00:00Yes, Israel accepting the 21-point peace plan that Donald Trump has presented to Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
00:07Keremogor Jastani, International Affairs Editor, pointing out 20 points is out.
00:11It appears to be right now, but basically the situation appears to be moving along from the Israeli side of things.
00:16But of course, on the other side of the equation, Hamas has not yet responded,
00:21and we don't know precisely what Hamas is going to say until, of course, they come out and tell us.
00:26Let's go to Jerusalem. Noka Tarnopolsky is there for us, our correspondent there.
00:31Noka, great to have you as always. I'm wondering what the word is where you are, what the reaction is,
00:36what your sense is about what we've been hearing.
00:41The reaction in Israel was immediate and very, very harsh.
00:47The news that the White House released ahead of the press conference,
00:51that Trump had compelled Netanyahu to apologize to Qatar,
00:56Qatar is the country that has funded Hamas for years,
01:00that has been a renowned funder, financier of terror around the Middle East for many years
01:07and transferred funds to the tune of around a billion dollars to Hamas itself in Gaza
01:14at Netanyahu's request.
01:15So the fact that the White House let it be known that Netanyahu apologized to the Qatari prime minister
01:23and the way that the White House handcuffed Netanyahu by releasing a written statement
01:29ahead of the press conference, confirming that he had expressed deep regret over the attack,
01:38the Israeli airstrike on Qatar recently, in which Israel was targeting Hamas leaders taking refuge in Doha
01:46in the Qatari capital, which failed to achieve its goals, but deeply, deeply offended Qatar over the breach of sovereignty.
01:54President Trump clearly compelled an apology from Netanyahu.
02:01And this has resulted in the finance minister, Netanyahu's finance minister, calling him a chamberlain,
02:08his minister of interior security, Ben Gvere, calling him even worse,
02:13and a wide range of attacks by the opposition for what is being seen as a humiliation to the country.
02:23The press conference itself was a fairly odd event in Israeli eyes.
02:30The prime minister said very little, accepted Trump's terms completely,
02:36and attempted to spin them as if they reflected what Netanyahu called
02:41that they achieve our war aims.
02:44In Israel, it's not clear how that happens, given that Hamas clearly survives
02:48and has not been defeated as a body, that it would be forced or compelled to lay down its arms
02:54by Qatar or by other Arab nations, but it would not be defeated.
03:00And many other questions, including where the Israeli army would withdraw to.
03:06So the reactions here have been really very severe.
03:11We're hearing a somewhat different tone from the hostages' families
03:16who put out a statement just a few minutes ago expressing their deep hope
03:21that what they call this special juncture, that somehow their loved ones will still be saved.
03:29That, of course, the major issue that has put so much pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu
03:33from within Israeli society, no doubt, isn't it?
03:36The fate of those hostages.
03:41Yeah.
03:41If we take a step back, Mark, we're talking about two miscalculations, as I see it.
03:48Hamas miscalculated, assuming that the Israeli ethos of leave no man behind applied also to Netanyahu.
03:57And they took the example of Netanyahu years ago now, more than 10 years ago,
04:05releasing around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Hamas leader Yich Yusinwar,
04:12who went on to lead the October 7th attack,
04:15in exchange for a single Israeli soldier who had been taken hostage and held by Hamas for five years.
04:22That was the case of Gilad Shalit.
04:24And it evidently led Hamas to make this assumption that if they took Israeli hostages,
04:31Netanyahu would be forced to accede.
04:36And Netanyahu did not respond to that.
04:39He didn't respond to hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the streets demanding it.
04:43He didn't respond when Hamas kept being able to kill Israeli soldiers.
04:47And we see on the Israeli side also a miscalculation on Netanyahu's part.
04:54It's evident today that he did not think this question of the hostages' fate would capture the Israeli public the way it did.
05:03And he found himself stuck between Hamas's expectations and Israelis' expectations.
05:10And he had to act in the face of each.
05:13He refused, I have to say.
05:15The only person, as we've been saying on your program, Mark, for several weeks,
05:18the only person able to put pressure on Netanyahu, able to get a response out of Netanyahu, is and was Donald Trump.
05:26All of this said, there is no signed agreement yet.
05:30And there is also no okay yet from Hamas.
05:34So we're not quite over the edge.
05:37But it does feel like a different possibility is now in the air.
05:41So we're not going to be able to get a response out of the air.
05:44So we're not going to be able to get a response out of the air.
05:46So we're going to be able to get a response out of the air.
05:48So we're going to be able to get a response out of the air.
05:50So we're going to be able to get a response out of the air.
05:51So we're going to be able to get a response out of the air.
05:52So we're going to get a response out of the air.
05:53So we're going to get a response out of the air.
05:54So we're going to get a response out of the air.
05:55So we're going to get a response out of the air.
05:56So we're going to get a response out of the air.
05:57So we're going to get a response out of the air.
05:58So we're going to get a response out of the air.
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