GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 437

Maybe They’re Listening

Hostage Deal Close

At least that’s what we’re hearing from so many places. One of the main reasons could be the shift in power on January 20th of next year and the swearing in of the next US president as we read in a report from The Times Of Israel:

US President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he is working to secure the release of the hostages in Gaza.

“We are trying to help very strongly in getting the hostages back,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The President-elect is said to be coordinating with the current administration on the hostage situation:

The Trump transition team has been working together with the outgoing Biden administration in the past weeks to try to secure a hostage release and ceasefire deal before the president-elect enters office. The initiative has made progress in recent days, though major obstacles remain, three US, Israeli, and Arab officials have told The Times of Israel.

And then Trump dropped yet another bomb when he added this:

If the hostages are not home by his January 20, 2025, inauguration day, “all hell is going to break out,” Trump added, reiterating a threat he issued earlier this month.

And I don’t think he’s talking about only American hostages or just some of the numbers being floated around. He also said his talks with the Israeli PM are going well:

Trump confirmed that he held a “recap call” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend, but did not go into specifics. “We had a very good talk, and we discussed what is going to happen, and I’ll be very available on January 20, and we’ll see,” he said.

Both administrations, the current one and the coming one are involved in the talks in Egypt:

In the meantime, Trump’s Mideast envoys Steve Witkoff and Massad Boulos were in the region last week, meeting with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, respectively, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Times of Israel.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was also in Israel, Egypt, and Qatar over the weekend, and said he believed a ceasefire deal would be possible by the end of the month.

White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk traveled with Sullivan and remained in the region on Monday, in order to take talks forward.

And the rest of the international “gang” is there:

Relatedly, a working-level Israeli delegation arrived in Doha on Monday to advance hostage talks, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel. The Israeli delegation includes representatives from the IDF, Shin Bet, and Mossad.

Also on Monday, Netanyahu met with Trump’s newly appointed hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, the premier’s office said, while declining to share additional details about the sit-down.

Productive?

Apparently the US thinks they are closing the gaps between the two sides. However they also note that such hope can be dashed, too:

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said hostage talks have been “productive” in recent days and that the mediators were working on closing the remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas.

However, he stressed during a press briefing that the sides have been this close to a deal before, only for the talks to blow up.

There are a very small number of differences between Israel and Hamas, and the gaps are bridgeable, Miller noted.

They are also ramping up the pressure on Hamas if that’s even possible:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan during meetings last week that they should use whatever influence they have over Hamas to secure a deal, Miller said, adding that Fidan later reported back to the secretary that Ankara had done just that. The State Department spokesperson added that Qatar and Egypt are also leaning on the terror group to agree to a deal.

And like a broken record that just keeps skipping and repeating the same phrase we hear that the main issues are exactly the ones I’ve told you about. Try not to act surprised by them:

Arab mediators have told The Times of Israel that the main obstacle remains the question of whether the ceasefire being negotiated will be permanent or temporary, with Israel insisting that it be allowed to return to fighting after the first phase of the deal, while Hamas wants the IDF to permanently withdraw.

So Hamas will only release hostages if they are allowed to survive after a vicious attack on Israel, one that has been compared to the terrorists attack on 9/11. Israel is adamant on not letting them off the hook and will not agree to anything that lets Hamas continue on in any form. Miller states the obvious, though:

Miller said the US is pushing as hard as it can to secure a deal, but that it will be incumbent on Hamas and Israel to bring the agreement across the finish line.

Although I’m sure that Trump knows more than he’s letting on, his comments and past history with Iran are more than hinting he fully intends to follow through with his warnings to Hamas and anyone pulling their strings. How he’ll do it remains to be seen. And we must factor in the affinity for martyrdom that these terrorists boast about. Could it be that they want to die fighting even if it is against a US fighting force that is vastly superior to any they’ve faced? Trump also can very easily telling Netanyahu that they can take the gloves off unlike the current administration that always slowed them down or flat our threatened them if they went after Hamas full throated. In any event, the Middle East could be in for a huge change in approach and if there is any last vestiges of sanity in Iran and its proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas and even the Houthi rebels in Yemen they would be wise to cut their losses and release all the hostages now. They have 34 days, 18 hours to do it and the clock is literally ticking.