The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | March 1st, 2025: Will Gaza Erupt Again? Cease-Fire Nears Collapse & America’s Energy Security
01 Mar 2025
In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: Tensions are rising as the fragile Gaza cease-fire deal nears its expiration on Saturday. With no agreement yet on the fate of the remaining hostages, will Israel and Hamas return to the negotiating table—or is another round of war imminent? Former Deputy Assistant to the President Robert Greenway joins us to break it all down. Later in the show, President Trump is pushing to expand energy exploration and production to secure America's energy independence. But what does this mean for national security? Daniel Turner, Executive Director of Power The Future, joins us to discuss. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Beam: Visit https://ShopBeam.com/MIKE and use code MIKE for up to 40% off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. Tensions are high as the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal inches closer to its expiration on Saturday. With no agreement yet on the fate of the remaining hostages, will Israel and Hamas return to the negotiating table or miss another round of war imminent?
Former deputy assistant to the president, Robert Greenway, joins us to break it all down. Later in the show, President Trump is pushing to expand energy exploration and production to secure America's energy independence. But what does this mean for the country's national security? Well, Daniel Turner, executive director of Power of the Future, he'll join us to discuss.
But first, today's Situation Report Spotlight. The fragile Gaza ceasefire deal. It's set to expire this weekend with no agreement yet on a second phase to secure the release of the remaining hostages. Now, over the past six weeks, as I'm sure you know from following the PDB, Hamas has freed 33 Israeli hostages and five Thai nationals.
That's an initial step that mediators hoped would lead to lasting peace. But since January, both sides have accused each other of violating the deal and negotiations have stalled. Hamas is demanding a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and that's a condition that Israel refuses to accept, particularly with reports that Hamas is busy recruiting and training new fighters.
That leaves 28 Israeli hostages still believed to be alive, with their fate hanging in the balance. Beyond the ceasefire, the question of who will govern post-war Gaza, well, that remains unanswered as Israel insists Hamas cannot return to power, but has yet to propose an alternative. Joining us now to discuss is Robert Greenway.
He's the former deputy assistant to President Trump and director of the Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation. Robert, thanks very much for taking the time. Great to be with you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, go to the 30,000 foot level here. I know this is a very broad initial question, but from your perspective, where are we going with this?
We're coming up on the end of the first phase of the ceasefire with Israel and Hamas. What next from your perspective?
Yeah, it's hard to envision that we're going to get to the next phase of this. And there's a lot of reasons for it, not least of which is what's playing out in real time, is that Hamas, unfortunately, has little left other than corpses to trade. And the way in which they transfer it, all it does is aggravate and exacerbate the tensions for Israel.
So where I think we're headed next is, frankly, a resurrection of military operations or resumption of military operations at scale and incrementally against Hamas. While diplomatic talks are ongoing. But Hamas, again, has very little leverage left to play. And Israel's interests are inimical to what Hamas is attempting to achieve.
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