President Trump arrives in Israel as a massive delegation welcomes him with full red-carpet diplomacy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu together with dignitaries from Israel and the U.S. negotiating team greet President Trump as he arrives at the airport. [Video Prompted]
President Trump will address the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, as the first steps of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continue to come into effect. The first seven of the final remaining hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, were returned to Israel on Monday as part of a prisoner exchange. Full schedule below the arrival video.
President Donald Trump speaks to journalists aboard Air Force One as he heads to Israel and Egypt to participate in a historic ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. WATCH:
President Trump delivered brief remarks from Joint Base Andrews as he departs the U.S. to attend events around the brokered peace agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. [Itinerary Below Video].
With Egypt controlling the critical southern border with Gaza, and with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi playing a critical role in facilitating the peace agreement, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty appears on Face the Nation to discuss the first phase of the Gaza peace agreement.
As noted by Abdelatty, the regional coalition trusts the objectives and intentions of President Trump, and all the regional states are relying upon President Trump’s leadership to secure the future for Gaza and the Palestinian people. WATCH:
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the Foreign Minister of Egypt, Dr. Badr Abdelatty, and he joins us this morning from Cairo. Welcome to Face The Nation.
EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER BADR ABDELATTY: Good to be with you, Margaret. Thank you so much for hosting me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So President Trump is headed to Egypt. I know he will be meeting with President al-Sisi tomorrow in Sharm El-Sheik to discuss this agreement about Gaza. But everything seems dependent on this hostage release and the conclusion of phase one, from what you know and hear from Hamas, will those hostages be released in the next 24 hours?
Vice President JD Vance appears on Face the Nation as part of his Sunday talk circuit. The video and transcript of the discussion is below.
[Transcript] MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning and welcome to Face The Nation. We begin today with Vice President JD Vance, who joins us from Cincinnati, this morning. Good morning to you, Mr. Vice President.
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Good morning, Margaret, thanks for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We are getting very close to that 72 hour deadline for the hostage release. I think the world is holding its breath here. Is the administration seeing signs that Hamas and Israel are complying with everything they need to and that this will go ahead?
VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Yes, Margaret, so knock on wood, but we feel very confident the hostages will be released, and that the President is actually traveling to the Middle East, likely this evening, in order to meet them and greet them in person. It’s a big day for their families, but I think more importantly, it’s a big day for the entire world.
The President of the United States said to his entire diplomatic team, especially Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to go and get a deal done, to stop the war in Gaza, to begin to rebuild Gaza so the population could live there in peace and prosperity, to actually eliminate the threat of terrorism to our friends in Israel- which is very, very important, and also to bring the hostages home alive. It was a very tall task. He pursued a very non traditional diplomacy with people who were not 40 year diplomats, but people who brought a fresh perspective to it. And of course, the President was criticized for it. The diplomatic team was criticized for it. But I think that because he chose a different pathway, he didn’t just do what everybody else in the past had done. We are now on the cusp of a sustainable peace in the Middle East. It’s a great moment.
President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff speaks to a massive crowd from “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Speaking beside Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Steve Witkoff delivered a message of thanks and appreciation to the people of Israel on the cusp of the release of the Israeli hostages and a historic Mideast peace agreement.
The Israeli crowd erupts in boos when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s name is mentioned, but erupts in applause and chants of “Thank you Trump”, when President Trump’s name is mentioned. Blessed are the peacemakers. WATCH:
As noted by President Trump during his remarks about the regional state leaders requesting that he personally head the “Gaza Board of Peace,” it is only USA President Trump the regional stakeholder’s trust.
Together with the USA and Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE and Qatar have tentatively constructed a ceasefire and peace plan that is contingent upon President Trump as the fulcrum to balance all interests. This puts President Trump in an exceptionally important position. This balance is also why only Donald Trump can pull this off.
As the difficult challenge begins, the preliminary objectives – the ‘how to do this‘ – aspect starts to surface. As noted by the Associated Press, President Trump is sending 200 experts in transportation, planning, security, logistics and engineering from the U.S. military to frame out a “civil-military coordination center” in Israel.
The coordination center will include partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and private-sector experts. The regional states will supplement and support the center as the transitional hub for immediate reconstruction and humanitarian aid. It is likely President Trump will need to select and appoint members to the Gaza Board of Peace as this coordination center gets up and running.
As this process unfolds, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to get angered by a predictable stiff-arm from President Trump. The regional stakeholders will be watching this dynamic closely. Domestically, this will be very interesting to watch play out.
International politics can be boring at times, but the one constant in an ever-changing universe is the hubris of the European Union.
With President Trump outlining the breakthrough negotiations for a peace agreement in Gaza, Emmanuel Macron (France), Keir Starmer (U.K) and Friedrich Merz (Germany) call an urgent meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to organize their strategy to take over the Gaza “Board of Peace.”
EUROPE – Now that Donald Trump’s peace deal has the green light, European powers want a seat at the table.
As the news broke that Israel and Hamas had agreed the first phase of a ceasefire plan, French President Emmanuel Macron sent a rapid call out to other European allies and Arab nations to meet in Paris.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul both broke away from a U.K.-hosted summit on the Western Balkans to meet fellow ministers in France.
[…] The trio of countries known as the “E3” is likely to argue for a representative on the “Board of Peace,” the body that will oversee the transitional governance of Gaza by a Palestinian committee. (read more)
At a topline review the demands of the EU are pure hubris. However, when you review the underlying background of the EU state actors, the events are more appropriately considered pathetic.
The entire world is watching events unfold. A middle east gordian knot that was considered impossible to untie, has been cut by President Donald Trump and his negotiation team.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio recaps recent events during a cabinet meeting. WATCH:
