The Only Deal Acceptable is a Full Deal that Ends the War

August 15, 2025

The Israeli news reported this evening that Hamas has agreed to return to negotiate what was called “the Witkoff Deal” – the bad deal that brings home half of the Israeli hostages (dead and alive) and a ceasefire that will last 60 days. To the best of my knowledge this is a lie. When the negotiations on the 60-day ceasefire took place last month and months before, Hamas did not understand why Israel insisted on demanding only half of the hostages – why not all of them? It became clear to them that the reason was that Netanyahu refused to end the war and therefore, Israel would not negotiate for all of the hostages. Hamas was really confused because for more than a year Hamas had made it clear that only ending the war and Israel completely withdrawing from Gaza would bring about a release of all of the hostages.

In October 2024, I was in Doha and heard from the Qatari mediators that Hamas was prepared to release all of the hostages in exchange for the same demands that they have today: ending the war, no Israeli soldiers in Gaza, an agreed release of Palestinian prisoners, significant increase of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza and distributed by the international organizations. Even then, as today, and as I had received from Hamas in August 2024, in writing in Arabic and English, a statement that Hamas would not govern Gaza any longer and that a professional technocratic Palestinian government would be established and given all authorities and it would not include Hamas.

During all of the past week, members of the Hamas negotiating team, including the head of the team, Khalil al Haya, were in Cairo where they met with the Egyptian intelligence, including its head, and with Qatari mediators who also were in Cairo. Throughout the week, the Hamas team was told by the mediators that Israel will only agree to a partial deal and not “an end of war deal”. Then they heard Netanyahu say that Israel would only accept a full deal that releases all of the hostages. They also heard that the head of Mossad was in Qatar and told the Qataris that Israel would only agree to a comprehensive deal that releases all of the hostages. The Hamas team was even more confused. The mediators were pushing them for a partial deal but they thought that Netanyahu was only interested in a full comprehensive deal. But then Netanyahu kept speaking about conquering all of Gaza and he said that Israel would hold sovereignty over all of the West Bank and spoke about Greater Israel.

There is no mystery here. Netanyahu is still trying to sell us the same old lie that Israel will bring Hamas to its knees and then all of the hostages will come home. Israel told the mediators that it would only accept a partial deal, only to drag the negotiations on while the war continues. Netanyahu has absolutely no intention of making any deal with Hamas and Hamas will never surrender to Israel. In the meantime, Netanyahu has convinced President Trump that if Israel withdraws from Gaza, Hamas is the only armed force that will continue to control Gaza and then it will rebuild its forces and threaten Israel again. Even though Hamas is decimated and has no real military ability to threaten Israel, and all of its political leaders and most of its military commanders are dead, Netanyahu continues to scare the Israeli public (and President Trump) that October 7 could happen again. That pretty much convinced Trump which is when the US President said “Israel will do what Israel needs to do. It’s an Israeli decision”. The release of the videos of Israeli hostages Rom Braslovsky and Eviatar David in which they looked like victims of concentration camps from World War II, starved and close to death, pushed Trump over the edge. Trump saw those videos and decided that Israel should continue to destroy Hamas until the end. Trump was very emotionally moved by those videos and if before seeing them there was a chance that Trump would tell Netanyahu to end the war and to “get it done”, after seeing them, Trump was much more inclined to allow the war to continue – as long as Israel allowed more food into Gaza. Witkoff was sent to Israel to make sure that would happen and he even went to one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites to see it with his own eyes.

From what I have heard from senior American personnel involved in the negotiations is that the US wants the war to end. But they do ascribe to the claim that Netanyahu raised in his meetings with Trump – there is no acceptable viable Palestinian or Arab alternative to Hamas in Gaza. While it clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want any viable Gaza Palestinian or Arab government to appear and get the support of the region and of the US as well as the support of the Palestinian people themselves, it seems that the Americans do want this to happen. But from my vantage point, despite what has been reported a little bit in the Israeli press, it will not come from a US initiative. Egypt has been working on this for quite some time. A senior person in Hamas, as well as another well-known non-Hamas Palestinian leader told me that all of the Palestinian factions have met several times, in Cairo, and have agreed on a Palestinian Gaza governing council – including the names of the people who should be on the council. But this is still not happening and if Hamas and the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah want to end the war, they need to convince Trump that the solution for who will govern Gaza and what will happen with the remaining Hamas armed personnel is solved and reasonable and can be acceptable.

In the negotiations in Cairo and Doha, the Hamas representatives are constantly debating on what Israel will accept and what Israel will reject. They are constantly discussing with the mediators the boundaries of their own demands with respect to Israel’s demands. Israel isn’t in the room and yet Israel’s red lines and Israel’s demands are the subject that they are discussing. What Hamas does not yet understand is that they need to see only one person in the room and that is Donald Trump. They really don’t need to negotiate with Israel – at least not at this point. If Hamas indeed wants to end the war and for Israel to get out of Gaza, they need to take the initiative and draw up a plan that not only includes releasing all 50 of the Israeli hostages in 24-48 hours (as they have said), and not only includes the release of Palestinian prisoners (on which they say they are willing to be more flexible in their demands), and not only ends the war and leads to a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, they need to clearly demonstrate that their role in governing Gaza is over, and that the long-term ceasefire means that Hamas will no longer have a military wing in Gaza.

Israel will not withdraw from all of Gaza without there being a fully functional new Palestinian government in Gaza committed to a long-term ceasefire without any ability to build a military force and accumulate or manufacture weapons. The new Palestinian government, according to what Arab leaders and leading Palestinians say, will invite an international Arab-led security presence to come to Gaza to help to build law and order and to remove all threats of attacks from Gaza against Israel and all attacks by Israel against Gaza. This will not happen overnight – it will take time. But a full and comprehensive agreement to end the war can happen immediately. The end of the war can be declared. All hostages can be released in 24-48 hours coordinated with the release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel can withdraw in phases over a relatively short period of time. Egypt is in the process now of training 5000 Palestinian police cadets that can be deployed to Gaza in a short period of time. With an agreed time-frame, Israel can withdraw to the border and establish a no-entry perimeter zone all along the 45-kilometer-long Israel-Gaza border while being deployed on the Israeli side of the border. In this no-entry zone of 500-750 meters depth, there will be “shoot to kill” policy until the time comes when there really is no threat from Gaza. Hamas will agree to this because there will no longer be Israeli soldiers in Gaza. In the absence of Israeli soldiers, there are also no Israeli soldiers to be shot at by armed Hamas personnel.

There will be no international and Arab money coming into Gaza for reconstruction as long as Hamas remains in power and the new Palestinian non-Hamas government is up and running. Hamas knows this as well. Food and medical supplies will flood Gaza as soon as possible, through international organizations and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will be canceled and will return to the United States. This is all possible if Hamas can convince President Trump that their proposal to end the war, to release all of the hostages and to cease all aggression against Israel is genuine. Hamas could begin by feeding the hostages, and releasing videos of hostages receiving medical care and food and clean water – not on a one-time basis for the purpose of filming them – but until the agreement is concluded and they are all released. Hamas claims that the people are Gaza are being starved and that the hostages get the same treatment as the Gazans get. Whether or not this is true, their starving the hostages is counterproductive to the Hamas claim that they want the war to end.

There is only one person in the world who can make this war end and that is Donald Trump. Hamas needs to address their initiative and propose to end the war to President Trump. Hamas also knows very well that they need to give their proposal directly to the Prime Minister of Qatar because he is the one who will tell the Americans if Hamas is serious and genuine in what they are proposing. And if there are readers who are bewildered by the Americans taking the word of the Qataris at face values after Qatar funded and hosts Hamas, and Al Jazeera is the voice of Islamic extremism, well that is the very bizarre reality of the world today, of the region, of Israel and Hamas. Trump trusts the Qataris.

Ending the war in Gaza is enough for President Trump to get the Nobel Peace Prize and he would deserve it. When this war is over, we the people of Israel and the people of Palestine have to get our own political houses in order. We need to oust all of the current leaders and find new leaders who will be willing to guarantee that the Gaza war will be the last Israeli-Palestinian war. When that happens the people of Israel and the people of Palestine will get a much more valuable prize than the Nobel – we will all enjoy the freedom, liberation, security and dignity that we all need. And it should be understood and neither side will get it if both sides don’t get it.