Washington, D.C. — Sept 29, 2025
It was supposed to be history. Instead, it became hours upon hours of weary talks. First in New York, then in Washington, dragging on longer than anyone expected. By the time Netanyahu stood at the podium, his face was red, his voice cracked, and sweat rolled under the lights. The delay itself told the story: nothing about this framework was simple.
When they finally spoke, they dressed it as a breakthrough. A minor withdrawal in the first seventy-two hours if Hamas accepts. The release of hostages in that same narrow window. A new international body, to be chaired by Trump together with Tony Blair, overseeing Hamas’s disarmament and Gaza’s demilitarization. Israel holding a security perimeter “for the foreseeable future.” A U.S.–Israel–Qatar trilateral announced with praise for the Emir, Netanyahu even admitting he had called Doha to express regret for the strike that killed a Qatari officer. Trump smiled as though the job were already done: “Our Arab and Muslim partners are fully prepared to step up. The promise of a new Middle East is closer than ever.”
Yet the length of the talks and the staging of the words made it feel more like theatre than substance. Everyone played their part, but the script left the hardest scenes unwritten.
Behind the shine, the silences were deafening. Trump, who always boasted that the B-2 strikes “saved Israel,” never mentioned them. The intelligence gap with Israel remains: Americans claiming obliteration, Israelis insisting uranium still hidden. Annexation too, once a red line, disappeared from the language. Neither man wanted to touch it. That silence was not resolution, only postponement.
The contradictions filled the room. Hamas has given no signal it will hand over all hostages or surrender weapons. The seventy-two-hour deadline is not a plan but a line of hope, without lists, corridors, or verification. Israel’s coalition is fragile, far-right ministers ready to revolt at even a modest withdrawal. Arab capitals will not pour billions into ambiguity; they wait for proof, not speeches. The very exhaustion of the talks was itself proof of how fragile the framework remains.
And then came the reaction beyond the room. Hamas was not happy. They called it deception, “a trick like Iran.” What unsettled them most was the language of seventy-two hours and total disarmament — it left them no bargaining chips. The Houthis dismissed Trump’s plan as “impossible to implement,” fearing that if Gaza is pacified under this model, Yemen is next. The man who will sweat the most in the next three days is the Emir of Qatar. All of Hamas’s political leadership sits in his capital. Trump’s trilateral made him directly responsible for their answer. If Hamas says no, it is not just Hamas exposed — it is Qatar’s credibility and the Emir himself. If they say yes, he can claim he delivered peace.
And this is why the 21-point deal unsettled them so deeply:
Point 4 demands all hostages, alive and deceased, within 72 hours — something Hamas has never agreed to and which would strip them of their only leverage.
Point 5 ties this to a prisoner exchange of 250 life-sentence prisoners and 1,700 detainees — politically explosive inside Israel.
Point 6 offers amnesty only if Hamas decommissions its weapons or leaves Gaza, effectively ending their role as an armed movement.
Point 9 creates a “Board of Peace,” chaired by Trump and Tony Blair, overseeing Gaza through a technocratic committee — a total removal of Hamas from governance.
Point 13 demands the destruction of all tunnels, rocket facilities, and weapon factories, verified by international monitors.
Point 15 deploys an International Stabilization Force, with Arab and international troops training vetted Palestinian police. This means foreign boots on the ground to control Gaza’s borders and streets.
Point 16 states explicitly that Israel will not annex Gaza, but will remain until milestones of demilitarization are met — a permanent security perimeter until Hamas is dismantled.
For Hamas, this plan reads not as negotiation but as surrender, stripping them of fighters, weapons, political authority, and their “resistance” narrative. For the Houthis, the plan looks like a template that could one day be imposed on them: demilitarization, international policing, regional guarantors.
And this is why the Emir of Qatar now sweats. Trump’s plan (Point 14) requires regional partners to guarantee compliance. That means Doha can no longer host Hamas leaders while claiming neutrality. In the next seventy-two hours, he must either force Hamas to accept or face the collapse of his own credibility.
By the end, when words had stretched thin, both leaders reached for something beyond politics. Trump said almost wistfully: “Within a few days there shouldn’t be shooting in Gaza. There probably will be, but there shouldn’t.” And Netanyahu, drained and sweating, sealed his speech not with strategy but with covenant: “Those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed” (Genesis 12:3).
That is where the weight lies. Not on the signatures, not on the deadlines, but on the covenant. The future of the land does not rest on human negotiations. “They shall not divide the land” (Joel 3:2).
I want to thank everyone who has been praying. What happened here I see as a victory, an answer to prayer. The enemy camp trembles. There is no victory in diplomacy, and there is no victory in the plans of men. The victory is in the covenant of God, and in the prayers of His people.