Call me Back # 244 | A Hostage Deal - with Haviv Rettig Gur & Nadav Eyal

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Full Transcript: arkmedia.org/p...
Before today’s conversation, one housekeeping note. We are announcing our second "Call Me Back Live" Event. I will be talking to creators of Fauda -- Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz. They are scripting OCTOBER 7th, a feature film on the heroic true story of Noam Tibon, who rescued his son Amir Tibon, a Haaretz journalist, and his young family, from Hamas terrorists who had invaded their home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Issacharoff is also is a war correspondent who has been embedded with the IDF in Gaza. The event is July 22 at 6pm in NYC at the Comedy Cellar. Part of the proceeds will be donated to Leket, Israel’s leading food rescue organization, which has played a critical role working with farmers and kibbutizm in the Gaza envelope since 10/07.
To RSVP, please go to comedycellar.com, click the "lineups" button on the top left and select "July 22".
Now onto today’s conversation. How close is Israel to reaching a hostage deal with Hamas and - with that - a temporary ceasefire that could possibly become a permanent ceasefire? And why does this negotiations process have direct implications for Israel’s Northern border, between Hezbollah and Israel? Could a Gaza ceasefire result in a de-escalation on Israel’s Northern border?
To help us understand what’s going on here, we have two guests today:
-Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediot. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
-Haviv Rettig Gur has been a regular presence on this podcast since October 8. He is a senior political analyst for the Times of Israel, and has been an important interpreter for Western audiences of how to understand this conflict in broader historical terms.
Speech by Nadav Eyal discussed on this episode: www.instagram....
Dan on X: x.com/dansenor
Dan on Instagram: / dansenor
#israel #israelnews #biden #war #gaza #palestine #idf #netanyahu

[@av4037]

Outstanding episode. Sadly clearly exposing a delicate position for Israel. It was a joy to hear nadav.and haviv's exchange.

[@buddhaway]

I really agree with Haviv, especially the point he made near the end asking 'was Hezbollah really deterred after 2006?' No. They just changed strategy, holding off on attacks while they built a giant missile arsenal, bigger infrastructure and became more influential as part of the actual gov't of Lebanon.
Same with Hamas (which is why Nadav's take on things in this moment surprises me.) The Israeli gov't's whole strategy in the south was based on Hamas being deterred. We now know they were also biding their time, building tunnels and planning and executing Oct. 7. They were not deterred after 2014, 2008, etc.
They, along with Iran and other of its proxies, as Haviv pointed out, are playing in a much longer timelime that, at the moment, shows them to be in much stronger positions than in previous decades.
It really is the case, as Einat Wilf also frames it, That many civilized people in the west simply can't get their heads around the ideology behind that brand of jihad. That is why, as Haviv says, in the long term , they are immuned to losses. They have literally wrecked two countries (Lebanon and Yemen) for their ideology, and now largely Gaza. And they don't care. They WANT the suffering. It gets the West on side. Look at American university campuses and European cities. The jihadis feel they are winning because they are winning so much of the Western mind. They might be right if we don't do something very strong to change the playing field.

[@guylipof8742]

Nadav’s optimism seems shrouded in naivete. If he truly thinks a Biden Administration unencumbered after elections will be more cooperative with Israeli action, he’s got more than a loose screw.
Haviv is spot on regarding the situation and reading the tea leaves. Great episode. Thank you to all three.

[@pascallieblich3289]

Great conversation! Both of them are right in my opinion. The deal is the best short- term strategy but long-term, Israel has to take the initiative and reshuffle the deck, break out of Iran's octopus strategy.

[@Adam-jt6nn]

Why do the Western nations allow the Houthis to interfere with international shipping rather than simply eliminating them? And the bigger question is why do Western countries allow the Iranians to sow chaos and destruction all over the world?

[@skeltax3790]

I see I'm in the minority that think Mr. Gur is spot on. We keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. It's true that Israeli's greatest strength is that it will do anything for it's citizens, as it should, but it's also true that this is it's greatest weakness. We are proving to them that as long as they kidnap Israelis they have wiggle room to survive longer. It's not sustainable. We need to think for the future.

[@michaelb1348]

Ultimately much will boil down to the detail of the plan (whether the IDF may continue to operate in certain parts of Gaza). Both guests make valid points. But I feel like Haviv makes better points in terms of bigger picture / long term.

[@bzantout]

I have to agree with the previous comment that it was an outstanding episode. However, I found Mr.Gur a little bit doom and gloom while Mr.Eyal was more realistic. Still, an amazing episode

[@stephanie4200]

Nadav is 10000% right on every point discussed. Normally agree w/ haniv as well but today he was just not making sense and not seeing all the very real positives of doing this deal. And the IDF knows more than anyone right now how much we can do right now. But it’s absolutely possible and idk why but Nadav was 1000x more coherent and realistic and positive and also just right. Hope the world and more importantly the decision makers please listen to Nadav. He’s really beyond a shadow of a doubt correct right now.

[@charleskatz2606]

You guys are the Holy Trinity as awkward as that description may be

[@EITANDB]

Only keep in mind, nadav eyal was never right in his entire career even that he is an opinionst

[@LawOfNonContradiction]

this "deal" is catastrophic at EVERY level. Nadal Eyal is delusional

[@blabla12654]

Nadal's view of the situation in unidimensional, Haviv's is 2-dimensional

[@guylipof8742]

Nadav’s optimism seems shrouded in naivete. If he truly thinks a Biden Administration unencumbered after elections will be more cooperative with Israeli action, he’s got more than a loose screw.
Haviv is spot on regarding the situation and reading the tea leaves. Great episode. Thank you to all three.