Ehud Barak
The hostages are coming home. It will take 72 hours, possibly longer for some of the deceased, but it is happening. In the Israeli and Jewish ethos, this is a supreme moral and operational duty that underpins the Israeli fighting spirit and national resilience. Over the past year and a half, suspicions repeatedly emerged that the Prime Minister sabotaged mature deals for the hostages' release. Today, that is behind us.
This is, first and foremost, an achievement of President Trump, who demonstrated determination to end the war and showed greater sensitivity to the hostages' fate than Netanyahu did. As with his order to end the 12-day war with Iran, Trump seemed to dictate to Netanyahu what is good for Israel, against Netanyahu's wishes. Trump also recruited Turkey to pressure Hamas. With Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah neutralized, and Hamas politically surrounded by its supporters—Qatar and Turkey, alongside Egypt which controls their "oxygen pipeline," and the UAE and Saudi Arabia which hold the purse for Gaza's reconstruction—Hamas had no choice but to submit.
Key partners in this struggle were the hostage families and the protest movement. Trump referred to their moving images from Tel Aviv repeatedly in his social media posts. Before us is proof of a painful truth: Israel and Netanyahu are not the same thing. Netanyahu's government and Israel's security-national interests are not in the same place. Citizens and leaders worldwide can support Israel or criticize its actions while simultaneously opposing Netanyahu and his government. Many Israeli patriots are in exactly that position.
The first four points of the agreement will likely be implemented in the next 72 hours. Implementation of the remaining 16 points could still go awry. One must hope that Trump's determination will hold. Before us is an opportunity to end the war in Gaza, which includes replacing Hamas with an inter-Arab force, a technocratic government and Palestinian bureaucracy, under supervision of an international steering committee headed by Tony Blair.
In parallel, a new security force will be built, to which Hamas's heavy weapons will be transferred, and reconstruction will begin with primarily Saudi and Emirati funding. Israel is supposed to insist on two conditions: first, no person who belonged to Hamas's military wing can be a member of any organ of the new entity. Second, the withdrawal to the final line will occur only when agreed-upon security milestones are actually implemented. This arrangement could open a new chapter including normalization with Saudi Arabia, expansion of the Abraham Accords, and establishing the "economic corridor" from India through the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia to Israel and from there to Europe.
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