Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
Finally, a ceasefire in Gaza is on the horizon, but as we’ve learnt over the past year, hope for a new beginning can turn into a mirage very quickly.
To help add a layer of clarity and nuance to all the headlines and ‘hot takes’ making the rounds, Zeteo’s latest Breaking News Town Hall features two of the smartest analysts on the region: Palestinian journalist Muhammad Shehada, originally from Gaza, and Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky.
Watch the full Town Hall above where Mehdi and the panelists also answered dozens of audience questions. How will the ceasefire hold? Who gets credit – Joe Biden or Donald Trump? What does reconstruction of Gaza look like? And what happens to Benjamin Netanyahu?
Mehdi and his guests started with: how cynical should we be about whether Israel actually commits to a ceasefire?
“I think the question is how cynical are they [the Israeli government] more than us.. I think we should be, like all journalists, skeptical and cautious,” says Tarnopolsky, who adds that she has a “tremendous fear” of this being a “truncated ceasefire.”
Meanwhile, outgoing President Joe Biden and incoming President Donald Trump are more than keen to take credit for the breakthrough in negotiations, although Shehada says he “wouldn’t give the Biden team any credit at this moment.“
“He [Biden] was far from doing enough on the ceasefire itself,” Shehada tells Mehdi, adding that Trump isn’t a knight in shining armor either. “There are already reports that Trump promised to allow Israel to violate the ceasefire, resume the war after phase one, as well as giving them a gift bag, literally, the verbatim quote is a ‘gift bag’, lifting all sanctions on Israeli settlers, extremists, and Israeli shady companies, as well as major land theft in the West Bank.“
Watch the full Town Hall to hear Tarnopolsky and Shehada debate and discuss Joe Biden’s role in the genocide and the ceasefire; the future of Hamas; and the prospects for the occupied West Bank.
And do consider becoming a paid subscriber today so you can join future Town Halls.
