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Gaza deal: Trump's shot at Nobel Prize · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from the Australian Unclaire Harvey. Peace in
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  Speaker 1: the Middle East. That's what Donald Trump says he's delivered
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  Speaker 1: after a clearly emotional President announced Israel, Arab leaders and
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  Speaker 1: the US have agreed a twenty point plan to end
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  Speaker 1: the war in Gaza, eliminate Hamas, and return all hostages
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  Speaker 1: living and dead to Israel.
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  Speaker 2: So this is a big day, a beautiful day, potentially
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  Speaker 2: one of the great days ever and civilization.
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  Speaker 1: Under the plan, Israeli troops would withdraw Hamas, would surrender
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  Speaker 1: its tunnels and military infrastructure would be demolished, and Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump would personally lead a so called Board of Peace,
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  Speaker 1: assisted by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, which would
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  Speaker 1: oversee a new civilian government of Gaza created with the
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  Speaker 1: assistance of Arab neighbors. Egypt and Jordan would provide a
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  Speaker 1: security force to train Palacetinean police. Israel would retain security
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  Speaker 1: control of Gaza's perimeter, Aid would resume flowing to Gazans,
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  Speaker 1: and Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Joe Kelly
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  Speaker 1: is the Australian's correspondent in Washington, DC. Joe, we heard
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump talking in characteristically grandiose terms about peace for
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  Speaker 1: eternity here. What's the mood do you think in Washington, DC?
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  Speaker 1: About this outcome?
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  Speaker 3: He was talking in characteristically Trumpian terms, saying that this
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  Speaker 3: could be a forever and eternal peace. But I think
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  Speaker 3: what he is getting at is that this is the
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  Speaker 3: big political solution really to the Israel Hamas conflict. This
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  Speaker 3: was the missing piece of the puzzle which policymakers have
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  Speaker 3: been searching for for a long time. Trump feels that
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  Speaker 3: he's brought all the relevant parties together. He's got the
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  Speaker 3: Arab world on board, and he's got the agreement of
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  Speaker 3: Nettnya who himself, so he's close to getting something over
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  Speaker 3: the line. We understand that at the moment Hamas has
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  Speaker 3: the comprehensive peace plan. They're reviewing it. What they decide
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  Speaker 3: will be very important at the end of the day.
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  Speaker 3: But essentially this plan is important because it would see
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  Speaker 3: an immediate end to the war and then a rebuild
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  Speaker 3: process for Gaza. So Trump, ever, the salesman and optimist,
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  Speaker 3: is selling this hard.
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  Speaker 1: It was very optimistic and there was a note of emotion,
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  Speaker 1: I think in Donald Trump's voice when he was talking
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  Speaker 1: about the return of the hostages, including some Israeli families
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  Speaker 1: who just want the bodies of their relatives back.
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  Speaker 2: If accepted by Hamas's proposal calls for the release of
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  Speaker 2: all remaining hostages immediately, but in no case more than
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  Speaker 2: seventy two hours. So the hostages are coming back. And
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  Speaker 2: I hate even saying this from the standpoint doesn't sound right,
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  Speaker 2: but it is so important to the parents the bodies
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  Speaker 2: of the young men. I believe in almost all cases,
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  Speaker 2: the young men are coming back immediately. I met with parents.
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  Speaker 2: Their parents felt as strongly about getting there the body
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  Speaker 2: of their dead boy back as they did, is though
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  Speaker 2: the boy were alive and well.
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  Speaker 1: I thought it was a different kind of Donald Trump
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  Speaker 1: we saw today, Joe. You know, he seemed very hopeful.
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  Speaker 1: He seemed to lack some of the kind of cynicism
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  Speaker 1: and finger pointing that we usually see from him.
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  Speaker 3: There's a sense that this actually could go somewhere. I
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  Speaker 3: think Donald Trump wants to ensure as best he can
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  Speaker 3: that it does go somewhere. It has all the necessary
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  Speaker 3: conditions built into the framework, the terms and conditions of
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  Speaker 3: this proposal that would see to make it effective if
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  Speaker 3: Hermas comes on board. Most important, though, is that this
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  Speaker 3: is effectively a negotiated surrender for Hermas. So on the
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  Speaker 3: one hand, Hermas has to come to the table, they
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  Speaker 3: have to disarm, and they have to accept that there
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  Speaker 3: is no ongoing role for them governing in Gaza. So
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  Speaker 3: this is it. And there's an incentive in there for
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  Speaker 3: members of Hamas who recognize peaceful coexistence with Israel to
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  Speaker 3: be given amnesty. And on the other side of the
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  Speaker 3: equation there's a recognition that there'll be no annexation of
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  Speaker 3: Gaza by Israel. So I think Donald Trump is trying
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  Speaker 3: to be, in his own way as diplomatic as he
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  Speaker 3: possibly can be to try and ensure this deal goes ahead.
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  Speaker 3: And we know that Donald Trump genuinely thinks that he
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  Speaker 3: is the big peace bringer. This is the legacy above
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  Speaker 3: all legacies that he wants to leave behind from his
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  Speaker 3: time as president of the United States. So he has
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  Speaker 3: personally a lot riding on this, and he thinks, obviously,
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  Speaker 3: if he's able to land this, it's going to look
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  Speaker 3: really good for him. And of course we all know
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  Speaker 3: he is interested in trying to get that Nobel Peace Prize,
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  Speaker 3: so if he does land it, obviously he'll think that
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  Speaker 3: his stock has been raised significantly, Claire.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about what Israel's got to give and what
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  Speaker 1: Israel gets. So Israel has agreed to release two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty Palestinian life sentence prisoners, plus seventeen hundred Gazans
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  Speaker 1: who were detained after October seven. In return, Israel gets
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  Speaker 1: the release of all the hostages, dead and alive who
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  Speaker 1: remain in Gaza. But Israel also gets the war aims
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  Speaker 1: of Benjamin Etnia who the dismantlement of Hermas, the exclusion
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  Speaker 1: of Hamas from a future government of Gaza, really the
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  Speaker 1: exclusion also of the Palestinian authority at this stage, Joe,
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  Speaker 1: and Israel retaining control of the perimeter of Gaza, you know,
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  Speaker 1: maintaining a kind of security cordon. This looks like a
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  Speaker 1: big win for Benjamin Netnya. Who to me, what do
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  Speaker 1: you think?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's essentially right, Claire. The thing that
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  Speaker 3: struck me as in this entire plan there's a vague
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  Speaker 3: reference at the end to the steps necessary to obtaining
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  Speaker 3: a two state solution, but there's no placing the two
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  Speaker 3: state solution at the top of the to do list here,
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  Speaker 3: which is the opposite of what countries like Australia and
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  Speaker 3: other countries in Europe have done so. At the initial steps.
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  Speaker 3: Here clear the Palestinian authority is not a return to
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  Speaker 3: Gaza with political control. In fact, one of the interesting
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  Speaker 3: parts of this deal is that in a strange way,
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  Speaker 3: Donald Trump is in charge of Gaza himself. There is
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  Speaker 3: a political committee that's been charged with the day to
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  Speaker 3: day duties of running Daza, but it's over seen by
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  Speaker 3: a new peace board, and of course the terror of
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  Speaker 3: the new peace Board is Donald Trump himself.
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  Speaker 2: To ensure the success of this effort, my plan calls
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  Speaker 2: for the creation of a new international oversight body, the
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  Speaker 2: Board of Peace. We call it the Board of Peace,
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  Speaker 2: which will be headed not at my request, believe me,
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  Speaker 2: I'm very busy, but we have to make sure this works.
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  Speaker 2: The leaders of the Arab world and Israel and everybody
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  Speaker 2: involved asked me to do this, so it would be
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  Speaker 2: headed by a gentleman known as President Donald J. Trump
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  Speaker 2: of the United States.
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  Speaker 3: So Donald Trump, in a way is taking control of Gaza,
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  Speaker 3: and we'll have a say in how this process unfolds.
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  Speaker 3: And that might have been actually a key factor in
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  Speaker 3: getting Benjamin Netanyahu on board. And in fact the israel
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  Speaker 3: defense forces. They don't withdraw immediately. It's a staged, a
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  Speaker 3: phased withdrawal. There is an international stabilization force that will
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  Speaker 3: immediately come in back by the United States and alliance
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  Speaker 3: of other countries, including Arab nations, and there'll be milestones
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  Speaker 3: and a checklist which will need to be met before
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  Speaker 3: Israel withdraws, and before Israel is willing to see any
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  Speaker 3: relinquishment of this International Peace Board, which Donald Trump is
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  Speaker 3: a part of, which Tony Blair is going to be
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  Speaker 3: a part of. So this has been managed in such
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  Speaker 3: a way to meet the Israeli conditions, but also to
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  Speaker 3: meet those conditions in a way that the Arab world
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  Speaker 3: might be able to accept them. It's trying to bring
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  Speaker 3: together Israel and the Arab world. So I think that's
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  Speaker 3: the best analysis at the moment. But again, all this
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  Speaker 3: is going to depend on what Hamas actually decides to do,
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  Speaker 3: because Benjamin Natanie who made it very clear and his
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  Speaker 3: press conference that if he mus rejects the deal, it's
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  Speaker 3: more of the same and he's prepared to go it
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  Speaker 3: alone without the rest of the international community.
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  Speaker 2: If Amas rejects the deal, which is always possible, they're
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  Speaker 2: the only one left. Everyone else has accepted it, but
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  Speaker 2: I have a feeling that we're going to have a
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  Speaker 2: positive answer. But if not, as you know, BB, it'd
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  Speaker 2: have barter fall back in to do what you would
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  Speaker 2: have to do. Everyone understands that the ultimate result must
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  Speaker 2: be the elimination of any danger posed in the region,
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  Speaker 2: and the danger is cause by.
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  Speaker 1: Hamas Benjamin nettanniaw He's had to agree to bring aid
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  Speaker 1: back to the previous levels, basically to change the way
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  Speaker 1: he was holding his foot on the hose of aid
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  Speaker 1: into Gaza and allow trucks to resume distributing and delivering
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  Speaker 1: aid to Palestinians. It's not quite clear who exactly is
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  Speaker 1: going to be district that aid. There's a mention of
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  Speaker 1: the United Nations and the Red Cross, but there's also
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  Speaker 1: a pretty vague reference to other international bodies not controlled
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  Speaker 1: by Israel, which could include the Guards Humanitarian Foundation. That's
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  Speaker 1: been a real sticking point up till now. Joe, how
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  Speaker 1: do you interpret that component of this twenty point plan.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's critical. This is one of the key
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  Speaker 3: sticking points for the international community here in the United States.
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  Speaker 3: Even members of Donald Trump's Magabase, including Marjorie Taylor Green
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  Speaker 3: have been incredibly disturbed and distressed by the images of
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  Speaker 3: people in Gaza starving, subjected to the most inhumane conditions.
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  Speaker 3: So Benjamin Nettnia, who had no choice but to accept
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  Speaker 3: terms for aid which we're going to get the rest
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  Speaker 3: of the international community in the Arab world on board,
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  Speaker 3: he had to do that, and I think that's something
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  Speaker 3: that Donald Trump would have wanted him to do. The
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  Speaker 3: other thing that's important about this deal, although Claire, is
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  Speaker 3: that there is no dispossession of people from Gaza. They
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  Speaker 3: are allowed to stay. That's another thing that Benjamin Nettnya,
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  Speaker 3: who has accepted, and which the foreign ministers of the
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  Speaker 3: Arab countries pointed out in the joint statement they released.
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  Speaker 3: They obviously see that as very important that Ghazans are
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  Speaker 3: allowed to stay in their territory. If they leave, they
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  Speaker 3: are allowed to return.
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  Speaker 1: Benjamin Netanya, who had to do it, a bit of
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  Speaker 1: humble pie in apologizing in a phone call which also
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  Speaker 1: included Trump during their meeting at the White House, to
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  Speaker 1: the Emir of Qatar for that recent strike on Hamas
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  Speaker 1: leaders in Qatar in which a Katari security guard was killed.
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  Speaker 1: The wording of that's very interesting. So Netannya, who apologized
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  Speaker 1: for the death of the Katari security guard and said
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  Speaker 1: that Israel doesn't have any plans to compromise Qatar's sovereignty
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  Speaker 1: again in the future. That feels like it might have
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  Speaker 1: been a bit appeal to swallow for Benjamin Netanyahu, but
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  Speaker 1: he hasn't really promised not to attack Qatar again, has he.
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  Speaker 3: Well, this was clearly orchestrated by Donald Trump. Donald Trump
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  Speaker 3: responded really harshly when Israel launched those targeted strikes on
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  Speaker 3: Katari soil. Qatar as a close partner of the United States.
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  Speaker 3: They've been playing a key mediation role as this conflict
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  Speaker 3: has dragged on. They host a really important United States
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  Speaker 3: air base, and Donald Trump has a good relationship with
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  Speaker 3: Qatar and even bought struck that deal for the Katari
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  Speaker 3: plane for himself. No doubt, Donald Trump was essential to
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  Speaker 3: orchestrating that. It was a three person call. He was
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  Speaker 3: on the call, so clearly I think this was a
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  Speaker 3: necessary step to trying to broker this broad political solution,
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  Speaker 3: which is ultimate lea the objective of US foreign policy here.
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  Speaker 1: Joe Kelly is the Australian's correspondent in Washington, DC. You
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  Speaker 1: can check out our reporting and analysis of this story
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  Speaker 1: live right now at the Australian dot com dot au,
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  Speaker 1: and come back to the front first thing in the
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  Speaker 1: morning for our Foreign editor Greg Sheridan's take on what
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  Speaker 1: comes next.