Althouse: "After months of deadlock, Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement for the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a long-awaited breakthrough..."

October 8, 2025

"After months of deadlock, Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement for the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a long-awaited breakthrough..."

"... that could point toward an end to the two-year war in Gaza. 'This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen,' Mr. Trump said on Truth Social."

The NYT reports.

24 comments:

Achilles said...: If there is somehow peace without inflicting enough military age male casualties on palestinians to force surrender it will be shocking.

Almost unprecedented in history really.

Color me skeptical.; 10/8/25, 6:59 PM
Iman said...: Let’s hope it’s not the usual Arab double-dealing perfidy. Some peace in the Middle East would be a very good thing.; 10/8/25, 7:01 PM
Big Mike said...: And just to show that there’s no hard feelings, each Palestinian will be given a free pager to carry in their front pocket.; 10/8/25, 7:05 PM
tcrosse said...: I'll believe it when keffiyehs statt showing up at Good Will.; 10/8/25, 7:08 PM
tcrosse said...: Greta hardest hit.; 10/8/25, 7:10 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: To recap: Donald Trump is negotiating with the terrorists instead of killing them. The terrorists will remain in charge.

And alive.; 10/8/25, 7:10 PM
Eva Marie said...: (With apologies to the great Chic Anderson calling the 1973 Belmont Stakes where Secretariat won by an amazing 31 lengths. Record still hold today)
They’re near the end of 2025, and Trump is blazing along! The first hundred days with wins on the border and wins on tariffs. Trump is widening now! He is moving like a tremendous machine! Trump by twelve! Trump by fourteen lengths on the Democrats! Schumer is dropping back. He can’t… there’s no match for this. Trump is in a position he’s been in for a couple of months—alone now, and coming to the wire with the first Phase of the Middle East Peace Plan signed, he is all by himself, he’s… unstoppable… and he’s gonna win the Nobel Peace Prize!”
Only Secretariat can come close to our President’s wins. Moving “like a tremendous machine”.; 10/8/25, 7:14 PM
bagoh20 said...: We've killed thousands and thousands of terrorists for decades all over the world. Where is the success story from that plan?; 10/8/25, 7:15 PM
wildswan said...: I'm hoping so much for this that I can't think about it. Unprecedented. But, Trump went around Hamas to the paymasters. So, maybe. I do believe the other Arab countries want peace. But Hamas? Liars, rapists, baby-burners, starving their captives: now they tell the truth? Color me hudna. But maybe Hamas is hated in Gaza and then the paymasters issue orders. So, maybe. Maybe. O, may it be.; 10/8/25, 7:30 PM
Eva Marie said...: To all of the neigh sayers out there:
https://youtu.be/bQ_LHyx2odc?si=-kkBF-3nWUcOuRAE; 10/8/25, 7:33 PM
Aggie said...: "...To recap: Donald Trump is negotiating with the terrorists instead of killing them. The terrorists will remain in charge...."

You sound like a man with a better plan. What is it? Perhaps you could start by contrasting the masterful diplomacy of the Biden administration, and follow up with Obama's triumphs in stopping international regional conflicts. Oh... right.; 10/8/25, 7:39 PM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: First: "Only Secretariat can come close to our President’s wins. Moving “like a tremendous machine”.
Then: "To all of the neigh sayers out there"
Eva Marie has the ponies on her mind today.; 10/8/25, 7:42 PM
Achilles said...: bagoh20 said...

We've killed thousands and thousands of terrorists for decades all over the world. Where is the success story from that plan?

The problem is "thousands and thousands."

You do not force a tribe to actually change unless you kill ~30% of the military age males.

Muslims wont give up terrorism until much larger numbers are killed or they are ruled by sufficiently controlling leaders. The foreign minister explains the problem.; 10/8/25, 7:42 PM
narciso said...: Take the win unless events prove otherwise; 10/8/25, 7:54 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: Aggie inquired: "You sound like a man with a better plan. What is it?"

Glad you asked.

If you are seen negotiating with terrorists, then you just get more terrorists. People will believe that if they inflict enough pain on you, they can get what they want by raping and murdering.

The Japanese believed this.

Then we dropped nuclear bombs on two of their cities.

They are now very docile folks and don't want to war with anybody.

My plan is the exact same plan as that.

The people of Gaza and the Palestinians need to understand that if they allow themselves to be led by terrorists, then we are going to drop nuclear bombs on them and erase them from the planet.

You would be surprised how quickly people adjust their behaviors when they understand the consequences of their actions.

It was not until we explained it to the Japanese people - the civilians - by killing a lot of them, that they were choosing leaders poorly that they began choosing wisely.

And that's precisely the lesson that the Palestinian people need. We need to nuke them. And let everybody else see it, so they know what the price of fucking with us is.

And then they won't.

That's a better plan than leaving a bunch of terrorists in charge to kill again just so you can sell weapons and ammo.; 10/8/25, 7:59 PM
hanuman_prodigious_leaper said...: if this is Trump way of kicking can down the road >> JDV inherits hot pohtahtoh!
will Israel behave itself?; 10/8/25, 8:06 PM
Aggie said...: Gosh, that doesn't sound like a plan at all.; 10/8/25, 8:13 PM
Howard said...: The Italians surrendered after losing ~2.5% of their military age men; 10/8/25, 8:13 PM
Achilles said...: Israel fucked up in Gaza. They should have spent maybe a week and dropped pamphlets telling people to not be near anyone associated with Hamas.

Then they should have bombed the shit out of Hamas ruthlessly for a month or so showing an absolute commitment to destroy Hamas no matter what it took and no matter who was in the way.

Then they could pause for a week or so to give the Palestinians a chance to throw all of the rest of Hamas over the wall and surrender completely.

Rinse and repeat.

Instead it looks like Israel and particularly Netanyahu and whatever political party he represents are in a symbiotic relationship with Hamas. It increasingly looks like Netanyahu wants Hamas to be around forever and Netanyahu wants Hamas to be his excuse for building Greater Israel.; 10/8/25, 8:16 PM
Wince said...: Greta should thank Trump. Didn’t she just post a photo of an emaciated Israeli hostage held by Hamas as if it documented Israeli torture of Palestinians? The actual video shows him being forced by Hamas to dig his own grave. Perfect excuse for Greta to pivot away from her recent self-humiliations.; 10/8/25, 8:21 PM
Achilles said...: Howard said...

The Italians surrendered after losing ~2.5% of their military age men

Which war? WW2?

I never really thought the Italians were particularly enthusiastic and I don't really remember them making much of a contribution compared to Japan/Germany.

Sometimes I wonder if they really should have been mentioned when talking about the Axis powers. The only reason I think they were really talked about is there were 3 major allied powers and they didn't want it to seem like they were bullying 2 Axis powers and they included Italy to make it seem like a "fair" fight numbers wise.; 10/8/25, 8:21 PM
Howard said...: Gemini AI Says:

The Italian armed forces had a peak strength of roughly 2.5 million men in the army, with 5.5 million total mobilized personnel over the course of the war, according to the Library of Congress (.gov). At the war's start, the Italian Royal Army had about 1.6 million men divided into 73 divisions, while the Italian Navy was the fourth-largest in the world with significant numbers of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. The Italian Air Force also had around 3,300 aircraft at the outset of the war.

Italian military actions in WWII included premature and disastrous campaigns against France and Greece, a significant role in the North African campaign, fighting on the Eastern Front, and the costly Italian Campaign against the Allies after Italy's switch from the Axis to the Allied side. Italy's military ultimately failed to meet Mussolini's imperial ambitions, suffering heavy losses and contributing to the eventual Allied victory in 1945.; 10/8/25, 8:30 PM
Eva Marie said...: Dedicated to the greatest President of all time
Let The Big Horse Run by John Stewart
https://youtu.be/IFx68BIfMiM?si=_Zb9eLQrgMLzLN1A; 10/8/25, 8:39 PM
Kakistocracy said...: It’s really not hugely complicated. Israel is going to have to do something it hasn’t done for 75 years. Compromise. It’s all been take, take, take.

The West Bank is the most intriguing factor in this Rubik's Cube. Two people not mentioned are Bezalel Smotrich and Itmar Ben-Gvir. They represent the most extreme religious/nationalist wings of Israeli politics. Neither has any intention of backing down from their claim to all of Eretz Israel.

These two extremists are propping up Netanyahu's government. What role will they play in the negotiations? Hopefully, not much. But they have a strong constituency of West Bank settlers who won't let them back down.

How you can talk of a peace plan without addressing the issue of the ever expanding settlements.; 10/8/25, 8:51 PM