A “tense” weekend meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff led to a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations, with the top aide to US President-elect Donald Trump doing more to sway the premier in a single sit-down than outgoing President Joe Biden did all year, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
Witkoff has been in Doha for the past week to take part in the hostage negotiations, as mediators try to secure a deal before Trump’s January 20 inauguration. On Saturday, Witkoff flew to Israel for a meeting with Netanyahu at the premier’s Jerusalem office.
During the meeting, Witkoff urged Netanyahu to accept key compromises necessary for an agreement, the two Arab officials on Monday told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity. Neither Witkoff nor Netanyahu’s office responded to requests for comment.
Between November 5th and now would have done exactly jack shit. Especially when that would be immediately reversed by Trump anyway. Besides, it’s not as though the Democratic party ceases to exist. What makes you think Israel still wouldn’t do that in order to justify even worse atrocities, then blame Democrats anyway? That’s what’s called a High Risk / Low Reward play.
But nah man, keep believing Trump will be better, or hell even “equally bad.” If you genuinely care about Palestinians, then you’re about to get a wake-up call. Moving the embassy to Jeruselum while telling Bibi to, “Finish the job.” Well, mission accomplished I guess.
Though with anonymity and online astroturfing operations I cannot rule out the viable alternative.
Truly I cannot believe how after all this time and everything Trump and Bibi has done that people are still naive enough to believe they’re acting in good faith and not entirely for political optics. Absolutely remarkable.
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I will take Trump stopping a genocide for optics over Biden not stopping a genocide for optics. But whatever you need to justify your world view.
You could at least wait until he actually stops it before giving him credit. It’s not like he has a history of following through on his promises.
I did. The Israeli government just signed the ceasefire.
Ohhhhh ok well in that case… 🙄
Oh yeah, duh. Because the Israeli government never broke a signed ceasefire before. I forgot. They always do what they say.
Say. Are you interested in sending me money to help build a bridge?
So first you say “wait untli the ceasefire is signed”. Now when it is signed you say “wait until Israel breaks it”.
According to your own standards you are only allowed to rag on Trump after Israel breaks the ceasefire.
You’re combining what I said with another commenter to make some weird argument about moving goalposts or some shit. I didn’t say anything of the sort. I just think it’s worth pointing out that Israel has broken their ceasefire agreements like hundreds of times. If you’re going to use the ceasefire as a benchmark, it’s probably important to know the context around previous ceasefires and how pointless they’ve been.
But hey. It sounds like you just wanna pat yourself on the back. You don’t need to respond to me to do that.
You are not wrong about Israel violating ceasefires. When Israel inevitably does, I will make a post about how much Trump has been humiliated if that makes you happy.
For now though, the genocide stops. And that is good. Joe Biden could have taken credit for a ceasefire for more than a year. But Biden chose to lose the election to continue the genocide. Biden ideologically wanted to destroy Gaza. Biden did to Gaza all the things you are projecting on Trump.
And now against all odds Trump stops it. So he gets credit.
I hope you’re right that things do actually stop.
I guess I’m just too cynical. I don’t think either Trump or Biden actually give a shit about perpetuating, stopping or even acknowledging genocide. I don’t think they have any ideological alignment other aligning to whichever lobbyist paid the most this week. Selling weapons is normal business for US, and we’ll continue to justify selling weapons whenever there’s money to be made.
As I said, truly remarkable you trust Arab figures speaking on anonymity and Donald Trump’s word for what he supposedly did.
Tell me, did he “do the weave”? Lmao.
Forgetting you sourced Times of Israel. What a gem. What’s next, RT?
What a colosally flimsy house of cards to build the hill you’re choosing to die on.
You do not understand what the source means.
Israelis are mad about the ceasefire. They are angry at Trump. You just admitted that Biden forcing a ceasefire would earn him criticism from Israel.
Netanyahu is trying to wiggle out of the ceasefire with his classic lies and Trump will not let him. Biden would gladly blame Hamas for another twelve rounds of failed negotiations like he has done for the past year.
No, I said Biden restricting weapons would earn him criticism from Israel, as well as domestically. Huge difference.
To reiterate the dodged points:
Circular Reasoning Fallacy: We have yet to establish that Trump had anything to actually do with the ceasefire beyond unreliable sources, speaking from anonymity, cited by yet another unreliable source controlled by the PM who sought Trump’s reelection in the first place.
Given both Bibi and Trump’s propensity for showboating, this is all political theatrics to make Trump look good. If I was a piece of shit like them, I’d do the same thing.
A ceasefire is utterly meaningless by this point anyway. If you haven’t noticed, Trump told Bibi to “Finish the job,” and Bibi pretty much did. There isn’t much left in gaza to cease firing upon in the first place. The damage is done.
Trump and Bibi are closer than Bibi and Biden. If you can’t grasp this, you will in time.
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Not exactly thinking this through with any depth when the fallout is cementing the greater genocidal administration.
Strange how Bibi and AIPAC wanted Trump to win. I’m shocked I tell ya.
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Good sir/madam, I’m deflecting merely to the elephant in the room. Why focus on the little fish on the eve of the big fish entering office?
Let’s just see how good Trump is for Palestinians going forward ;)
Don’t forget to pat yourself on the back for this pyrrhic victory.
Nobody and I mean absolutely nobody is closer to Netanyahu than Joe BIden. And if you do not know this you do not know anything about Joe Biden.
Oh? When did Biden say to Bibi, “Finish the job.”? In addition to providing arms to Israel over the course of Trump’s first term, he also moved the embassy to Jeruselum. Did Biden do that? No siree.
If you weren’t aware, they had a falling out over the course of 2024 with reports indicating this as early as February. Before that I might be inclined to agree, Trump’s lack of moral character notwithstanding.
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So ultimately he was doing less than what Trump did do in his first term, and said he would do. Got it.
Biden said that right here
So he did not say that, or move the embassy to Jeruselum and merely continued the same track, as I had already said and without any sort of rebuttal, considering the a) damage to Democrats and b) Trump reversing course the second he gets into office anyway.
Moot.
My points still stand.