Momentum builds for Israel-Gaza ceasefire, thanks to Trump’s MidEast envoy – National & International News

Hegseth puts on testy performance in confirmation hearing.

Momentum builds for Israel-Gaza ceasefire deal, thanks to Trump’s MidEast envoy.

NATIONAL NEWS

Hegseth puts on testy performance in confirmation hearing

Today, Fox News host Pete Hegseth faced members of the armed services committee who must vote on whether to forward his candidacy for Secretary of Defense to the full Senate for a vote. Republicans on the committee have signaled that, despite many initial misgivings, they intend to support Hegseth’s nomination. 

Democratic members of the committee grilled Hegseth on his fitness for office, his sexual misconduct, his alcoholism, his past poor performances in administrative positions, his disparaging comments about women in the military, and his willingness to follow illegal orders if given by Donald Trump (including firing on citizens on American soil). For the most part, Hegseth was evasive when answering these questions, and at times became combative. 

Since he is likely to win a party line vote within the Armed Services Committee, it now remains to be seen whether he will ultimately win confirmation. Republicans have a narrow 53 seat majority, and will need 50 votes to confirm him as the next Secretary of Defense. Several Republicans have voiced concerns about him, but it seems likely that he has the votes to win confirmation.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Momentum builds for Israel-Gaza ceasefire deal, thanks to Trump’s MidEast envoy

Over the past 15 months, the Biden administration has cleaned repeatedly that a deal to end Israel’s 15-month military onslaught on Gaza was imminent. Each time, this proved untrue. In almost every instance, it has been due to the intransigence of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Keeping the wars going as long as possible serves Netanyahu’s political and personal interests. Netanyahu’s fragile ruling coalition includes far-right religious extremists who want to seize Gaza for illegal Jewish settlements. They have threatened to leave the coalition if a deal is struck, at which point Netanyahu’s government would fall, and he would be once again vulnerable to corruption and bribery charges against him.

Each time a deal has been put on the table, Netanyahu moved the goalposts, adding conditions that he knew neither Hamas nor Israel’s Arab partners in the region would agree to. It was no different even when Hamas agreed to a deal that Israel’s own negotiators had proposed. 

Change of approach

While it is dangerous to hope that this time will be different, there are indications that this impasse may at last be broken. Mediators in Qatar say that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal in principle. While the full text has not yet been made available, sources close to the negotiation say that this deal is very much along the same lines of the deal that Netanyahu rejected in July 2024. That deal calls for a gradual withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza, as well as a gradual release of all hostages held by Hamas. 

If this deal does indeed come to fruition, it will be no thanks to the Biden administration’s overly deferential treatment of Israel and Netanyahu. The credit, if there is to be any, must go to Steven Witkoff, President-elect Trump’s Middle East envoy. Last week, Witkoff was shuttling back and forth between Dubai and Tel Aviv, meeting with Netanyahu on Saturday.

According to Israeli sources, Witkoff made it clear to Netanyahu that Trump wants this conflict wrapped up by the time he gets in office, and that it was time for Netanyahu to accept the deal he has repeatedly rejected.

Not so soft power

Reports in the Israeli press indicate that Witkoff, himself a Jewish-American, also made it clear that Netanyahu would not be getting the same deference he received under the Biden administration. Last Friday, while Witkoff was in Qatar, he phoned Netanyahu’s aids to inform them that he would be in Israel the following afternoon to meet with Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s aids explained that Netanyahu would not conduct business during the Sabbath, but would meet with Witkoff that night. Witkoff reportedly answered, in what Haaretz described as “salty English”, that the Sabbath was of no interest to him. Netanyahu duly met with Witkoff on Saturday afternoon, before Witkoff jetted back to Qatar to finalize the deal.

An Israeli diplomat told Haaretz, “Witkoff isn’t a diplomat. He doesn’t talk like a diplomat, he has no interest in diplomatic manners and diplomatic protocols. He’s a businessman who wants to reach a deal quickly and charges ahead unusually aggressively”.

Even if a deal is signed, that is no guarantee that the Israelis will honor it, or won’t look for any excuse to scrap it. Since signing the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in late November, Israel has violated the ceasefire over 1000 times. Israel has also refused to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, despite their agreement to do so under the terms of the deal.

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