General Discussion

The war and protesters were Netanyahu and GOP's ploy to get Trump elected.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/13/middleeast/hamas-33-hostages-israel-ceasefire-talks-intl-latam/index.html

“The deal is essentially the same deal that has been on the table since May. It was a bad deal then and it is still a bad deal because it will be carried out over too long a period of time, between two and three months,” Baskin said. “The deal will only return 33 hostages in the first 42 days and the rest only after that, without certainty.”

Baskin served as a mediator between Israel and Hamas during Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s five years of captivity in Gaza.
His negotiations eventually led to a major exchange in October 2011 when Shalit was traded for over 1,000 prisoners.

Baskin blamed US President Joe Biden for promoting a “bad deal,” and said ]Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “giving in” to US President-elect Donald Trump “to please him, not to return the hostages.”


The first phase would see the release of 33 hostages held by Hamas and its allies since October 7, including women, children, men over the age of 50 and wounded people. Israel would release “many hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners in exchange, an Israeli official said, including Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis.


https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-deal-talks-01-14-25-intl/index.html