If this thing works, and this plan seems more likely to work than anything we’ve seen in the past 70 years, we might remember it only came about as a result of Israel’s terrible Sep. 9 decision to bomb Qatar a month ago and Trump’s desperate desire for the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n
Big doors swing on small hinges. <\/p>\n
The New York Times reported Oct. 3<\/a>:<\/p>\n The Israeli jets over the Red Sea launched a volley of missiles that arced high into the atmosphere and came down on a residential neighborhood in Doha, Qatar, where Hamas representatives were discussing the possibility of a plan to end the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n The Sept. 9 strike was a stunning provocation by Israel: negotiation by bombing the negotiators. Even more than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s other aggressive acts in the Middle East over the past year, this one so rankled government officials both in the region and in Washington that it threatened to blow up the prospects for a cease-fire.<\/p>\n But 20 days later, Mr. Netanyahu and President Trump stood together at the White House, declaring support for a plan that could end the nearly two-year-old war. Mr. Trump, with typical hyperbole, labeled it \u201ca big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization.\u201d Mr. Netanyahu, more cautious, said the proposal \u201cachieves our war aims.\u201d<\/p>\n The brazen Israeli attack failed to kill its targets. But it motivated an angry Mr. Trump and his advisers to pressure Mr. Netanyahu into supporting a framework for ending the war, after months in which the president appeared to have given the Israeli leader a free pass to continue assaulting Hamas even as the death toll and suffering among Palestinian civilians rose to levels that left Israel increasingly isolated.<\/p>\n The plan got a boost on Friday night when Hamas said it had agreed to release all of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza as well as the bodies of those who had died, in response to the peace proposal introduced by Mr. Trump.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If this thing works, and this plan seems more likely to work than anything we’ve seen in the past 70 years, we might remember it only came about as a result of Israel’s terrible Sep. 9 decision to bomb Qatar … Continue reading