Tommy Vietor
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
He was like, it's phase one.
We'll get to that later.
And that allowed all the parties to get into more detailed talks
where I think then surprisingly, Hamas gave this big concession where they said the IDF can remain in parts of Gaza.
There's some reports that they might control half of the Gaza Strip.
And what the Wall Street Journal says is, like Qatar and Turkey said to Hamas, like, it's now or never.
You agree to this, or we're no longer gonna give you diplomatic cover.
We're kicking your political office out of the country.
And the Egyptians were like, and on top of that, we're not gonna lobby for you to be part of the future governance of the Gaza Strip.
And so they said yes, and they agreed to it.
And everyone else just like punted on all the other stuff about Hamas disarming and having to de-radicalize, et cetera.
And also Trump, like he let Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet with Hamas directly.
Usually that's done through intermediaries.
That doesn't happen.
And that I think got them over the hump of feeling like, okay,
Hamas, that is, if they give up the hostages, as sick as it sounds, that's their leverage in this deal, right?
And they needed Trump's assurance that he would force the Israelis to go through with the rest of the deal.
So I really think he played a critical role here.
And I think you're right.