Trump and Netanyahu Announce 20-Point Gaza Peace Plan

Seven Israeli hostages have been released! A military convoy is carrying them to an Israeli hospital. Great emotion this mornng in Israel. 13 more hostages remain, but are expected to be released in the next hour.

Meanwhile Air Force One has just landed at Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv where PM Netanyahu is greeting President Trump. Trump will give an address to the Israeli Knesset and then an address to the Israeli people. As I write this, Trump and Netanyahu are leaving the airport in Trump's armored limo "the beast".

He will meet the hostage families, then fly to Egypt where he will meet the leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. Various European leaders will be there too. The topic of discussion there will be security, government and reconstruction in Gaza. Trump, ever the real-estate developer, will probably already be twisting Qatar's and the UAE's arms to get financial commitments.

First reports that the remaining 13 living hostages are now in the hands of the Red Cross.

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White House special envoy Steve Witkoff says:

“I would like to acknowledge the vital role of the United Kingdom in assisting and coordinating efforts that have led us to this historic day in Israel."

(Oct 13, 2025 08:41 AM)Yazata Wrote: First reports that the remaining 13 living hostages are now in the hands of the Red Cross.

Finally!

Quote:White House special envoy Steve Witkoff says:

“I would like to acknowledge the vital role of the United Kingdom in assisting and coordinating efforts that have led us to this historic day in Israel."

This is all I can find on UK's contribution:

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has launched a dual diplomatic effort, travelling to Egypt for a major truce summit while committing the UK to host an international Gaza Recovery Conference and pledging $26.7 million in aid to rebuild the war-torn territory.
- https://www.firstpost.com/world/uk-steps...41585.html

(Oct 13, 2025 09:16 AM)Syne Wrote:

Quote:White House special envoy Steve Witkoff says:

“I would like to acknowledge the vital role of the United Kingdom in assisting and coordinating efforts that have led us to this historic day in Israel."

This is all I can find on UK's contribution:

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has launched a dual diplomatic effort, travelling to Egypt for a major truce summit while committing the UK to host an international Gaza Recovery Conference and pledging $26.7 million in aid to rebuild the war-torn territory.
- https://www.firstpost.com/world/uk-steps...41585.html

Depends what was said during Trumps State visit. You'd be surprised what involvement Royal families have with each other, even Lords potentially have pull.

BEITUNIA, West Bank (AP) — "Cheers erupted among Palestinians on Monday as Israel released nearly 2,000 prisoners under a Gaza ceasefire agreement that saw them exchanged for Israeli hostages freed by Hamas.

Large crowds greeted the freed prisoners in Beitunia in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Khan Younis in Gaza, flashing V-for-victory signs as they descended from International Committee of the Red Cross buses. In Beitunia, they were given traditional keffiyeh scarves as a show of nationalist pride. Some were lifted onto people’s shoulders. Others sank into chairs, exhausted.

“It was an indescribable journey of suffering — hunger, unfair treatment, oppression, torture and curses — more than anything you could imagine,” said Kamal Abu Shanab, a 51-year-old Fatah member from the West Bank town of Tulkarem.

His face was gaunt. He said he lost 139 pounds (59 kilograms) in prison.

“We don’t recognize him. He’s not the person we knew. Our uncle doesn’t look like our uncle,” said his niece, Farah Abu Shanab.

Those freed include around 1,700 of the several thousand Palestinians that Israeli troops seized from Gaza during the 2-year war and have held without charge."

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palest...0a577efaf4

Did the killing of many Hamas leaders by Mossad (Israel) actually make negotiations easier? Fewer Hawks and more Doves.

Several things I noticed:

The United Nations appears to have played no role in arriving at this day. Nor will any blue-helmets be in Gaza.

The Washington DC foreign policy establishment seems to have played little role. And this after they were leaking to the establishment press about how Trump and his people like Jared Kushner (Trump's son-in-law) and Steve Witkoff were total amateurs and didn't have a clue what they were doing.

These events seemingly come as a result of that Middle East trip a few months ago where Trump was greeted with great pagentry. Political opponents sneered that it was just about stroking Trump's over-sized ego. But it seems to me to have anchored personal relationships with the Emirs that created unity of purpose that paid off today.

Lots of world leaders are there in Egypt! Giorgia Meloni and Keir Starmer are right behind Trump as he speaks. Hungary (Trump really praised Orban.) Canada's Carney, France's Macron, Spain, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, all the Arabs... Trump calls today the Greatest Deal, perhaps of all time. "The historic dawn of a new Middle East".

It's clear that Trump and the rest of these countries don't just see this as about Gaza. They see it as a geopolitical paradigm shift in the Middle East and the world, away from terrorism and towards peace, cooperation and prosperity.

Putin, Xi and the Iranians were nowhere to be seen and must feel very isolated right now.

All of the Gazan's celebrating in the streets sure look healthy, with plenty of energy to celebrate, for people that have been supposedly starved.

And where are all the pro-Gaza protestors? Why aren't they out in the streets celebrating in the US and Europe?

Protesters gathering when there's nothing to protest anymore? lol

Syne whines: "Pro-palestinians are celebrating too hard and not enough."

(Oct 13, 2025 06:54 PM)Syne Wrote: [...] And where are all the pro-Gaza protestors? Why aren't they out in the streets celebrating in the US and Europe?

Probably akin to the same reason that there are lots of crickets in one predominantly anti-Israel and anti-Trump forum right now, with regard to the peace plan topic. EDIT: Well, radical skepticism has chimed in -- there is that in terms of activity: Allen Analysis

Tens of thousands attend pro-Palestinian march in London (2 days ago)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewnwgnqj2qo

EXCERPT: The director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, one of the groups involved in the action, said it would "never stop" supporting Palestinians. Ben Jamal said Israel was "capable of breaking the ceasefire at any time" and that the ceasefire plan did "nothing to address the root causes" of the conflict. At the rally, speakers referred to the US-brokered ceasefire as a positive but "precarious" development - adding they would not stop protesting until Palestinians were fully free.

Since PP demonstrations are arguably driven by the overarching spirit of anti-Zionism now, they will continue protesting about Palestinian freedom in general. Due to Jewish settlers carving up the West Bank into non-contiguous islands of Palestinian residents, it could never be a fully functional part of any Palestinian state that might arise in Gaza. So that gives PPs something to continually beef about, even if relations between the Strip and Israel were to remain passive from this point on.

And if they get really strained about scraping up something for future protests, they can always jump directly on the Hamas bandwagon that it remains a situation of injustice until Israel ceases to exist, and all the land is returned.