CGTN Europe speaks to Daniel Levy, President of the U.S./Middle East Project and former senior advisor to the Israeli government.
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00:00Let's talk now to Daniel Levy, the former advisor to the Israeli government.
00:04He's now president of the Independent Policy Institute, the U.S. Middle East Project.
00:09Daniel, welcome, good to see you.
00:11If this peace agreement does come into force, your thoughts first on
00:16getting here and the significance of these crowded hours?
00:23Jamie, if I may, let's not call it a peace agreement.
00:27It's a ceasefire deal.
00:28It's very much not a peace agreement.
00:30This is perhaps a vista towards ending this horrendously bloody last 15 months
00:39of particular conflict in Gaza.
00:41But it's very important that you draw attention to this crowded next few hours and days.
00:47Sunday still seems an awfully long way away, doesn't it?
00:51So where we are, it's now become transparent, something that many of us
00:56had seen and called out and analyzed for many, many months,
01:02which is that the obstacle to this deal was the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu,
01:08and his calculations, which were narrow domestic political.
01:14He's governing coalition, which we see straining now against this backdrop.
01:20And there were other reasons Netanyahu wanted to continue with this.
01:23He has tried to reinvent himself as a wartime leader.
01:27He has ideological goals when it comes to Gaza.
01:29We were told by the Biden administration and by Secretary Blinken and others
01:35that the one obstacle to a deal with Hamas, you know, sometimes diplomacy requires
01:41constructive ambiguity when it goes into outright deceit and falsehoods.
01:47And those falsehoods undermine diplomacy.
01:50Something is wrong, and unfortunately, something was terribly wrong
01:53with the Biden administration's handling of this.
01:55That's why the same deal that was available in May is now only happening as a result of,
02:02I would call it, Jamie, the Trump trepidation factor.
02:06It's not that Trump has come in and read the riot act to Netanyahu,
02:09but Netanyahu sees someone who may act like the leader of a superpower
02:14rather than someone he can wrap around his finger, which was the Biden administration.
02:17Netanyahu doesn't want to be here.
02:19And therefore, the second crucial thing to say at this point
02:22is that Netanyahu will look for ways of getting out of this
02:26because that aligns with his domestic political survival.
02:29These are going to be a tense next, not only two days in the hours,
02:33and we see the destruction.
02:35We've seen 100 plus Palestinians.
02:37Your correspondent Rami, who was talking about the situation there,
02:40killed since the announcement.
02:43One can expect that to continue.
02:46One can expect, even if we begin implementation,
02:49which I think is now likely to happen,
02:51that the provocations will be relentless.
02:54This is going to be very fragile indeed.
02:58That sounds like a rather gloomy prognosis.
03:01What do then the next few months look like in Gaza?
03:11I wish I could say there's a half full cup.
03:15There isn't.
03:16But there is the following.
03:19There is the fact that if this is implemented,
03:24for at least a period of implementation,
03:27Palestinians in Gaza will no longer face daily mass civilian killings
03:34at the hands of these IDF bombers.
03:36You will see the Israelis held in Gaza, the hostages,
03:41some, many of them returning home alive,
03:44finally some respite for those families.
03:47You also see Palestinians, often held for decades,
03:49often held in detention without trial in Israeli prisons,
03:52being released.
03:54And you'll hopefully see,
03:55and this is some of the challenges ahead in the implementation,
04:00you will hopefully see those other aspects,
04:02Palestinians being able to return,
04:04I would say to their homes in other parts of Gaza,
04:06but those have been destroyed,
04:08but at least returning to areas that will be less crowded,
04:11where they can maybe begin to rebuild a life.
04:13You will see the Israeli army beginning to redeploy out of Gaza.
04:18And crucial, and just mentioned,
04:20you will see the massive ramping up
04:22and finally the allowing into Gaza by Israel
04:26of the humanitarian aid and assistance,
04:28which let's be clear,
04:29should never have been prevented in the first place.
04:31That's one of the reasons why Israel's leadership
04:33has arrest warrants issued against them
04:35by the International Criminal Court.
04:37But one can expect also on this front
04:41for Israel to nickel and dime,
04:44in other words,
04:44to try and string out and make as hard as possible
04:47the implementation also of that humanitarian assistance.
04:51One of the things we see,
04:53and we should keep a close eye on,
04:54is that the UN agency,
04:56which works with Palestinian refugees,
04:58many of whom expelled from Israel,
05:00that the creation of Israel in the Nakba,
05:02it works UNRWA,
05:04which is that agency,
05:05which is the only agency that can really see
05:08the provision of much of this assistance,
05:10is under assault by Israel,
05:12has had its funding withdrawn by America
05:14and some craven European governments.
05:17So we're going to have to see
05:18whether UNRWA can fulfill its mandate.
05:22Lots of bumps on the road,
05:23and that's before we even speak, Jamie,
05:26of the fact that this isn't something
05:29that began 15 months ago, right?
05:31We still have those core issues
05:33of will we ever see Palestinians
05:36accorded their rights,
05:38not living under an occupation
05:39of what the International Court of Justice
05:41has described as an apartheid regime.
05:43So we are very much still in the heart of a conflict,
05:46but we are hoping for some respite
05:48for people who desperately need it.
05:50Daniel, good to talk to you.
05:51Thank you for that.
05:52Daniel Levy, the former advisor
05:53to the Israeli government.