Steve Witkoff meets with hostages' families in Tel Aviv
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New York Times
28 minutes ago
- New York Times
Monday Briefing: An ‘All or Nothing' Gaza Deal
U.S. and Israel float 'all or nothing' Gaza deal After months of work on a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza that has appeared to reach an impasse, U.S. and Israeli officials have signaled that they will push for a comprehensive agreement to end the war. 'We think that we have to shift this negotiation to 'all or nothing' — everybody comes home,' Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration's envoy to the Middle East, said in an audio recording of a meeting with hostages' families over the weekend. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Trump are said to be working on a deal that would present Hamas with an ultimatum: release the remaining hostages and agree to terms that would disarm the group, or Israel's military campaign would continue. The prospect of quickly advancing toward such a deal appeared dim. Mahmoud Mardawi, a Hamas official, said that the group had not received a proposal for a comprehensive deal and that while Hamas supported such an agreement in principle, it would not disarm. The shift in tone comes as the Israeli government faces global criticism over starvation in Gaza and growing domestic pressure to secure the release of the hostages still held there. Hamas released a video on Friday showing Evyatar David, one of the 20 hostages Israel believes are still living, emaciated in what appeared to be an underground tunnel. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Former Mossad, Shin Bet officials ask Trump to compel Netanyahu to end the war
Over 600 former senior security officials asked the US president to compel Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza. Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, and former deputy IDF chief Matan Vilnai on Sunday announced they had sent a letter to US President Donald Trump requesting that he compel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the current war. This information was provided to The Jerusalem Post ahead of other media. These top officials, along with top former police and foreign ministry officials, lead the Commanders for Israel's Security (CIS) group – which now makes up over 600 former senior security officials – in making that call on Trump to intervene. It is not the first time that the group has pressed the government to shift gears and focus more on returning Israeli hostages and on a post-war plan forGaza, but it did emphasize how desperate Israel's situation is globally in terms of legitimacy, as well as Trump's own recent public criticism of Israel for causing starvation in Gaza (Israel maintains that while food security is at a crisis point, there is no evidence of actual mass starvation.) 'Stop the Gaza War' In the letter, CIS wrote to Trump, 'Stop the Gaza War! On behalf of CIS, Israel's largest group of former IDF generals and Mossad, Shin Bet, Police, and Diplomatic Corps equivalents, we urge you to end the Gaza war. You did it in Lebanon. Time to do it in Gaza as well.' Next, CIS stated, 'The IDF has long accomplished the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling Hamas' military formations and governance. The third, and most important, can only be achieved through a deal: bringing all hostages home.' Moreover, they argued, 'It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel, and our experience tells us that Israel has all it takes to deal with its residual terror capabilities, remotely or otherwise. Chasing remaining senior Hamas operatives can be done later. Our hostages can't wait.' Further, CIS wrote, 'Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering, and forge a regional-international coalition that helps the Palestinian Authority (once reformed) to offer Gazans and all Palestinians an alternative to Hamas and its vicious ideology.' CIS has succeeded in the past in influencing Biden administration policy, and in the more distant past, sometimes the Netanyahu government's policies. However, more recently, both Trump and Netanyahu have been on somewhat of an 'anti-generals' trend whenever they face up against defense chiefs who disagree with their policies. The developing unknown situation is where Trump stands at this point in time on ending the war, and whether these senior Israeli defense officials are able to influence his direction. CIS was questioned about what it thinks Trump should do if Hamas continued to avoid negotiations, which it stepped back from last week, as it rides a tide of indirect global support due to accusations worldwide that Israel is not allowing sufficient food aid into Gaza. The senior defense officials responded that what Israel must do is announce that it accepts an end to the war in exchange for the return of all of the remaining hostages – the consistent offer that Hamas has made since the start of the war. Additionally, CIS wants Israel to accept the proposed international framework of Egypt, the UAE, and the Saudis, together with a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA) taking over the running of post-war Gaza. As such, CIS hopes that Trump will press Netanyahu to make such an offer, though the prime minister has repeatedly rejected this position, partly saying that it would allow Hamas to make a comeback and partly trying to keep his hard Right coalition partners from toppling his government, should he end the war. Opposition officials have told Netanyahu that they would step in to keep his government afloat for a period of time if he cut such a deal with Hamas, but he has rejected that option as well. Netanyahu has separately rejected giving the PA any foothold in Gaza. given that he is now vehemently opposed to any trend that furthers the possibility of a Palestinian state, even if run by the PA instead of Hamas. According to CIS, only after making an offer to Hamas to end the war will Israel know for sure whether the Palestinian terror group is willing to return all of the hostages or whether it has been playing games in offering to return all those who are left in Gaza captivity, alive and dead. CIS insisted that such an offer was necessary to be able to say that Israel had done all it could to bring back the hostages.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Tariff rates are "pretty much set," U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer says
Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, said in an interview that aired Sunday that tariff rates are "pretty much set" on more than 60 trading partners after President Trump's executive order last week. "So these, these tariff rates are pretty much set," Greer said in an interview Friday with "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. "I expect I do have my phone blowing up. There are trade ministers who, who want to talk more and see how they can work in a different way with the United States, but I think that we have, we're seeing truly the contours of the president's tariff plan right now with these rates." Hours ahead of the Trump administration's self-imposed deadline for baseline tariffs on Friday, the White House announced tariff rates for imports from dozens of countries, including a handful that have cut trade deals with the administration and dozens that haven't reached a deal yet. All imports will have a 10% tariff rate as of Aug. 7, according to the executive order. When asked if Mr. Trump will be negotiating more deals in coming days, Greer answered, "I don't think they will be," but he added these tariff rates are "set rates pursuant to deals." "When the president is looking at this, he looks at potential deals, and we bring him potential concessions from countries and the things they might want to do," Greer said. "And he compares that to the potential tariff that might be applied to try to get that deficit down. And then talking to his advisors, he makes a call on this." Ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline, the Trump administration touted a number of deals for tariffs, including South Korea, the European Union and Britain. But other major U.S. trading partners did not reach deals, including Canada, which Mr. Trump levied a 35% tariff on goods not subject the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Canada is the U.S.' second-largest trading partner. "The President's view with with every country, whether it's Canada or Mexico, and regardless of the kind of trade agreement we have in place, is that the net result of the trading system, whether it's our WTO agreements or our existing trade agreements, the net result has been that a lot of the manufacturing has gone overseas, and when that's the net result, you can't continue with that system," Greer said. "So you know, I'm not concerned that it's going to complicate things with Canada. Our view is the President is trying to fix the terms of trade with Canada, and if there's a way to a deal, we'll find it. And if it's not, we'll have the tariff levels that we have," the trade adviser said. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, who Brennan interviewed separately on "Face the Nation," said that Bank of America economists have predicted that while the economy will still continue to grow, they are predicting "less growth than they would have had six, nine months ago, and reflects the impact of the tariff war and the trade and all that." As for the economic impact that tariffs will have on the economy, Moynihan said "no one really knows, honestly, because this is a different regime than we've been in before."
