Israel’s former justice minister Yossi Beilin has said that the future of the Israel-Hamas deal, that is, whether there is a permanent ceasefire and Israel withdraws from Gaza, depends on the position taken by the newly-elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, who was sworn-in on January 20, 2025, for his second term.
Beilin says that phase 2 of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal will not be implemented if it means leaving Hamas in power and in control of Gaza. However, if Trump can persuade Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept control by the Palestine Authority, the latter will have no credible grounds for not implementing phase 2 of the deal.
In a 20-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Yossi Beilin argues that Trump’s ambition and quest for a Nobel Prize could prompt him to put pressure on Netanyahu to accept control of Gaza by the Palestine Authority (in place of Hamas) and then, beyond that, agree to a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli defence forces from Gaza.
However, scenes shown on television, when the three Israeli hostages were released, of hundreds of Hamas fighters holding assault rifles and wearing green bandanas, establish the fact that although Hamas is diminished and debilitated it’s not as yet vanquished. The message seemed to be that Hamas’s presence will continue.
This interview looks beyond the release of hostages and Palestine prisoners envisaged in phase 1 of the Israel-Hamas deal and addresses the bigger question of if there will be a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Gaza.
