An Israeli delegation is in Cairo to hash out details for the second phase of a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Under the first phase of the deal, Hamas agreed to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages – and Israel said it would free around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.NPR's Jerome Socolovsky looks into why Israel has long accepted lopsided deals to bring back abducted citizens. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What are the recent developments in Israel's negotiations for a ceasefire with Hamas?
On Sunday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem. At the press conference afterwards, Netanyahu hugged Rubio and was enthusiastic about Israel's relationship with the U.S.
President Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House. And the visit in Washington reflected that in every way. And your visit here reflects it in every way.
Netanyahu also praised what he called Trump's bold vision for Gaza, a vision that includes relocating Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries and rebuilding the strip under U.S. ownership. And Netanyahu insisted that he and Trump are on the same page about the urgency of releasing the remaining Israeli hostages.
President Trump and I are working in full cooperation and coordination between us. We have a common strategy. including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will if all our hostages are not released until the last one of them.
Before this past weekend, 24 hostages and more than 730 Palestinian prisoners had been freed during phase one of the ceasefire deal. This weekend, three more were released, all civilian men, in exchange for more than 360 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. There are nearly 10,000 Palestinians in custody in Israel and the West Bank, many held without charge.
The current phase of the ceasefire deal ends in less than two weeks, and an Israeli delegation traveled to Cairo today to hash out details for a second phase, even as the number of Palestinian prisoners released, especially ones convicted of serious crimes, has sparked debate among Israelis. Consider this.
As talks move toward the second phase of a ceasefire deal, we look at the politics of these exchanges. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.
TNCs apply.
It's Consider This from NPR. An Israeli delegation is in Cairo, Egypt today, to talk about the conditions for a second phase of the ceasefire deal. Under the first phase, Hamas agreed to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages, and Israel said it would free around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. NPR's Jerome Sokolovsky looked into why Israel repeatedly accepts deals like this.
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Chapter 2: How has the U.S.-Israel relationship influenced the current hostage situation?
But there are a couple of problems with one for one. It's long been a Palestinian goal to free as many of their prisoners in Israeli jails as possible, and the families of Israeli hostages want them out as fast as possible. In this country, which relies on a people's army, there's a social contract.
Sons and daughters are drafted, and if they're captured, the government vows it will bring them back through force or diplomacy. But for many Israelis, this hostage crisis presents a wrenching dilemma. Some are worried the exchanges will incentivize future hostage-taking. Some government ministers say fighting Hamas is the priority.
And families rallying in the streets for a deal to bring their loved ones home have been smeared as disloyal, says Baskin.
The issue of the hostages was politicized by Netanyahu and his propaganda machine. in a way that many Israelis believe that if you make a deal with Hamas, you are supporting Hamas.
Actually, Hamas is almost universally loathed in Israel. But polls show overwhelming support for this deal. For many, it's as much about redeeming the hostages as it is about preserving one of Israel's core values. Rabbi Daniil Hartman flips through a text by the medieval Jewish scholar Maimonides, and he reads a tract.
And there is no greater commandment than redeeming the hostages.
Hartman is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, which advocates for democracy and pluralism in Israel. Taking Jews captive, he says, has been a problem for more than 2,000 years. It's often been done to convert them out of their faith, and Hartman says, also for ransom. It's another reason the ethic of redemption is so strong in Israel.
It's a self-evident truth that we do not leave our people behind. Human life, above all else, a group of protesters chant outside the defense ministry. There have been protests like this one throughout the war, accusing the government of abandoning the hostages.
But even those who favor the hostage-for-prisoner swaps say it's been hard to watch people walk free after they've been convicted in Israeli courts of murder. A number of them were serving life terms for shootings and suicide bombings in buses, cafes, restaurants, and other places around the country going back decades.
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