We host a roundtable on the planned Gaza ceasefire with former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy of the U.S./Middle East Project, Gazan analyst Muhammad Shehada of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and journalist Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News. We discuss how incoming President Trumpâs Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff pressured Israel to accept the deal and what it reveals about the outgoing Biden administrationâs refusal to use its own leverage for the same end. âJoe Biden could have ended this long ago,â and that he chose not to âexposes the utter moral rot that existed within the Biden White House,â says Scahill. Still, our guests say itâs unlikely that the ceasefire announcement signifies true relief for Palestinians beset by Israelâs genocidal violence. Levy says Netanyahu is already working to renege on the deal and continue a war that has helped him retain his political power, while Shehada warns that all signs point to the continued subjugation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories in conditions âmore painful than the war.â
