gaza “if it is in the American interest to pass major issues and projects in the Middle East.”
The Israeli right is counting on Trump’s return to the White House – as academic and expert on Israeli affairs Muhannad Mustafa says – in order to support Israel in remaining in Gaza and controlling the northern Gaza Strip.
Mustafa confirms that Netanyahu is concerned with the future of the occupation in Gaza, and therefore he is working to obstruct the ongoing negotiations by setting new conditions and reopening files that were agreed upon, indicating that there is an internal Israeli consensus that Netanyahu is the obstructionist.
In the same context, Al-Haila explained that it is not Hamas that is obstructing the negotiations, but Netanyahu. There were some clear provisions that were agreed upon in the first stage, such as the release of children, the elderly, women, and the sick, but Netanyahu wanted to add a number of soldiers to the list to thwart the deal, and Hamas also accepted. According to sources, five female recruits were released in the first phase with a show of good faith, but Netanyahu deliberately added other conditions.
The writer and political analyst believes that the mediators have what he described as creative ideas to resolve the knots that obstruct the negotiations, including, for example, their proposal that the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes be through the supervision of a third party and not through the Israeli occupation.
It is noteworthy that the Qatari Foreign Ministry confirmed the continuation of ceasefire negotiations in Gaza within the framework of technical discussions. In a press conference in Doha, its spokesman, Majid Al-Ansari, called on all parties to cooperate with the Qatari-Egyptian-American mediation.