The Don Jones Index

the DON JONES INDEX…
	GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 10/16/25… 14,919.59 10/9/25... 14,917.39 6/27/13... 15,000.00
(THE DOW JONES INDEX: 10/16/25... 46,253.41; 10/9/25... 46,601.78; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)

LESSON for OCTOBER 16th, 2025 – “FREE at LAST!”

After slightly over two years, thee twenty living hostages held by Hamas terrorists after their attack on an Israeli music festival were finally returned to their families in a complicated people swap that may also be the beginning of the end of long years of war and terror in the MidEast, according to the celebratory speech from President Trump. (ATTACHMENT “A”)

Sunday and Monday timelines and takeaways from CBS, BBC, Al Jazeera and CNN (plus a Sunday look at GUK) relate the progress of the peace and release from the ratification of Phase One to the return of the hostages.

Sunday timelines and takeaway attachments: CBS (“B”), BBC (“C”), Al Jazeera (“D”) and CNN (“E”)

Monnday timelines and takeaway attachments: CBS (“F”), BBC (“G”), Al Jazeera (“H”), CNN (“I”) and GUK (1 and 2… “J”)

The peace process, begun many years - even USA political administrations – ago, but always stalling over one thing or another, finally reached a turning point Wednesday night when Politico reported that Israel and Hamas had “signed off on the first phase” of a deal to end the war in Gaza. (7:02 PM, ATTACHMENT ONE)

President Trump announced the proposed deal in a Truth Social post, outlining an agreement that would include the release of all the hostages seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and would lead to a broader peace between Palestinians and the Jewish state.

“This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly!,” Trump wrote. “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. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”

Later, in a brief phone interview with POLITICO, Trump said: “I feel good. It’s a great deal for the world,” adding that it is a “beautiful deal.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called it “a great day for Israel” and thanked the Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. president.

“Tomorrow I will convene the government to approve the agreement and bring all our beloved hostages home,” he said in a statement. “I extend my gratitude to the brave IDF soldiers and all the security forces, whose courage and sacrifice have brought us to this day.”

Hamas did not have an immediate statement on the agreement and Politico opined that it “remains unclear what concessions each side is willing to make to end fighting.”

They also reported that Trump would journey to Egypt to wrap up Phase One details, sign the deal and meet with supporters, notably Gulf states like Qatar, to discuss further details. Under the agreement he Trump first released to the public last week, Israel and Hamas would exchange hostages and prisoners and then lay down arms after two years of carnage in Gaza.

Phase Two of the original plan called for Hamas to quickly cede control of Gaza, turning its governance over to an international trusteeship overseen by the U.S. and Arab allies. But it’s unclear if those elements of the plan have been agreed to.

Hours before his announcement, Trump asserted that the deal was “very close” at the outset of a White House roundtable on Antifa. “Toward the end of that gathering in the State Dining Room,” Politico reported, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered the room and handed the president a note, which he told people in the room said he was needed back in the Oval Office to discuss the Gaza deal.

“A photographer in the room, Evan Vucci of the Associated Press, captured an image of Rubio’s note, which read: “Very close. We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”

“Donald Trump may finally be on the verge of ending the war in Gaza, a brutal siege that has killed more than 70,000 people,” according to local authorities contacted by the Independent U.K. (Wednesday night, 11:41 PM, ATTACHMENT TWO)

Reporting throughout the dead of night indicated that “significant roadblocks” were still in the way of extending 'phase one'.

Asked how he could guarantee Hamas would disarm and Israel would not resume bombardments of Gaza at a Cabinet meeting, the U.S. president responded that his current priority was the return of hostages: “After that, we’ll see...but they’ve agreed to things," IUK reported.

By Thursday morning, October 9^th, many of those things had been resolved, according to the Daily News of Egypt (ATTACHMENT THREE)... “a clear progression of events, including prisoner releases, increased aid delivery, and an initial Israeli withdrawal from specific areas in Gaza.”

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi wrote on X: “The world is witnessing a historic moment that embodies the triumph of the will for peace over the logic of war. From Sharm El-Sheikh — the city of peace and the cradle of dialogue and understanding — an agreement is reached to establish a ceasefire and end the war in Gaza after two years of suffering and woes, in accordance with the peace plan proposed by President Trump and under the auspices of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States of America. This agreement does not only close the chapter of war; it also opens the door of hope for the peoples of the region for a future defined by justice and stability.”

The agreement sets a precise schedule for its initial phase, detailing the steps for the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange extending from Thursday to Monday – after which “negotiations for Phase Two will commence, focusing on completing the withdrawal and securing a permanent ceasefire.”

GUK, (ATTACHMENT FOUR) noted, moments after midnight, Israeli time, Thursday that “...rounds of celebratory gunfire rang into the night sky and people cried tears of joy and disbelief on Thursday as news of a peace deal reached those in devastated Gaza – and in Israel, where relatives have anxiously awaited the release of hostages detained since the war broke out two years ago.”

On the streets of Tel Aviv “tearful families hugged, cheered, some popping champagne,” as they learned of the news. “Matan is coming home. These are the tears I prayed for,” said one mother of an Israeli hostage detained in Gaza, as reported by Haaretz.

Other hostage stories included those of Eyad Amawi, a Palestinian aid coordinator displaced in central Gaza whose biggest fear, he said, “was Israel creating obstacles to implementing the agreement” and Israeli defence minister Israel Katz who posted on X that: “I extend a big hug to the families of the hostages for the expected return home of their loved ones, including IDF soldiers and fallen soldiers.”

The hostage return and peace pact, Trump hoped, would propel him into the Nobel Peace Prize

Nominated for the Norwegian tribute by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga) on Thursday afternoon because the President had saved “countless lives” with this deal (KFOX14, El Paso, 2:45 PM EDT, ATTACHMENT FIVE), Trump had announced on Truth Social Wednesday evening that “...ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly! 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.”

Even discouraging words from Time piercer and guest troll Nina Græger from Norway opining that he was unlikely to win - not because of political bias but because of his “Executive Orders withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the Paris climate accord, and international tax agreements”, his cuts to foreign aid programs “from famine relief in Sudan to vaccination campaigns in sub-Saharan Africa”, his withdrawal from nuclear arms treaties and, at home, his deployment of the National Guard to quell unrest, and crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations at American universities. (ATTACHMENT SIX)

“While President Trump has made notable efforts in several areas, the overall record at this stage does not fully align with the standards outlined by Alfred Nobel.” Maybe next year? – she threw him a bone.

Because Norway is a small country where everybody presumably knows everybody else, Græger proposed five recipients more worthy of the honors to her countryjudges – including Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the century-old Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

“Even before he returned to the White House in January, the President (had) been waging a far-from-subtle campaign for a Nobel,” opined Time’s prolific and perennial articulator, Philip Elliott (ATTACHMENT SEVEN). “Unlike other trinkets that Trump secured through bravado and bluster”, Elliott concluded, that “... (n)o amount of bullying could buy Trump a prize for peace, an irony lost only on the President.”

On Thursday, Trump... having made his last-minute pitch for the biggest prize in diplomacy... told reporters in the Oval Office that he had (or was about to have) accomplished what no one else had ever done – not even former Nobel laureate Barack Obama or loser Bill Clinton... “join(ing) the ranks of Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Nelson Mandela.”

Telling the President of Norway’s next-door neighbor, Finland during an Oval Office meeting: “I know this: that nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months. And I’ve stopped eight wars. So that’s never happened before,” Trump said.

Well, neither Trump, whose hopes of winning were dashed – ventured Dave Schilling of GUK (October 11^th, ATTACHMENT EIGHT) – by “common sense”, nor any of Græger’s nominees prevailed.

The 2025 award instead went to the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who, at least, “acknowledged Trump in her acceptance of the honor, saying she appreciated his support of Venezuelan democratic reform.”

Trump seethed, but shrugged... MAGAnauts like Sean Davis of the Federalist snarled and declared the Nobel was actually “beneath” Trump and “a joke”.

“Trump’s entire worldview seems predicated on a notion that life is unfair, the system is rigged, and he alone can balance the scales back toward justice,” Schilling declaimed. “This all makes sense as a rhetorical strategy, and it has proved popular in an age in which most people deem the American government to be about as straight as a bowl of chicken noodle soup. But it doesn’t play so well when his grievances are focused almost exclusively on himself and his own personal gripes. Indicting his enemies, trying to get late-night talkshows canceled, and whinging about an award that apparently has no value – it all starts to get rather tiresome.”

South of Norway, Israel and Hamas agreed to the “first phase” of Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social shortly after, hailing what he called a “strong” and “durable” peace after more than two years of conflict. (Time, ATTACHMENT NINE)

“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,” Trump wrote. “This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly!”

Trump had outlined his 20-point plan last week at the White House alongside Netanyahu after Hamas announced what it described as a deal “stipulating an end to the war on Gaza, the occupation’s withdrawal from it, the entry of aid, and a prisoner exchange,” under the American threat to let “all hell” break loose against the militant group if they did not agree to the deal by Sunday.

But even after the announcement, Israel continued to carry out air raids on Gaza City, although at a significantly reduced level, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground and also detonated an armored vehicle carrying explosives near homes in Sabra, south of Gaza City.

The Gaza health ministry said at least nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours prompting a warning to Palestinians not to return to northern Gaza, which is “still considered a dangerous combat zone.” Time enumerated several “key details” of the deal... regarding hostage exchanges, the subsequent “reconstruction of Gaza” and Palestinian statehood.

Time, outlining Trump’s 20-point plan, detailed some of the details of the deal – detailing, for example...

The exchange of hostages...

Reconstruction of Gaza (short term humanitarian and longer term rebuilding...

Disarming of Hamas and Gaza governance by a “Board of Peace” under Trump’s control...

Palestinian statehood... TBD...

Time also gave notice that “...Trump reportedly may travel to Egypt as soon as Saturday to oversee implementation. The President also reportedly said he (would) likely travel to Israel in the coming days and potentially address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, at Netanyahu’s invitation.”

The Independent U.K. (ATTACHMENT TEN) also listed several questions regarding “murky” armistice details (in which the devil lurked) – including the Hamas desire for Palestinian statehood that has been rejected by Netanyahu and largely abandoned by the White House as well as “opposition from the rightwing members of his government, including the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have threatened to topple the government in the event of a ceasefire.”

Their sometimes-collaborators, sometimes-competitors at GUK attributed the “turning point” of the deal to “a group of Arab and Muslim states” organised by the United Arab Emirates, that redlighted his grandiose plans to turn the demolished Gaza into bright, new resort destination.

The deal almost collapsed after Netanyahu’s unilateral decision to bomb Doha on 9 September in the hope of wiping out Hamas negotiators. Trump had not been consulted, but the US assurances were met with scepticism. As a result Netanyahu, “not a man prone to contrition,” was ordered to apologise and say he would respect Qatar’s sovereignty in future. (ATTACHMENT ELEVEN)

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, meeting with the “head of the intelligence office of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, İbrahim Kalın, and the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, confirmed a breakthrough was imminent” despite Al Thani contending that Israel’s “real objective”... unless muzzled by the American President... would be “to destroy Gaza, to render housing, livelihoods, education, and medical care impossible, stripping away the very foundations of human life”.

The concept that Trump personally was central to a solution – indeed its guarantor – so flattered the US President that he “offered himself up as the chair of the peace board, the body that would oversee the reconstruction of Gaza.”

Atlantic City was back – not quite Vegas, except for the climate, but good enough! The prospect of a Nobel... in ’26 if not now... “hover(s) once more into view.”

For Israelis, the deal might be the beginning of the end of a near-universal hostility owing to “the scale of civilian death and suffering wrought by its war have drawn increasing international condemnation and isolation for the Jewish state.”

“Much of Gaza is now a rubble-strewn wasteland, with most of its buildings damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N. (NBC via 1440, ATTACHMENT TWELVE) And the world's leading body on hunger, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, has declared that a famine is now playing out inside the cramped territory.”

The Independent U.K. acknowledged that Trump may have ended the “brutal siege” with a ceasefire set to begin within 24 hours after Israel's ministers agreed to the plan.

“But both sides of the American political spectrum now increasingly agree: the biggest obstacle between a temporary ceasefire and a permanent peace deal remains Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Even as leaders of Hamas vowed to return all living and dead hostages, Israeli military forces continued to carry out strikes throughout the day Thursday, according to reports from inside Gaza.” (ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN)

The Quincy Institute's Trita Parsi wrote on Thursday: "Bottom line is that Trump must retain pressure on all parties — particularly Israel — to ensure that the prisoner exchange is followed up with a full end to the war."

Trump himself extended credit to fellow real-estate developer turned special envoy Witkoff and Jared (Attachment Eight, above) for fulfilling his campaign vow to stop a war that has killed tens of thousands, while returning Israeli captives to their families and beginning the arduous work of rebuilding Gaza. “It could also mark a strategic turning point for the Middle East. Israel, already emerging from a year of history-bending military operations—crippling Hamas in Gaza, decapitating Hezbollah's command structure, and setting back Iran's nuclear program.” (Time, ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN)

And it could also halt the American drift towards “looking like a shrinking superpower.” President Joe Biden struggled to stop wars in Europe and the Middle East; “Trump, for all his bluster, couldn't move Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine, nor stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from escalating the war in Gaza.”

But the 20-point plan prepared by Jared and Witkoff – with input from Egypt, Turkey and... despite the Israeli attack... Qatar – is still surviving, although barely. Time reported that, as of the weekend, Team Trump was taking a cautious victory lap. “I think it’ll hold. They're all tired of the fighting,” the President said.

On Saturday, Fox correspondent Efrat Lachter hosted retired Gen. Jack Keane, a senior strategic analyst and Dr. Michael Milshtein, head of the Moshe Dayan Forum at Tel Aviv University on 'Fox & Friends' who derided the deal.

"Forget words like peace and coexistence — that won’t happen," Milshtein told Fox News Digital. Hamas leaders, he explained, have made clear they will not accept an international mandate or a Tony Blair-style trusteeship.

"They’re prepared to let a cosmetic Palestinian administration run daily affairs, but Hamas will operate behind the scenes, like Hezbollah in Lebanon,” (ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN)

“The war may end, but Hamas stays."

Ghaith al-Omari of the Washington Institute was slightly less negative – saying that the current optimism rests on extraordinary regional coordination.

"Trump has amazing instincts when it comes to recognizing openings and opportunities," he said. "He identified the moment and went for it."

Al-Omari said the convergence of several pressures — the attack on Qatari soil, growing Gulf anxiety over instability and fear of the conflict spreading — pushed Arab states to act. He added that Turkish support would be critical... they host Hamas leaders, control financial channels and offer an ideological model through their ruling AKP party.

"They can tell Hamas, ‘Look at us — we started out illegal and unarmed, but we learned to work within the political system. If you disarm, you can become a political organization too.’"

Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that a truce is not peace.

"This is only a pause," he told Fox News Digital. "There will be peace only when Hamas lays down its weapons, surrenders all roles in governing Gaza and the Trump Peace Plan is fully implemented. That will require relentless focus from the president and his team to cut through Hamas’ games and end its grip on the Gazan people."

Dubowitz dismissed hopes of voluntary compliance. "They will never give up willingly," he said. "They must be pushed out of Gaza and relentlessly hunted down inside the Strip by the IDF and whatever international security force is willing to take action."

Tamir Heiman, a former Israeli intelligence chief, was slightly more hopeful - describing three possible scenarios once the hostages are released and fighting subsides. In the best case, Hamas cooperates with the establishment of an alternative technocratic government supported by international policing forces. If it refuses, Israel could still transfer limited security control to an international force "in separate sectors, gradually," he said.

The third scenario — and, in his view, the most likely — is that no foreign force steps in.

"The IDF would remain in areas along what we call the yellow line, operating like a security buffer similar to southern Lebanon," Heiman said. Under that model, Israel maintains freedom of operation, while Hamas retains light weapons but is stripped of rockets and missile factories.

"It’s not peace," he added, "but it’s managed security."

He chose not to mention a fourth scenario – it all explodes.

But, for the present, President Trump is enjoying praise from the “unlikeliest of places” (Time, October 11, ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN)

Even Hamas credits the “floridly pro-Israel U.S. President” with coercing—with “maximum pressure,” in the words of a senior White House official— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into accepting the ceasefire,

“Without the personal interference of President Trump in this case, I don’t think that it would have happened, to have reached the end of the war,” Dr. Basem Naim, a physician and senior Hamas official, told Sky News.“Therefore, yes, we thank President Trump and his personal efforts to interfere and to pressure Netanyahu to bring an end to this massacre and slaughtering.”

Time called Netanyahu’s attack on Qatar the tipping point that, perhaps perversely, enabled the cease fire for hostages deal celebrated by all save the most extremely dominionist Israelis.

And with a victory, even a temporary one, in his pocket, the usually derogatory Huffington Post (October 12^th, ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN) noted the President’s journey to Jerusalem as having occurred during “a narrow window” between Israel’s “decimation of Iranian proxies, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon” and a renewed focus by Arab and Muslim states upon “resolving the broader, decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, in some cases, deepening relations with the United States.”

“Trump said he (would) first visit Israel, where he has been invited to address Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, an honor last extended to President George W. Bush during a visit in 2008. Trump then (traveled) to Egypt, where he and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (led) a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh with leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss peace in Gaza and the broader Middle East.” (below)

Adhering to its woke stance in favor of Palestinians and against Israel, the Huffsters then stated that Israel “continues to rule over millions of Palestinians without basic rights as settlements expand rapidly across the occupied West Bank”, that despite growing international recognition, Palestinian statehood appears exceedingly remote because of Israel’s opposition and actions on the ground, despite Israel’s isolation due to allegations of genocide, which it denies, and international arrest warrants filed against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister.

The White House contends that Trump “is looking to quickly return attention to building on a first-term effort known as the Abraham Accords, which forged diplomatic and commercial ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.”

A permanent agreement in Gaza “would help pave the path for Trump to begin talks with Saudi Arabia,” (the most powerful and wealthy Arab state) as well as with Indonesia, (the most populous Muslim country), toward “normalizing ties with Israel, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.”

GUK, also liberal and essentially a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli publication, wrote that Trump expected the ceasefire to continue. “They’re all tired of the fighting,” he told reporters at the White House, adding that there was a “consensus” on the way forward. (ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN)

On Sunday night, tens of thousands of people cheered in “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv as the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, spoke, alongside Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“I dreamed of this night. It’s been a long journey,” Witkoff said. The crowd yelled praise for Trump, but booed when Witkoff mentioned Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu.

As preparations continued for the hostage swap, humanitarian groups geared up to send aid into Gaza.

“Cogat, the Israeli military agency that oversees humanitarian aid in Gaza, said it expected about 600 trucks to enter the strip each day, starting on Sunday. This would restore aid to around prewar levels, after months of severely restricted aid into the strip.

“The UN said about 170,000 metric tonnes of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid was ready to enter Gaza once Israel permits its entry. Tents, high-energy food for malnourished children and menstrual hygiene supplies were among the prioritised aid items.

“A spokesperson for the World Food Programme, Abeer Etefa, said that roads were being cleared and repaired on Sunday to help facilitate future aid deliveries.” But, as of this morning, the U.N. says that Israel is allowing more aid into Gaza now, but not enough to address the humanitarian crisis.

GUK reporter William Christou opined that the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was meant to replace the UN in aid distribution in Gaza was now widely seen as “a failure, with its model of distribution marked by overcrowding and death. More than 1,000 people were shot to death by Israeli soldiers during the daily scramble to access food at the GHF sites, chaos which aid groups said was brought on the foundation’s militarised model of provision.”

A spokesperson for GHF denied wrongdoing, telling Reuters there was a temporary closure of aid sites during the hostage transfers, but that there was “no change to our long-term plan”.

But an editorial in the Independent U.K. (October 13, ATTACHMENT NINTEEN) said that, while Trump was entitled to his “victory lap”, the settlement was less a victory for Americans than a forecast of ominous days to come for Netanyahu who, IUK reasoned, would have been better off continuing the war indefinitely to maintain his regime (not unlike Bad Vlad’s Ukrainian policy) and to avoid returning to an Israeli courtroom on corruption charges.

Multiple media sources concurred that the “tipping point” for Bibi was his attack on Qatar, after which the US president “had no alternative but to tell the Israeli leader to stop.”

For now, IUK concluded, “what President Trump has achieved – albeit with some luck, and a certain war-weariness among the combatants – is reason enough for him to enjoy thanks and praise.” But the disarming of Hamas remains unaccomplished (instead of prosecuting war against Israel, they are now using the downtime of Phase I to seek, catch and kill domestic dissenters.

IUK concluded that Mr Trump, “an impatient man”, will have to accept that his peacemaking work “will not be done for some time to come.”

To medicate his impatience, the American President has also enjoyed the pivots (howsoever cautious) of his enemies in the blue media – not the least of which was the New York Times (October 14^th, ATTACHMENT TWENTY) which polled some of Trump’s notable trolls who were cheering on... however guardedly... the HamasIsraeli peace process.

Endangered latenite network comedians like Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers and Steven Colbert as well as cable comics, podcasters and print poppers like Trevor Noah, John Oliver and even senior citizens like David Letterman all knelt and kissed Trump’s tucchis.

Kimmel, rescued from the void by outraged followers, said Trump “finally did something positive today, and I want to give him credit for it, because I know he’s not the type to take credit for himself.”

“Credit where credit is due: Donald Trump did something good,” added ABC’s Colbert. “Are we still canceled?”

Some also commiserated with the man they’d accused of seeking dictatorship for having lost the Nobel.

GUK, however, claimed that Trump has not changed in his determination to crush domestic dissent and has, in fact, been joined by gumment, lobbies and gumment lobbies all over the West. (Tuesday, ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE)

A study by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) pays particular attention to the UK, the US, France and Germany, where it says governments have “weaponised” counter-terrorism legislation as well as the fight against antisemitism to suppress dissent and support for Palestinian rights in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“In the US, similar action in solidarity with Palestine has been met with arrests, legal action and mounting threats. In France, the government has been criticised for repressing those expressing solidarity with Palestinians, including banning demonstrations in certain cities as well as the decision to dissolve the pro-Palestinian human rights and solidarity collective Urgence Palestine.

“And in Germany, where pro-Palestinian rallies have drawn thousands to the streets, under the shadow of the country’s postwar identity indelibly shaped by the Nazi regime’s responsibility for the Holocaust, tactics by police have been criticised as excessive.”

Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza demands atonement from Palestinians for the horrific acts of 7 October, not from Israel for the barbarity that followed, and calls for “Gaza’s deradicalization – but not an end to Israel’s messianism.”

Even under success of the ceasefire, the Guardian contends, life for Gazans “will transition from utter hell to mere nightmare,” and, consequently, “history is gearing up for revenge.”

Declaring that “(t)his conflict is not a technical dispute over territory, boundaries or security arrangements (but) a deep, abiding, emotional, struggle between two peoples, Guksters Hussein Agha and Robert Malley (authors of “Tomorrow is Yesterday” conclude that, while “...(no) good has come from misinterpreting reality, (s)ome good may come from facing it.”

Also on Tuesday, Time’s Bobby Ghosh admitted that, while “it isn't easy to praise someone who habitually, preemptively, and lavishly praises himself,” (ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE) there can be no gainsaying the fact “that President Donald Trump—and President Donald Trump alone—deserves credit for the scenes of joy and relief we've seen in Israel and Gaza, respectively, over the past four days.”

Without his intercession, there is every likelihood that the devastation of Gaza would have continued into a third year, more of the Israeli hostages would have died in their miserable confinement and, (tho’ unmentioned by Mr. Ghosh), Palestinian children would still be hungry.

Amidst other questions already asked, Time reported that Hamas leader Basim Naim said the terrorists “won’t lay down their arms until a comprehensive agreement is reached.”

Who does he think he is? An American Congressman?

Another question is: who will pay for rebuilding Gaza? (A good start is Israel’s decision not to expel the two million civilians from the territory... rebuilding takes labor – and Palestinians come cheap as in a falafel a day.)

“The White House has clarified that the U.S. will not pay for reconstruction. Egypt's $53 billion reconstruction plan lacks specific details on funding sources. The Saudis and other Arab countries will be reluctant to contribute to a rebuilding effort absent an Israeli commitment to recognize a Palestinian state.”

So the deal depends on Trump’s remaining closely engaged to rebuilding – “week after week and month after month, with a broad spectrum of actors—not just individual power brokers.

“Trump thrives on dramatic breakthroughs, headline-grabbing announcements, and one-on-one negotiations. But the patient, grinding work of peace implementation typically bores him,” and the job carries so many distractions.

Case in point: while Gaza starved, Portland burned, vile Venezuelans smuggled drugs and themselves into America and the gumment remained shut down, the President’s priority was to lambaste Time for their cover story photo (appearing November 10^th), which he called the Worst of All Time on Truth Social. (ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR)

“They 'disappeared' my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one," Trump complained. "Really weird!”

See a mockup of the cover here.

Yesterday, PM Netanyahu confirmed that the Israeli military has received the bodies of two hostages, which were earlier been handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas in Gaza – bring the count of corpses in coffins up to nine. However, investigators determined one of these delivered to the Red Cross was not a hostage, but some poor, nameless shnook – delivered in the hope that the mistaken hostage would extend the survival of the deal by another two days.

Hamas justified its delay by contending it would need extensive efforts and special equipment to find and recover the remaining bodies among the ruins of Gaza. Per the ceasefire agreement, the deadline for all the living and dead hostages to be handed over expired on Monday but a U.S. official told Axios that “Hamas will give all the bodies back, but it is going to take time. We will continue working on it but we can’t allow the deal to collapse,” (ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE) even if Trump’s “mixed message” on allowing Hamas the green light to temporarily police Gaza.had resulted in the execution of “collaborators” whom he told reporters had been gang members (which did not bother him) pivoted, on Wednesday, to admission that innocent civilians had been decapitated too, or... in his new words... “gangs plus”.

And US News (ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX) asked six “unanswered questions” from the ceasefire – these being...

Does Hamas Disarm?

Who Runs Gaza?

Will the Ceasefire Hold?

Will the Regional Pressure Stay On?

Who Rebuilds Gaza and How?... and...

W(h)ither the Two-State Solution?

Upon that last, Plan Trump says: “While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.”

So, US News determined, it recognizes the “aspiration” but not necessarily the physical state.

“The hard stuff lies ahead.”

IN the NEWS: OCTOBER 9^TH to OCTOBER 15^TH, 2025

Thursday, October 9, 2025

Dow: 46,358.42

Hostage families and Gaza civilians ecstatic over possibility of Settlement, Phase One which Presiden Trump calls “an incredible thing.” There are perhaps 20 living hostages, and the bombing continues in Gaza, which is called “decimated”. 200 US troops will go there and “monitor”.

Protesters surround ICE Chicago processing center while assorted troops wait. Trump calls Illinois Gov. Pritzker a “criminal”, Pritzker calls the President “demented”. Judge April Perry will rule on the National Guard seizing migrants; Trump says he’ll stop “crime” in Chicago no matter what courts or pols want.

Nine days into gumment shutdown, Speaker Mike Johnson denies that the extended Congressional vacation is a ploy to prevent the swearing in of Rep. Grijalva who’d cast the deciding vote to release the Epstein files. Confronted by an (unpaid) military spouse with a sick child pushing up medical bills, he blames Democrats.

Substitute Aygee Halligan indicts Aygee Leticia James for bank fraud. Some critics call it corruption, others call it fascism. Trump goads her towards indicting Pritzker or Rep. Schumer, Schiff or Jeffries.

Friday, October 10, 2025

Dow: 45,479.640

Dow is down nearly 900 points after Trump raises tariffs on China from 30% to 130%

Preparing to go to Gaza and inspect the troops, President Trump is examined at Walter Reed and pronounced fit for the trip. The proposed deal will allow humanitarian aid and food into Gaza – some day. Israel does stop bombing, so thousands of Palestinians start back to their demolished homes.

Nobel prize panel dashes the President’s dream of a Peace Prize, and he responds very, very unpeaceably. The winner is Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader to the regime of President Maduro.

AyGee Halligan says that James (above) chated the gumment out of 19 thousand by calling a rental home a second residency. Former prosecutor Erik Siebert was fired and replaced after he told Trump that there was not enough evidence – leaving Democrats to complain and lawyers to crawl forth.

It’s Shutdown Day Ten and soldiers and Federal workers are starting to run out of money. There are long, long lies at food banks. House minority leader Jeffries says he wants military families exempted from the unpaid furloughs, but Speaker Mike refuses and Trump starts firing people formerly working in Democratic supported agencies instead.

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Dow: Closed

RIP to actress Diane Keaton, John Lodge of the Moody Blues and the venerable Loyola Chicago basketball nun Sister Jean. Rumors arise that Pope Leo will come back to his old home town for the service and, while there, try to convert Trump on migrants.

In advance of the President’s visit, the US troops arrive in Israel as the guns finally fall silent. The toll so far is 67,000 Gazans dead, 500,000 displaced and still starving.

Air traffic controllers and other transportation worker call in sick so Trump promises to tell Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth and the rest to have them fired andor jailed. Unions say that workers in blue states are fired while the pink-slipped panthers growl and snarl while ICE raids and protests escalate... authorities pepper spray a Portland costumed frog. “Croak!”

Another big cat is rescued in Brazil when a jaguar is shot and thrown into a river where he (or she?) is saved by Good Samaritans.

At least 18 workers are less fortunate after the Accurant Arms explosives factory explodes in Bucksnort, Tennessee. Debris is scattered for four miles as rescue and recovy teams start their work.

Sunday, October 12, 2025

Dow: Closed

It’s Columbus Day (or, in the view of Native Americans and wokesters) the Alien Invasion Day. It’s also Day 12 of the Gumment Shutdown; critical researchers at the CDC fired and then urged to come back as RFK junior and his MWAHAAHAA! minions blame a “coding error”.

It’s also Talkshow Sunday.

Veep Vance all over the lot, saying on ABC’s “The Week” that we expect the hostages to be released by the Monday deadline, so we are “at the cusp of the first peace in the MidEast in my lifetime.” At home, he says Chicago “has been given over to violent criminals and gangs for too long” with a 1,000% increase in violence against ICE agents and the Mayor and Governor should be mad at the criminals, not the President. In reply, Pritzker says the crime rate in Chicago is down and Portland is not on fire; the crime rate in Illinois is lower than in Republican Florida and Texas so there is no need for an Insurrection Act.

Three of the usual suspects on the ABC roundtable gobble their usual gabble. Former DNC Chair says gumment workers should get paid, former Jersey Gov. Christie says the MidEast has overshadowed the shutdown, former Trumper Sarah Isgur attributes the peace prospect to Trump’s “deterrence”.

On “Face the Nation” Vance says that Christians, Muslims and Jews are united (ignoring Iran) and the shutdown layoffs and chaos is Schuer’s fault. New Syrian leader Al Assad says he is no longe affiliated with Al Qaeda and compares parts of Syria to Gaza... begs a billion for building back.

Monday, October 13, 2025

Dow: Closed for Columbus Day

At 8 AM EDT (2 PM, Jerusalem time) the twenty living hostages are turned over to the Red Cross for return to their homes and families. “The sun is rising on a Holy Land that is finally at peace,” says President Trump in his address to the Israeli Knesset (see above),

Celebration time in Israel as the hostages are processed, examined and then finally sent home. But also a “somber moment” as four caskets of the dead are driven down Jewish streets... the remainder of remains are still held by Hamas, somewhere.

After officially signing the treaty in Egypt, President Trump says he will meet with Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy on Friday and provide him with Tomahawk missiles to be used against his old BFF Sad Vlad Putin in an attempt to pull off a second October surprise.

Shutdown talks are shut down as Congress remains on their extended “vacation”, In other news, twelve are shot, six killed at a “homecoming” in Leland, MS, two more die in a Fort Worth plane crash and a woman in New York City is killed by a ferocious nor’easter bringing high winds, rough surf and flooding from the Delmarva coast to Boston – as also, flooding in Arizona from the remains of Priscilla

Many functions closed for official Columbus Day but Wall Street remains open and claws back much of Friday’s losses due to MidEast exuberance. But the Chinese tariffs remain. Fellow celebrities lavish tributes on Dianne Keaton.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Dow: 46,220.46

Four more coffins arise, raising the count of the Israeli dad to eight, to go with twenty survivors exchanged for 1.700 Palestinian prisoners, more or less (some Hamas or affiliates, many not) and sixty some thousand shot, starved or blown up Gazans (fewer Hamas, more civilians). Hungry... some 1.600 trucks of food are waiting to be allowed to pass by the IDF. Bombings have stopped but five more shot trying to reach the food and Trump, having signed Phase I in Egypt is returning to Ameriac, noncommittal on two state solution.

Both the Israeli and Palestinian hostages are telling tales of torture.

The Prsident is returning to the gumment shutdown (still a quagmire) the tariff tiffs (he imposes another levy on lumber, impacting homebuilding and furniture... just as scientists create a “superwood’ ten times stronger than steel... and embargos cooking oil to China) and those damn migrants (as ICE raids continue, he threatens to pull World Cup Football (soccer) from Democratic cities. But, basking in newfound adoration and even grudging tributes from enemies in politics and the media, he awards a posthumous Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk.

Escalating his War on Drugs, the Navy sinks another presumed cartel boat off Venezuela, killing six and bring international complaints that begin eroding his peace dividend.

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Dow: 46,253.41

Angry over Hamas stalling release of the dead, Israel continues blocking aid to Palestinians despite a U.N. spokesman’s pleas to “flood (Gaza) with food.” Netanyahu orders relief be halved... if an when it begins... Hamas says the Jewish dead can’t be returned because they are buried beneath the rubble of bombed out cities. Stalling on demands to disarm, they are told that failure will bring a resumption of the war.

Trump, angered by harsh coverage and an unflattering cover in Time, escalates his war on American gumment employees, firing thousands working in ostensibly liberal arenas and saying they will never work again. Anywhere. Desperate parents decry cuts in services to children with disabilities while police warn that killing mental health programs will lead to more crazy criminals. ICE raids provoke riots in L.A. and rumors that the drug cartels are placing bounties on agents, amounts depending on rank.

Economically, Trump seems headed towards another strange victory as Fed Chair Powell, noting the slumping economy, says he’ll probably lower interest rates. Air traffic controllers say the shutdown endangers the lives of travelers, while a nationwide healthcare workers’ srike against Kaiser Permanente blames wages not keeping up with inflation.

There were many factors to the Dow’s bouncy flouncy week, but none more important than the little noticed raising of China tariffs from 30 to 130% that sent investors running for cover on Friday. Then, the peace deal and hostage return enabled some of the deficit to come back... some-ly... but the Don remains waiting on jobs and inflation during a spooky week where the usual ups were downs, the usual downs were up and the Dow losses were slightly overtaken by hostage freedom gains before the official spooky season begins. (And the weather starts changing.)

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES wVALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

Gains in indices as improved are noted in GREEN. Negativeharmful indices in RED as are their designation. (Note – some of the indices where the total went up created a realm where their value went down... and vice versa.) See a further explanation of categories HERE

ECONOMIC INDICES		(60%)
CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE	RESULTS by PERCENTAGE			SCORE		OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS
INCOME	(24%)	61713 revised 1122	LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	LAST WEEK	THIS WEEK	THE WEEK’S CLOSING STATS...
Wages (hrly. Per cap)	9%	1350 points	10/9/25	+0.38%	10/25	1,589.97	1,589.97	https:tradingeconomics.comunited-stateswages 31.46
Median Inc. (yearly)	4%	600	10/9/25	+0.06%	10/23/25	829.18	829.68	http:www.usdebtclock.org 44,687 714
Unempl. (BLS – in mi)	4%	600	10/9/25	+2.33%	10/25	530.25	530.25	http:data.bls.govtimeseriesLNS14000000 4.3
Official (DC – in mi)	2%	300	10/9/25	+0.0275%	10/23/25	215.50	215.44	http:www.usdebtclock.org 7,275 277
Unofficl. (DC – in mi)	2%	300	10/9/25	+0.28%	10/23/25	232.67	232.01	http:www.usdebtclock.org 14,748 790
Workforce Participation Number Percent	2%	300	10/9/25	+0.44% -0.008% 018 015%	10/23/25	297.11 297.05 ®	297.01	http:www.usdebtclock.org In 163,477 513 Out 104,055 115 Total: 267,482 532 628 61.117 61,106 61.097
WP % (ycharts)*	1%	150	10/9/25	-0.16%	10/25	150.71	150.71	https:ycharts.comindicatorslabor_force_participation_rate 62.30
OUTGO	(15%)
Total Inflation	7%	1050	10/9/25	+0.4%	10/25	927.45	927.45	http:www.bls.govnews.releasecpi.nr0.htm +0.4*
Food	2%	300	10/9/25	+0.5%	10/25	262.59	262.59	http:www.bls.govnews.releasecpi.nr0.htm +0.5
Gasoline	2%	300	10/9/25	+1.9%	10/25	255.11	255.11	http:www.bls.govnews.releasecpi.nr0.htm +1.9
Medical Costs	2%	300	10/9/25	-0.1%	10/25	274.20	274.20	http:www.bls.govnews.releasecpi.nr0.htm -0.1
Shelter	2%	300	10/9/25	+0.4%	10/25	250.63	250.63	http:www.bls.govnews.releasecpi.nr0.htm +0.4
WEALTH								* “The Consumer Price Index for September 2025 was scheduled to be released on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. (ET).” It wasn’t.
Dow Jones Index	2%	300	10/9/25	-1.39%	10/23/25	354.93	349.98	https:www.wsj.commarket-dataquotesindex 46,601.78 45,952.24
Home (Sales) (Valuation)	1% 1%	150 150	10/9/25	+2.04% -2.96%	10/25	123.91 277.56	123.91 277.56	`https:www.nar.realtorresearch-and-statistics` Sales (M): 4.00 Valuations (K): 422.6
Millionaires (New Category)	1%	150	10/9/25	+0.055%	10/23/25	133.95	134.02	http:www.usdebtclock.org 23,780 793
Paupers (New Category)	1%	150	10/9/25	+0.021%	10/23/25	133.25	133.28	http:www.usdebtclock.org 37,290 282

GOVERNMENT	(10%)
Revenue (trilns.)	2%	300	10/9/25	+0.24%	10/23/25	470.17	471.28	http:www.usdebtclock.org 5,518 531
Expenditures (tr.)	2%	300	10/9/25	+0.15%	10/23/25	278.69	278.28	http:www.usdebtclock.org 7,415 426
National Debt tr.)	3%	450	10/9/25	+0.08%	10/23/25	357.45	357.18	http:www.usdebtclock.org 37,845 874
Aggregate Debt (tr.)	3%	450	10/9/25	+0.09%	10/23/25	379.48	379.13	http:www.usdebtclock.org 104,794 890

TRADE	(5%)
Foreign Debt (tr.)	2%	300	10/9/25	+0.19%	10/23/25	256.32	255.83	http:www.usdebtclock.org 9,453 471
Exports (in billions)	1%	150	10/9/25	+1.15%	10/25	174.76	174.76	https:www.census.govforeign-tradecurrentindex.html 280.5
Imports (in billions))	1%	150	10/9/25	-5.94%	10/25	151.56	151.56	https:www.census.govforeign-tradecurrentindex.html 358.8
Trade SurplusDeficit (blns.)	1%	150	10/9/25	-23.12%	10/25	253.88	253.88	https:www.census.govforeign-tradecurrentindex.html 78.3

SOCIAL INDICES		(40%)
ACTS of MAN	(12%)
World Affairs	3%	450	10/9/25	-0.1%	10/23/25	470.53	470.08	Trump donates $20B to bail out Argentine Milieu, angering Americans who protest that they need the money; protesters from Gen, Z chase President of Madagascar out of the country while gumments are shaken (but not stirred) in France, Morocco, Kenya
War and terrorism	2%	300	10/9/25	+1.5%	10/23/25	285.79	290.08	20 living hostages returned in Phase One of a “peace plan” that finds Hamas reportedly executing “collaborators”. Feds bust Cambodian bitcoin scammers
Politics	3%	450	10/9/25	+0.5%	10/23/25	458.86	461.15	Trump celebrated for Gaza, castigated for shutdown and ICE war on migrants. He issues Executive Order to protect Columbus Day from the injuns, but loses Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan dissident Maria Corine Machado.
Economics	3%	450	10/9/25	+0.3%	10/23/25	429.64	430.93	IRS makes up new tax tables. Silver prices follow gold up, up to $50oz. Others up: Xmas trees, Halloween chocolate and new cars; down are gas for those cars, pumpkins and mortgage rates. Gen. Z hipsters are crowding second hand shops for inflation fighting and “fun”, Amazon will hire 250,00 seasonal workers.
Crime	1%	150	10/9/25	-0.2%	10/23/25	209.90	209.48	Twenty four shot, four killed at SC high school reunion; sixteen shot, four also killed at Ms. high school homecoming football game. Two cops shot in Miami, perp kills himself. Five shot at balloon release for prior shooting victim. Rude clerk prompts Dallas shooting. Wicked wife poisons hubby with antifreeze in wine. “Matlock” actor Daniel Del Rio fired over sexual assault on set while angry girlfriend cuts off a man’s testicles in Toledo. Two women set a dog on fire in S. Carolina while Mississippi bans eating cats.
ACTS of GOD	(6%)
EnvironmentWeather	3%	450	10/9/25	-0.2%	10/23/25	284.93	284.36	Drought ends with Priscilla flooding Arizona, Halong flooding Alaska and nor’easter in the... uh... NorthEast; next to go will be the Long Hot Summer (a month late) as frosts and freezing temps mosey east from the Upper Midwest to New England and the pumpkin spice lattes emerge.
Disasters	3%	450	10/9/25	-0.2%	10/23/25	458.86	457.94	Deadly floods in Mexico wash away over a hundred while weatherpeople warn that California rain over burn scars mean landslides. Second LA copter crash this month injures five. Baldwin brothers survive crash arter being run off the road by a garbage truck.
LIFESTYLEJUSTICE INDEX		(15%)
Science, Tech, Education	4%	600	10/9/25	+0.3%	10/23/25	615.84	617.69	Assorted scientists, authors and artists win Nobels, 22 American academics get $800K MacArthur grants. Space X launches another successful test flight. Catherine, Princess of Wales, says smartphones make kids both more connected and more isolated.
Equality (econsocial)	4%	600	10/9/25	+0.3%	10/23/25	663.07	665.06	Trailblazing New York rabbi (first Asian, first female) writes her autobiography (see more books, below). Alabama legislators vote to re-criminalize abortion pills and lock up the sluts who use them.
Health	4%	600	10/9/25	+0.2%	10/23/25	419.66	420.50	Joe Biden being treated for cancer. FDA greenlights Lilly blood test for Alzheimer’s. AstraZenica UK joins Pfizer on Trump RX discount websites.
Freedom and Justice	3%	450	10/9/25	-0.2%	10/23/25	483.54	482.57	AyGee Bondi indicts AyGee Letitia James. Baby shaker Roberson’s execution postponed after protests and publicity. Killmar deportation changed from Eswatini to Ghana, then limbo as African nations say they don’t want migrants (Send him to Ukraine?), Tabloid trolls say “everybody’s talking” about reality stars arrested for insurance fraud. In courts: returning SCOTUS will tackle gerrymandering, Pa. Gov. Shapiro firebomber guilty, gets 50 years. Alex Jones appeals $1.5B Sandy Hook verdict, Luigi Mangione contends bias, DrakeLamar feud, $700K judgment in Wyoming library lawsuit.
CULTURAL and MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS			(6%)
Cultural incidents	3%	450	10/9/25	-0.2%	10/23/25	572.27	571.13	Taylor Swift has #1 album but her movie falls at B.O behind “Tron”. (Coming up: Avatar 3 and, in 2026, “Ocean’s ?” prequel and sequel – trolls predict it’ll be AI written?) In sports, Vegas Aces win WNBA trophy, MLB final four are National League BrewersDodgers and American MarinersBlue Jays while hoops loom soon and upsets abound in NCAA and NFL football. Oprah’s Book of the Month is “A Guardian and a Thhief” by Megba Majuner, other tomes include - for 2023 nostalgia buffs - a Kevin Federline’s autobio, a thriller by Reese Witherspoon and Harlen Coben, “Crushmore” by the Podcrush people. Michael Lews records “The Big Short” on audio and says a sequel will come “but I don’t know when.” RIP: Diane Keaton (“Annie Hall”, rapper D’Angelo and Chicago basketball nun Sister Jean (will Pope Leo come to America to officiate her funeral?). Also Moody Blue John Lodge and “General Hospital’s” Heather Hill.
Miscellaneous incidents	4%	450	10/9/25	+0.1%	10/23/25	543.40	543.94	After woman dies in the Haunted Mansion, Disneyland raises prices. Fossil of Jurassic “Sword Dragon” discovered while 2025’s Big Pumpkin winner from Santa Rosa, CA checks in at 2.346 lobs. Four million “stick nation” scavengers (including celebrities like Dermot Mulroney and Lin Manuel Miranda) are picking up and collecting sticks to be used as curiosities, canes and to swat evildoers.

The Don Jones Index for the week of October 9^th through October 15^th, 2025 was UP 2.20 points

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalistAmerica-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties promulgating this andor other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.

ATTACHMENT ONE – FROM POLITICO

TRUMP SAYS ISRAEL AND HAMAS FINALIZE GAZA PEACE DEAL

The president said Israel and Hamas have “signed off on the first phase” of a deal to end the two-year conflict in Gaza.

By Eli Stokols 10082025 07:02 PM EDT

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Israel and Hamas have “signed off on the first phase” of a deal to end the war in Gaza, a significant diplomatic accomplishment that, if it holds, would halt two years of bloodshed and a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe.

Trump announced the deal in a Truth Social post, outlining an agreement that would include the release of all the hostages seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and would lead to a broader peace between Palestinians and the Jewish state.

Later, in a brief phone interview with POLITICO, Trump said: “I feel good. It’s a great deal for the world,” adding that it is a “beautiful deal.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called it “a great day for Israel” and thanked the Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. president.

He signaled support for a longer-term agreement, saying “With God’s help, together we will continue to achieve all our goals and enhance peace with our neighbors.”

Hamas did not have an immediate statement on the agreement and it remains unclear what concessions each side is willing to make to end fighting that began with the attack on southern Israel and led to an Israel response that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, including many civilians.

Trump, who along with Arab allies drew up with the 20-point peace plan that was finalized over three days of talks in Egypt this week, said earlier Wednesday that he may travel to the region this weekend to put a capstone on what could be the biggest foreign policy achievement of his presidency.

A Qatari official also heralded the agreement in a post on X, writing that the two sides agreed late Wednesday “on all terms and mechanisms for implementing the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to stopping the war, releasing Israeli detainees and Palestinian prisoners, and allowing aid to enter. The details will be announced later.”

In recent weeks, Trump worked closely with Qatar in particular to unify other Arab allies behind his peace plan and to help convince Hamas officials to accept the deal.

The agreement would usher in the third pause in fighting since the Oct. 7 attacks. The Biden administration and Arab partners brokered a brief ceasefire that allowed for the release of hundreds of Israeli hostages. Before it left office, the Biden administration, in consultation with the incoming Trump administration and Qatar and Egypt, secured a multiphase ceasefire deal that saw more Israeli hostages released and a months-long pause in fighting in the enclave before it collapsed. Israel broke the ceasefire after conducting airstrikes in Gaza on March 18 against Hamas targets.

Under the agreement Trump first released to the public last week, Israel and Hamas would exchange hostages and prisoners and then lay down arms after two years of carnage in Gaza.

A second phase of the original plan called for Hamas to quickly cede control of Gaza, turning its governance over to an international trusteeship overseen by the U.S. and Arab allies. But it’s unclear if those elements of the plan have been agreed to.

Hours before his announcement, Trump asserted that the deal was “very close” at the outset of a White House roundtable on Antifa. Toward the end of that gathering in the State Dining Room, Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered the room and handed the president a note, which he told people in the room said he was needed back in the Oval Office to discuss the Gaza deal.

A photographer in the room, Evan Vucci of the Associated Press, captured an image of Rubio’s note, which read: “Very close. We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”

The deal will likely ease the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Years of war and Israeli limits on the entry of humanitarian assistance have caused widespread starvation in the territory. Aid groups have warned Gaza is currently experiencing famine and there have been consistent worries throughout the conflict that malnutrition and the collapse of most of Gaza’s infrastructure will cause major disease outbreaks.

ATTACHMENT TWO – FROM IUK

ISRAEL, HAMAS AGREE TO 'PHASE ONE' OF TRUMP-BROKERED PEACE PLAN

The leaders of Hamas and Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have agreed to phase one of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Donald Trump may finally be on the verge of ending the war in Gaza, a brutal siege that has killed more than 70,000 people, according to local authorities.

A ceasefire is set to begin within 24 hours after Israel's ministers agreed to the plan on Thursday.

But both sides of the American political spectrum now increasingly agree: the biggest obstacle between a temporary ceasefire and a permanent peace deal remains Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even as leaders of Hamas vowed to return all living and dead hostages, Israeli military forces continued to carry out strikes throughout the day Thursday, according to reports from inside Gaza.

Trump himself was posed questions about Netanyahu’s level of commitment to the deal’s capacity to end the war on a long-term basis, and found himself unable to qualify it.

Reporting throughout Thursday indicated that significant roadblocks are still in the way of extending 'phase one'.

Nearly all stem from Israeli unwillingness to accept Palestinian demands, including for a pathway to statehood.

Those sentiments, once only held by progressives, are now finding equal purchase on the right.

ATTACHMENT THREE – FROM THE DAILY NEWS OF EGYPT

ISRAEL-HAMAS DEAL IN SHARM EL-SHEIKH: GAZA PEACE PLAN ROADMAP AND TIMELINE

BY Mohamed Samir Last updated: October 9, 2025 12:32 pm

A multi-stage roadmap for the first phase of an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in Gaza has been finalised, with implementation steps expected in the coming days. Egyptian sources close to the negotiations in Sharm El-Sheikh have confirmed the details to Daily News Egypt. This Egypt-backed deal outlines a clear progression of events, including prisoner releases, increased aid delivery, and an initial Israeli withdrawal from specific areas in Gaza.

Contents

· The Israel-Hamas Deal: Gaza Implementation Timeline

· Behind the Israel-Hamas Deal: Diplomacy in Sharm El-Sheikh

On Thursday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi wrote on X: “The world is witnessing a historic moment that embodies the triumph of the will for peace over the logic of war. From Sharm El-Sheikh — the city of peace and the cradle of dialogue and understanding — an agreement is reached to establish a ceasefire and end the war in Gaza after two years of suffering and woes, in accordance with the peace plan proposed by President Trump and under the auspices of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States of America. This agreement does not only close the chapter of war; it also opens the door of hope for the peoples of the region for a future defined by justice and stability.”

The Israel-Hamas Deal: Gaza Implementation Timeline

The agreement sets a precise schedule for its initial phase, detailing the steps for the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange:

· Thursday:

o Official announcement of the agreement.

o Israeli cabinet expected to approve the deal at 4 PM.

o Prisoner lists and first-phase withdrawal maps will be published.

· Friday:

o Legal appeals concerning the agreement will begin in Israeli courts.

o Initial Israeli withdrawal from designated areas in Gaza is set to commence by evening.

· Saturday:

o Withdrawal continues from specified zones.

o Hamas begins preparations for the exchange of prisoners and the handover of soldiers’ remains.

· Sunday:

o U.S. President Donald Trump is anticipated to arrive in the region to oversee implementation and formally declare an end to the conflict in Gaza.

· Monday:

o Execution of the exchange process, supervised by Egypt, Qatar, the U.S., and Turkey.

o Israel will release Palestinian detainees and return the remains of fighters, including members of elite units.

o Border crossings will fully reopen, allowing 400 aid trucks daily, with projections for over 600 in subsequent days.

Following this initial phase, negotiations for Phase Two will commence, focusing on completing the withdrawal and securing a permanent ceasefire.

Behind the Israel-Hamas Deal: Diplomacy in Sharm El-Sheikh

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday night that both Israel and Hamas had signed off on the first phase of the Gaza Peace Plan during these Sharm El-Sheikh discussions. He extended thanks to Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey for their involvement.

Earlier that day, Egyptian President Al-Sisi had invited President Trump to attend the signing if a deal was reached: “If an agreement is reached between Israel and Hamas, come to Egypt — come to Sharm El-Sheikh — and sign the peace deal here.”

The ceasefire agreement reached on Egyptian territory aims to conclude two years of conflict in Gaza. The progress was significantly facilitated by Egypt’s professional stewardship of the talks. All Palestinian factions convened in Sharm El-Sheikh, in close proximity to the Israeli delegation, highlighting Egypt’s unique diplomatic capacity in the region. While the United States and President Donald Trump played a notable role, the resolution of previous impasses was directly attributable to intensive and dedicated Egyptian diplomatic efforts.

ATTACHMENT FOUR – FROM GUK

TEARS OF JOY AND CELEBRATORY GUNFIRE: HOW GAZA AND ISRAEL REACTED TO NEWS OF CEASEFIRE DEAL

An initially improbable peace plan put forward by US president Donald Trump was on Thursday agreed to in its ‘initial phase’ by Israel and Hamas

By Kate Lamb And Agencies

Thu 9 Oct 2025 00.15 EDT

Rounds of celebratory gunfire rang into the night sky and people cried tears of joy and disbelief on Thursday as news of a peace deal reached those in devastated Gaza – and in Israel, where relatives have anxiously awaited the release of hostages detained since the war broke out two years ago.

“It’s a huge day, huge joy,” exclaimed Ahmed Sheheiber, a displaced Palestinian, crying over the phone from his shelter in Gaza City as he learned of the deal.

“I can’t believe the news,” said Ayman Saber, a resident of Khan Younis, a city in the Gaza Strip, while in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi people gathered to chant in unison “Allahu Akbar”, meaning God is greatest, and fire celebratory rounds into the air.

What had initially appeared an improbable 21-point peace plan put forward by the US president, Donald Trump, was on Thursday agreed to in its “initial phase” by Israel and Hamas after days of indirect talks in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El Sheikh.

The news could not come soon enough for families in Israel who for two years have lobbied and prayed for their relatives taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on 7 October 2023 to be released.

On the streets of Tel Aviv tearful families hugged, cheered, some popping champagne, as they learned of the news. “Matan is coming home. These are the tears I prayed for,” said one mother of an Israeli hostage detained in Gaza, as reported by Haaretz.

Some of those gathered in the city’s hostage square said Trump should be recognised for his role in brokering the deal, calling for a “Nobel prize to Trump” as they gathered in the early hours of the morning to celebrate.

Emily Damari, a British-Israeli who was held captive by Hamas for more than a year before being released in January, posted a video to her Instagram celebrating the news with friends who included fellow former hostage Romi Gonen.

The group could be seen hugging each other and dancing around a room as they toasted “L’chaim”, meaning “to life”.

As part of the agreement, Hamas said it would release the 20 hostages still alive as early as this weekend, with sources saying an exchange with Palestinian prisoners would happen within 72 hours of the deal being signed, which is expected to be Thursday.

Describing the deal as a “great day of Israel”, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “With God’s help, we will bring them all home.”

Hamas took 251 people hostage into Gaza in 2023, where 47 remain, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

“The entire nation is waiting and excited,” said the Israeli defence minister Israel Katz in a post on X. “I extend a big hug to the families of the hostages for the expected return home of their loved ones, including IDF soldiers and fallen soldiers.”

Netanyahu said he would convene the government on Thursday to approve the Gaza ceasefire agreement, while Hamas called on Trump and guarantor states to ensure Israel fully implements it.

Sparked by the 7 October attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, many of them civilians, Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has been devastating, killing more than 67,000 people, including many children, as aid blockades have resulted in starvation and acute hunger.

The war has razed Palestinian territory and unleashed a major humanitarian crisis.

Eyad Amawi, a Palestinian aid coordinator displaced in central Gaza, said he was still comprehending news of the ceasefire agreement.

“We believe and don’t believe. We have mixed feelings, between happiness and sadness, memories, everything is mixed,” he said.

Amawi said he hoped the deal was implemented as agreed so that people could return to their homes and begin to “renew the [will] and the hope for life” in Gaza where many children are injured and rubble is everywhere.

His biggest fear, he said, was Israel creating obstacles to implementing the agreement.

“We need to fix everything here, especially the psychological effects to [continue] with our lives.”

Even as initial celebrations unfolded, details of the agreement remained unclear on Thursday, including whether the parties in Egypt had made any progress on thornier questions about the future of the conflict, such as whether Hamas will demilitarise, as Trump has demanded, and how the war-torn territory will be governed in future.

If it is implemented, the deal would bring the two sides closer than any previous effort to halting a war that has evolved into a regional conflict, drawing in countries such as Iran, Yemen and Lebanon, and reshaping the Middle East.

ATTACHMENT FIVE – FROM KFOX14 EL PASO

TRUMP NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE BY GOP REP. FOR ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASEFIRE DEAL

by Charlotte Hazard | The National News Desk

Thu, October 9th 2025 at 2:45 PM

Georgia GOP Rep. Buddy Carter announced Thursday that he would be introducing legislation to nominate President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"No one deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than Donald J. Trump, the Peace President,” Carter told Fox News Digital. “In nine short months, he’s negotiated seven peace deals, not including the recent announcement of a historic agreement between Israel and Hamas to release the hostages and end hostilities.”

Trump announced Wednesday evening on TRUTH Social that Hamas and Israel both signed off on the first phase of a peace plan.

“This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” Trump wrote on TRUTH. “All Parties will be treated fairly! 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.”

Carter said that Trump has saved “countless lives” with this deal.

Hamas and Israel have been at war since Oct. 7, 2023 after Hamas launched a surprise attack on the country and murdered 1,200 people.

Palestinian health officials said that 67,000 people have been killed since the war in Gaza began, according to Reuters.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will likely be announced Oct. 10.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama was the last U.S. president to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

ATTACHMENT SIX – FROM TIME

WHY TRUMP IS UNLIKELY TO WIN THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

By Nina Græger Oct 9, 2025 9:20 AM ET

Græger is director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

Few prizes attract as much intrigue as the Nobel Peace Prize. This year is no exception. U.S. President Donald Trump has presented himself as a global peacemaker-in-chief, citing his role brokering several peace agreements and suggesting he belongs among the laureates. As director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, which conducts cutting-edge research on the conditions for peace, I am often asked whether such claims hold weight. In my view, it remains unlikely that the Norwegian Nobel Committee will award him the prize on Friday.

The reason is not political bias. The Committee is an independent body bound by Alfred Nobel’s will, which requires it to honor those who advance peace, disarmament, and international cooperation. By those standards, President Trump’s record presents a complex picture.

On international cooperation, the Trump Administration has taken a markedly isolationist approach. Early this year, President Trump signed executive orders withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the Paris climate accord, and international tax agreements. These decisions reflect a shift away from multilateral engagement and stand in contrast to Alfred Nobel’s vision. In his will, he emphasized promoting “fraternity between nations”—a principle later interpreted as support for international cooperation, particularly through the U.N., whose agencies have received multiple Peace Prizes over the years.

The Trump Administration has also dramatically cut U.S. foreign assistance efforts, dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development. Billions of dollars in programs—from famine relief in Sudan to vaccination campaigns in sub-Saharan Africa—have been thrown into uncertainty. Research published in The Lancet warns that this could result in up to 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4 million children under the age of five. Such actions again run counter to the spirit of Alfred Nobel’s will to promote fraternity and cooperation between nations.

On disarmament, President Trump’s approach has diverged from traditional arms control efforts. For instance, during his first term, his administration withdrew from a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia dating to the Cold War. Alfred Nobel’s vision of disarmament, by contrast, emphasizes the gradual reduction of armaments and the building of mutual trust between nations.

On peace, President Trump has taken visible steps to support peace initiatives. Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of his Gaza peace plan, which is a promising achievement. The 20-point plan includes a ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid, and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. But it faces criticism for excluding Palestinians from the negotiations and not properly addressing the root causes of the conflict. A lasting, sustained peace of the kind that Alfred Nobel sought to recognize remains to be seen.

Domestically, several of President Trump’s policies have emphasized order and security, sometimes at the expense of dialogue and inclusion of local state governments. In the District of Colombia, California, Tennessee, and elsewhere, he deployed the National Guard to quell unrest, and cracked down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations at American universities.

If the Nobel Committee is looking for candidates who embody Alfred Nobel’s vision, it may look to others. As is tradition at our Institute, I recently put forward a Director’s list of five such worthy contenders, which highlights key challenges of the day to peace, something that lies at the core of our Institute’s research and mission. These include Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a community-driven grassroots effort providing humanitarian relief amid conflict; the Committee to Protect Journalists, which defends press freedom and documents attacks on and killings of journalists in hostile environments; and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, a century-old movement advancing peace by lobbying for disarmament and the key role of women in peace-building. The efforts of these candidates may be quiet and low-key, but they embody the hard, sustained work of peace, disarmament, and international cooperation that Alfred Nobel intended to honor with the Prize.

Naturally, there have been lobbying efforts to highlight President Trump’s candidacy, openly supported by several international leaders including Israel, Pakistan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. But the Norwegian Nobel Committee has strong institutional safeguards: its deliberations remain secret for 50 years, its mandate fixed by Alfred Nobel’s will, and its members chosen to uphold the Prize’s integrity. External pressure is unlikely to shape their decision, including this year’s outcome.

The Nobel Peace Prize is one among five prizes handed out every year “to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,” according to Alfred Nobel’s will. The Peace Prize is not a measure of popularity or promise or power, but of lasting contributions to peace, disarmament, and cooperation.

To be sure, the Prize has been awarded to controversial picks before. In 1973, Henry Kissinger was one of the winners of the Prize for his efforts in negotiating the Vietnam War ceasefire. This saw two Nobel Committee members resign in protest. When Barack Obama received the Prize more recently in 2009, the Committee was met with criticism that he had not yet done enough to promote peace, being in office less than a year. The Nobel secretary Geir Lundestad later said he regretted the Obama peace prize.

While President Trump has made notable efforts in several areas, the overall record at this stage does not fully align with the standards outlined by Alfred Nobel. Should his initiatives—such as efforts to end the war in Gaza—achieve lasting success, the situation could look quite different this time next year

ATTACHMENT SEVEN – FROM TIME

TRUMP LOSES NOBEL PEACE PRIZE HE SHAMELESSLY CAMPAIGNED FOR

BY PHILIP ELLIOTT
Senior Correspondent, TIME

Donald Trump was thirsty for diplomacy’s biggest medal. He woke up Friday, still parched.

Even before he returned to the White House in January, the President has been waging a far-from-subtle campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize. On Thursday, Trump made a last-minute pitch for the biggest prize in diplomacy, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he accomplished what no one else has. “I know this: that nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months. And I’ve stopped eight wars. So that’s never happened before,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with the President of Finland.

It was a big swing that turned into a bigger whiff.

The deadline to nominate a person or organization was Jan. 31, just days into Trump’s second term. Most of the achievements that Trump has touted as a reason he should win have come after that date. So too did most of the nominations for Trump to get it—many of them from world leaders who were widely seen as doing it to curry favor with him.

Still, Trump has been relentless in his pursuit. That did not sway the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which on Friday said the recognition was going to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Still, with headlines of a nascent peace between Israel and Hamas dominating the moment, Trump was holding hope as late as this week that he could join the ranks of Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Nelson Mandela.

Trump, fueled by a bone-deep contempt for Barack Obama—who won the plaudit in his first year as President—has been shameless in his bid to become the fifth person in his role to get the prestigious nod for those who chase peace, disarmament, and international cooperation. On the surface, those markers do not exactly align with Trump’s record of isolationism, antagonism, and domestic militantism. (For more on why his winning the prize was always unlikely, check out this column from the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.)

But facts don’t matter to Trump. In his mind, he’s the bringer of peace, ender of wars, champion of tranquility, and more deserving than any of the 337 others to receive nominations this year. Winning would mean Trump had drawn a prize that proved elusive to former President Bill Clinton, who helped broker the 1993 Oslo Accords and presided over the Camp David talks in 2000 that both got within striking distance of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. In his telling, Trump has ended as many as eight wars on his watch, although those claims are at best iffy. And the backlash would have been seismic.

The push has been in the making for years. In 2018, Trump told his first-term Cabinet he deserved the honor. (That was also the same year that it was disclosed that two nominations for Trump were forgeries.) In June, he told reporters near his golf club in New Jersey that he “should’ve gotten it four or five times.” In September, he told the United Nations that he deserved the win. And a week later, he told Generals and Admirals summoned to Washington for a pep rally that denying him the prize would be “a big insult to our country.”

But ever the troll, Trump seemed to pre-but his rejection. “They won’t give me a Nobel Peace Prize because they only give it to liberals,” Trump said in June. And last month, he again couched his loss as expected. “Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not.” And again on Thursday, he said he would be fine with a snub: “Whatever they do is fine. I know this, I didn’t do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives.”

If this grievance feels familiar, there is a good reason: it’s a mirror image of his perceived slights from the Emmys. Trump never got over his zero wins for his turn as the host of The Apprentice. And for someone who awards himself club championships at golf courses he owns and prints fake covers of TIME, the self-promotion is to be expected.

But a Nobel prize is in its own league. And unlike other trinkets that Trump secured through bravado and bluster, the international panel did not bend. No amount of bullying could buy Trump a prize for peace, an irony lost only on the President.

ATTACHMENT EIGHT – FROM GUK

PITY POOR TRUMP, WHOSE NOBEL HOPES WERE DASHED BY COMMON SENSE

Maga supporters are upset the president didn’t receive the peace prize. One thing’s for sure: it’s all about him

By Dave Schilling Sat 11 Oct 2025 07.00 EDT

In this mortal existence, we all have dreams. As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut, until I found out there’s no Taco Bell on the International Space Station. That’s the thing about dreams: they often lead to cruel disappointment. Such is the fate of President Donald Trump, his hope of winning a Nobel peace prize dashed – not by a lack of fast food, but by common sense.

The 2025 award instead went to the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was barred from running for president by her nation’s courts. Machado acknowledged Trump in her acceptance of the honor, saying she appreciated his support of Venezuelan democratic reform. At least he’s keeping an eye on democracy somewhere.

Trump could take that as a bit of a consolation prize and focus on next year, when the effects of a burgeoning Gaza peace deal become clear. But losing is for losers, so Maga supporters are, predictably, upset about it all. Sean Davis of the Federalist declared the Nobel was actually “beneath” Trump and “a joke”. If so, I wouldn’t mind never hearing about it again.

Whenever I’d get a C on a test, I’d mutter to myself about how grades are a construct of oppression and college isn’t actually important. “The Man” made me go to school and read about Kant or physics or plenary authority. Like I even care about that. Not caring is a superpower in a cruel world that cares not for our feelings or our desires. Sometimes the only power we have is to withhold our interest and project indifference. When we lose a game, it’s a lot easier to deny its legitimacy than to accept failure – like unplugging a PlayStation after getting blown up by a landmine in Call of Duty.

That might be the masterstroke of the modern American conservative movement. Lose an election? Must have been cheated. Finding it hard to justify the deployment of the military on American streets? The enemy is incredibly clever and is hiding. Didn’t win the peace prize? Alfred Nobel must have been a cuck and a beta and a loser. Might as well unplug the PlayStation that is democracy.

Trump’s entire worldview seems predicated on a notion that life is unfair, the system is rigged, and he alone can balance the scales back toward justice. This all makes sense as a rhetorical strategy, and it has proved popular in an age in which most people deem the American government to be about as straight as a bowl of chicken noodle soup. But it doesn’t play so well when his grievances are focused almost exclusively on himself and his own personal gripes. Indicting his enemies, trying to get late-night talkshows canceled, and whinging about an award that apparently has no value – it all starts to get rather tiresome, like your mom re-litigating that time Beverly forgot to send a thank you card after her wedding. How many times can one hear about the relatively low cost of postage before it’s time to move on to a different subject?

Trump’s approval rating is in the dumpster. Granted, I can’t remember the last time a president was consistently popular since 911. So maybe this is just the new normal. Or maybe lots of people are tired of hearing how one specific person is having a bad day (again) because they didn’t win a medal.

Frankly, I’d like to hear more about me. I’m incredibly self-absorbed (I work in the media, after all) and desperately crave approval. Where’s my medal? When will my parade happen? Which head of state will subtly roll their eyes when I’m not looking? I wrote this in between power naps, and it was incredibly difficult to get up to work after the first one. When Donald Trump gives a speech, he should be addressing me directly. I have needs, too, you know? I have done nothing to earn that attention, but I’m asking for it. When mapping out domestic policy, you should be asking yourself, “how does this affect Dave Schilling?” “What will Dave think of this?” “Can we name an aircraft carrier after someone whose father served in the air force?”

And if I don’t get what I want, I’ll say it doesn’t matter. I’ll find something else to obsess about, some award that I can easily procure through intimidation or coercion. I’ll kick a child in the knees and demand their Honorable Mention ribbon for Little League.

I think it’s finally time I get the award I don’t want, but definitely deserve.

· Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

ATTACHMENT NINE – FROM TIME

ISRAEL AND HAMAS AGREE TO ‘FIRST PHASE’ OF A PEACE DEAL. HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW

By Callum Sutherland, Gemma Fox and Miranda Jeyaretnam Updated: Oct 9, 2025 10:34 AM ET

Israel and Hamas agree to ‘first phase’ of peace deal, how California’s new AI law protects whistleblowers, and more

President Donald Trump’s first indication that a peace deal between Israel and Hamas had been reached came in the middle of an “Antifa roundtable” at the White House.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio passed a note to the President, which appeared to say, “Very close. We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first,” before whispering something in Trump’s ear.

“Yeah, I was just given a note by the Secretary of State saying that we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East, and they’re going to need me pretty quickly,” Trump said.

Israel and Hamas agreed to the “first phase” of Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social shortly after, hailing what he called a “strong” and “durable” peace after more than two years of conflict.

The peace deal, which has seen world leaders laud Trump for leading the proposal, comes just one day before the Nobel Peace Prize recipient is announced.

Trump has received backing from a number of leaders to receive the award, most notably from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Washington, D.C. in July.

“Retweet if you believe Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize,” posted the President’s son Eric on X Wednesday night following the agreement announcement.

Israel’s cabinet will meet at 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. E.T), followed by a government meeting an hour later to discuss the plan, spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s office Shosh Bedrosian said Thursday.

“Within 24 hours after the cabinet meeting takes place, a cease-fire will then begin in Gaza,” said Bedrosian, confirming that the Israel Defence Forces will then begin to withdraw to within the territory to a line, outlined in yellow, in Trump’s initial peace plan announced last week. This will result in Israeli military control of roughly 53% of Gaza.

Bedrosian confirmed that after this 24-hour period, the 72-hour window will begin in which all hostages will be released. Of the 48 hostages still held in Gaza, it is believed that 20 are still alive.

Hamas announced what it described as a deal “stipulating an end to the war on Gaza, the occupation’s withdrawal from it, the entry of aid, and a prisoner exchange.” In a post on Telegram, the group urged Trump and mediators “to compel the occupation government to fully implement the obligations of the agreement and to prevent it from evading or delaying implementation.”

Trump outlined the 20-point plan last week at the White House alongside Netanyahu. After Trump threatened Hamas last Friday to let “all hell” break loose against the militant group if they did not agree to the deal by Sunday, Hamas accepted the proposal in principle, requesting several adjustments.

Indirect talks in Egypt—mediated by the U.S., Qatar, and Turkey—helped iron out the initial stage of the plan. The details of the final cease-fire deal have yet to be released.

Trump reportedly may travel to Egypt as soon as Saturday to oversee implementation. The President also reportedly said he will likely travel to Israel in the coming days and potentially address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, at Netanyahu’s invitation. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of hostages held by Hamas, also invited Trump to meet with them at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on his visit, according to a letter posted by Axios reporter Barak Ravid.

Hours after the deal’s announcement, videos posted on social media by correspondents and Unicef spokesperson James Elder in Gaza showed a relatively quiet night sky, a rare occurrence in an enclave that has faced incessant bombardments for just over two years. Meanwhile small crowds of Palestinians gathered on the street to sing, dance, and celebrate the cease-fire announcement, even as many in Gaza remain cautious about the cease-fire holding. Journalists and youth called out to darkened streets to inform residents of the cease-fire in northern Gaza, which is reportedly experiencing a telecommunications blackout that has become common due to Israeli strikes and restrictions over the past two years.

But even shortly after the announcement, Israel continued to carry out air raids on Gaza City, although at a significantly reduced level, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground. The IDF also detonated an armored vehicle carrying explosives near homes in Sabra, south of Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera.

The Gaza Civil Defence said there had been reports of Israeli strikes after the cease-fire announcement, including “a series of intense air strikes” on Gaza City. “Since the announcement last night of an agreement on a proposed ceasefire framework in Gaza, several explosions have been reported, particularly in areas of northern Gaza,” Mohammed al-Mughayyir, an official with the agency, told AFP.

The Gaza health ministry said at least nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours.

The IDF said in a statement that it welcomed the signing of the deal but added that it “will continue to act to achieve the objectives of the war and to defend the citizens of the State of Israel on all fronts.”

“During a situational assessment held overnight, the Chief of the General Staff instructed all forces, both on the front lines and in the rear areas, to prepare strong defenses and be ready for any scenario,” the IDF said. “Force deployments will be carried out in accordance with the directives of the political echelon and the stages of the agreement, with responsibility and a focus on the safety of our soldiers.”

The IDF warned Palestinians not to return to northern Gaza. IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the area north of Wadi Gaza is “still considered a dangerous combat zone” and that the Israeli military “continue to surround Gaza City, where returning to it is extremely dangerous.”

Although Israel had reduced its military campaign at Trump’s urging, strikes have continued, with eight people reported killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours. Over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed with more than 169,000 also injured since the start of the Israel-Hamas War, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and cannot be independently verified by TIME. The war was triggered when Hamas launched a terror attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people and taking another 250 people hostage.

Here’s what to know about some key details of the deal.

Exchange of hostages

Under Trump’s plan, the estimated 48 hostages still being held in Gaza are to be released. Once they have been returned, Israel is to release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, plus an additional 1,700 Gazans detained after Oct. 7, 2023. This includes all women and children from Gaza held by Israel, according to the plan.

Although exact details have yet to be released, people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that Hamas is expected to release all 20 surviving hostages this weekend, while Israeli forces begin withdrawing from most of Gaza. Israel’s envoy to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, told CNN that living hostages would be handed over within 72 hours of the Israeli government’s approval.

Trump told Fox News later Wednesday that the hostages would probably be released on Monday.

“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America,” Trump wrote in his earlier Truth Social announcement, thanking “the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”

Trump’s team included special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, while Israel was represented by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close Netanyahu confidant.

A crowd of around 200 people gathered in Hostages Square to celebrate the announcement, including former hostages who had been released as part of previous cease-fire agreements and the families of hostages still held by Hamas.

Hamas has not yet received the final list of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged, a Palestinian source told the BBC. The delay was reportedly due to contention in Israel over some of the prisoners Hamas had requested the release of. The hostages list is understood to include some of the most prominent Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghouti and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine head Ahmed Saadat, both serving multiple life sentences for involvement in attacks that killed Israelis.

An investigation led by the Guardian found in September that out of the 6,000 Palestinians from Gaza held by Israel since the Hamas terror attack two years ago, only one quarter were held on suspicion of militant links.

Reconstruction of Gaza

A critical step in the deal is the resumption of “full aid” into Gaza, restoring levels of incoming humanitarian aid to what was seen in the last cease-fire that began in January, which saw 600 trucks enter the strip daily.

Immediately after the cease-fire takes effect, Israel will let 400 aid trucks enter Gaza everyday for the first five days, and gradually increase that number, a senior Palestinian official told the BBC.

Repairs and redevelopment to infrastructure for water, sewage, and electricity are also set to begin immediately, with necessary equipment set to come in to clear rubble and establish roads, according to Trump’s peace plan. Crucially, aid will be provided to restore functions to hospitals and bakeries in the territory.

An economic redevelopment plan to rebuild Gaza will be set out by President Trump, put together with input from a panel of experts. The plan also says that a special economic zone will be established in Gaza “with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries.”

Trump told Fox News that after phase one of the deal, “You’ll see people getting along and Gaza will be rebuilt.”

“Gaza, we believe is going to be a much safer place and it’s going to be a place that reconstructs and other countries in the area will help it reconstruct because they have tremendous amounts of wealth, and they want to see that happen,” Trump said.

Trump’s plan also states that no Palestinian will be forced to leave the territory, and residents are instead encouraged to remain to help rebuild the territory. However, those who wish to relocate can, and they will be allowed to return under the agreement.

Over the course of two years of Israeli ground operations and airstrikes, 92% of Gaza’s housing units have been destroyed or damaged, according to the United Nations. Only 39% of hospitals in the territory are functional, and 89% of the U.N.’s water, sanitation, and hygiene assets have been destroyed or damaged.

Famine in Gaza was confirmed in August by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a food security body backed by the U.N. Nearly 55,000 children younger than 5 were suffering from a life-threatening type of malnourishment by early August, according to a study published Wednesday by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the main healthcare provider to Palestinian refugees.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGC) also concluded in August that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Weeks later, a U.N. commission of inquiry found that Israel had met four of the five genocidal acts in Gaza laid out by the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. These included “killing Palestinians, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”

Israel has consistently denied accusations of genocide. In his address to the U.N. General Assembly in September, Netanyahu said regarding genocide claims that “the opposite is true,” citing millions of leaflets dropped by the IDF and millions of text sent ahead of military operations in Gaza.

Trump’s previous suggestion for how to best redevelop the Palestinian territory came after he d an AI-generated video depicting a rebuilt Gaza in February. The video, which included images of skyscrapers, a golden statue of Trump, and Elon Musk dancing, was met with heavy criticism from Palestinians.

Disarming Hamas and the future governance of Gaza

The agreement has raised questions about Gaza’s post-war administration, which could involve an international body including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Trump told Fox News that the U.S. is “forming a council of peace,” echoing the 20-Point plan’s “Board of Peace” led by Trump that would oversee a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee.”

“It’s going to be very powerful and it’s going to really, I think, to a large extent it’s going to have a lot to do with the whole Gaza situation,” Trump said. “People are going to be taken care of. It’s going to be a different world.”

Per Trump’s peace plan, Hamas, as well as other militant factions in the strip, agrees to have no role in the governance of Gaza. “All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt,” the plan outlines, adding that a process of demilitarization of Gaza will take place.

The plan does provide the opportunity for remaining Hamas members to decommission their arms and receive amnesty. If requested, Hamas members also have the ability to leave Gaza and relocation to accepting countries will be facilitated.

The plan also states that Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza, something which has been speculated amid Israel’s offensive within the territory. In May, Trump proposed that the U.S. should “take” Gaza under its control and turn it into a “freedom zone.”

The question of Palestinian statehood

What remains somewhat unanswered for now is the future of a Palestinian state. Arab nations supporting the plan insist it must eventually lead to Palestinian independence, which Netanyahu has rejected. Hamas has said it would cede Gaza governance only to a Palestinian technocrat government supervised by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and backed by Arab states.

The United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada, amongst a number of other western countries, have announced their recognition of Palestine, drawing condemnation from Netanyahu.

As it stands, both Trump and Netanyahu have rejected any possibility of a Palestinian state. Speaking at the U.N. in September, the President said that recent recognitions of Palestine from a number of western countries served as a “reward” for Hamas.

But Trump’s 20-point peace plan suggested that U.S. conditions for recognizing Palestinian statehood could be achieved as Gaza’s redevelopment is in progress and the PA goes under reform.

The PA governs Palestinian areas in the West Bank, and Israel has previously said that it cannot have any role in the future governance of Gaza.

Must-Reads from TIME

· World Leaders Signal Support for Trump’s Gaza Plan, Critics Cast Doubt

· Mother of Israeli Hostage Says Occupation of Gaza Would be ‘Death Sentence’ for Her Son and Others

· Experts Break Down the Biggest Roadblocks to the Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Negotiations

· Israel Has Committed Genocide in Gaza, Says U.N. Commission of Inquiry

· Trump Threatens ‘All Hell Will Break Out Against Hamas’ If They Don’t Accept Gaza Deal by New Deadline

· U.S. Revokes Visas of Palestinian Officials Ahead of U.N. General Assembly

ATTACHMENT TEN – FROM IUK

A GAZA CEASEFIRE DEAL COULD BE TRUMP’S BIGGEST DIPLOMATIC ACHIEVEMENT – BUT THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL

The plan attempts to thread the needle between creating the conditions for a ceasefire and negotiating a lasting end to the war but hard questions remain

By Andrew Roth in Washington Wed 8 Oct 2025 21.41 EDT

For Donald Trump, a peace deal – or even a durable ceasefire between Israel and Hamas – could be the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency.

The details and sequencing of a deal to end Israel’s war in Gaza remain murky but the statement of purpose by both Israel and Hamas is meaningful. In agreeing to a deal with political backing from Arab states and other regional powers, this is the best chance for an end to the war since a ceasefire broke down in March, returning Gaza to a grinding war that has left nearly 68,000 people dead, most of them civilians.

Since March there have been rumblings of a deal but nothing that has come this close. The first phase of the peace plan, as Trump called it in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, is straightforward: the return of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a limited withdrawal by the Israeli military. But finding all the hostages, and managing an Israeli withdrawal, could be complicated.

In keeping with the tone of Trump’s presidency, hopes are expressed in hyperbole, with the president saying: “ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly!”

There is so much left to be discussed. The 20-point peace plan proposed by the administration attempts to thread the needle between creating the conditions for a ceasefire and negotiating a lasting end to the war; the hard questions of Hamas’s future and whether the militant group will disarm, along with Israel’s vision for the future of Gaza, remain to be hammered out.

And we have been here before: the Trump administration was in a hurry to negotiate an end to the Gaza war even before the inauguration, and a hastily organised ceasefire in January broke down over the sequencing of the release of the hostages still held in Gaza.

Yet this is a crucial moment. As the US president spoke at an anti-antifa roundtable on Wednesday afternoon, he was handed a note by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio: “Very close. We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”

Nobody said Israel’s war in Gaza had to end with Oslo-style peace accords or political deliberations.

This is a different moment – an openly partisan and flighty US president, who nonetheless has wielded his unpredictability to keep both his allies and enemies off-balance. Trump is also said to be motivated by a desire to see himself as the first US president given the Nobel peace prize since Barack Obama.

That prize is to be delivered on Friday, and the desire to give the US president a win has driven political considerations in Washington and throughout the Middle East.

The remaining tensions are clear. Hamas called on Trump and other parties to “ensure that the Israeli occupation government fully complies with the terms of the agreement”. The fear is that Israel may resume its offensive once the hostages are returned.

“We will never abandon our people’s national rights until freedom, independence, and self-determination are achieved,” the group said, referring obliquely to a desire for Palestinian statehood that has been rejected by Netanyahu and largely abandoned by the White House.

Netanyahu, too, has political considerations to deal with. On Thursday, he said, he would “convene the government to approve the agreement and bring all our dear hostages home”. He must manage the response from the rightwing members of his government, including the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have threatened to topple the government in the event of a ceasefire.

Trump has tried to overcome those considerations by brute force, threatening “all hell” would break out in Gaza against Hamas if his desire for peace was not met. When Netanyahu expressed doubt about the deal, Axios reports that he told the Israeli leader: “I don’t know why you’re always so fucking negative … This is a win. Take it.”

The US president is said to be planning to travel to the region this weekend for the signing of a deal. This is his moment, and it may require all of his personal brand and influence to prevent yet another breakdown of talks and a return to the fighting in what would be a diplomatic defeat for his administration.

Palestinians begin journey to Gaza’s north as Israel says ceasefire now in effect

Thousands of Palestinians travel back to the north of the territory after IDF forces retreated to deployment lines

ATTACHMENT ELEVEN – FROM GUK

‘TRUMP IS LIKE A JUGGERNAUT’: HOW THE GAZA CEASEFIRE DEAL WAS DONE

Sidelines chat at UN was turning point for US president, but others also have right to claim role in end of two-year war

BY Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Thu 9 Oct 2025 14.14 EDT

It is a well-known adage in politics that success has many parents, but failure is an orphan. Except when Donald Trump is involved, in which case there is only one parent.

Nevertheless, many countries and individuals have a right to step forward to claim an authorial role in the deal that it is hoped will bring an end to the two-year war in Gaza.

But it is a sign of the collective nature of the effort of the past few months that so many can credibly claim a role, including the US president, who after many false starts was finally persuaded to focus, end the fantasy of driving tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland and instead spell out to Benjamin Netanyahu the versions of victory the Israeli prime minister could and could not have.

The turning point was a meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN general assembly chaired by Trump, soon after his baroque speech to the gathering. Trump described the sidelines chat as his most important meeting at the UN. In the encounter organised by the United Arab Emirates, he set out for the first time his then 20-point plan for peace in front of a group of Arab and Muslim states that could form the backbone of any stabilisation force that entered Gaza in the event of a ceasefire.

By then Trump, with the help of his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the former British prime minister Tony Blair, had been convinced to change his mind on two critical issues. First, Palestinians should not be driven from Gaza and Israel should not rule the territory. “Gaza should be for Gazans,” one said.

That meant Trump dropping the displacement rhetoric he deployed earlier in the year, when he triggered widespread alarm by speaking of plans to develop a “Gaza Riviera”.

Secondly, Trump was persuaded a “day after” plan for the future of Gaza would not complicate the negotiations on a ceasefire-hostage release agreement by adding new contested ingredients, but was the precondition for success. A UK diplomat explained Blair’s thinking: “Hamas was not going to give up unless it knew the Israelis were going to get out and the Israelis were not going to get out and stop occupying Gaza unless they knew Hamas were not going to be in government. Unless you resolved the question of who governs Gaza you cannot bring the thing to an end.”

That in turn made it easier for the Arab states to put political pressure on Hamas to negotiate since they could point to a route towards Palestinian statehood, something that has always been their precondition for reconciliation with Israel. The Arab states had also put their names to demands that Hamas stand aside and disarm.

One of those involved in persuading the US president said: “People don’t want to hear this but the advantage of Trump is that once he decides to do something he is like a juggernaut. And he really did put pressure on the Israelis.”

Trump’s mood towards Israel was clouded by Netanyahu’s unilateral decision to bomb Doha on 9 September in the hope of wiping out Hamas negotiators. Trump had not been consulted, but the US assurances were met with scepticism. As a result Netanyahu, not a man prone to contrition, was ordered to apologise and say he would respect Qatar’s sovereignty in future.

To repair relations fully with Qatar, the host of main US airbase in the Middle East, Trump issued an extraordinary executive order saying any future attack on the emirate would be treated as an attack on the US. All this meant the US leader was better disposed to the Gulf states’ vision of a new Middle East. In a sign he was prepared to push the Israeli government hard, in a way Joe Biden had not, Trump told Israel there would be no further annexations in the West Bank.

From the very start of the sidelines meeting at the UN in September, the aim of the Arab states was to bind Trump personally into the process. Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said: “We count on you and your leadership … to end this war and to help the people of Gaza.” He said Israel’s real objective was “to destroy Gaza, to render housing, livelihoods, education, and medical care impossible, stripping away the very foundations of human life”.

The concept that Trump personally was central to a solution – indeed its guarantor – flattered the US president who offered himself up as the chair of the peace board, the body that would oversee the reconstruction of Gaza.

In one sense, he would be just a name plate, but to the extent he has a hinterland, it is construction. That means there is a possibility he will remain engaged, for the moment at least.

Those observing him said Trump began to feel he had a serious opportunity to solve a conflict he variously said had lasted 3,000 or 600 years, in contrast to his failed attempt in Ukraine. The prospect of winning the Nobel peace prize, Trump’s obsession, hovered once more into view.

That meant that once his plan was published Trump did not let go, but kept the pressure up on Hamas, warning of the group’s annihilation if it did not release the hostages in return for 250 Palestinians. But neither did Trump let Israel backtrack. Speed and momentum became of the essence.

It was the seniority of the negotiators who went to the talks in Egypt that revealed the stars were finally aligning and Hamas would be forced into releasing all the hostages it held, even though Israel would not immediately leave all of Gaza. The scenes were extraordinary enough in that the Hamas negotiators were – albeit through mediators – holding talks with a government that had tried to assassinate them a month earlier. By the time they started the participants sensed a deal was unavoidable.

The arrival of Kushner, the head of the intelligence office of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, İbrahim Kalın, and the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, confirmed a breakthrough was imminent.

During the talks, Hamas negotiators led by its leader Khalil al-Hayya, Mohammad al-Hindi, the deputy secretary general of Islamic Jihad, and Jamil Mezher, the deputy secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, sought to clarify the names of the Palestinians to be released, the mechanism of the release of the Israeli hostages and the “day after” aspects of the agreement, poring over the maps showing a withdrawal of Israel’s forces.

But Hamas was told while the critical “day after” principles stood, the details would have to wait for a second linked negotiation. The risk for Hamas now is that it loses its leverage upon handing over the hostages – and that fears Israel will then refuse to engage with the plans for Gaza’s future or find a pretext to restart the fighting will be realised. The domestic brake on Netanyahu resuming the fighting – the demand to save the hostages – would have gone.

Here Trump’s continued willingness to keep up the pressure on Netanyahu was critical, and is acknowledged by Hamas in its statements referring to the US president as guarantor of the plan. On Fox News, Trump said he had told Netanyahu that “Israel cannot fight the world”, adding: “And he understands that very well.” He said: “You will see people coexisting and Gaza will be rebuilt.”

By contrast Amit Segal, a journalist close to Netanyahu, said: “There’s no phase two. That’s clear to everyone, right? Phase two might happen someday, but it’s unrelated to what’s just been signed.”

Many elements of Trump’s 20-point plan are being addressed by diplomats from the US, Europe and Arab states at a separate gathering in Paris on Wednesday.

On the agenda are issues such as the Hamas handover of weapons; its exclusion from future administrations; the mandate of an international peacekeeping force; the delivery of resumed aid flows; and the future relationship between Gaza and the West Bank as the nucleus of a future Palestinian state. On almost all these, there have been deep differences between Israel on the one hand, and Europe and the Arab states on the other.

But in a promising sign, US officials will attend this meeting, suggesting Washington does not favour an armed status quo.

At the centre of these discussions is Blair, who is to sit on the peace board or interim government that will oversee the Palestinian technocrats that help implement reconstruction plans. Blair will have to convince the Palestinian Authority that he is not offering a colonial-esque arrangement, as the former prime minister says it fears. But he is unlikely to do the job unless he has real powers, something he feels was not given when he was Middle East special envoy to the quartet.

Arab leaders are seeking assurances that the international stabilisation force that eventually enters Gaza has a UN security council mandate, and that there is a clear plan to treat Gaza and the West Bank as one political entity.

One of the most difficult issues unresolved in the rushed talks in Egypt is the timing of the Hamas weapons handover. The group may be willing to deliver its arms to an Arab-run authority, or a Palestinian civil police force, but not to Israel. Some diplomats even believe Hamas may feel the need to take a new political course, something it has been close to doing before. “Gazans are going to demand to know what the past two years were about,” one diplomat said.

One diplomat involved in the talks said: “The tragedy is that this could have all been agreed 20 months ago, all the elements were there. The key Israeli objective – which is why it is a tragedy this war has gone on so long – was the removal of Hamas from future rule, and that was obtainable a long time ago.”

URLS

Palestinians begin journey to Gaza’s north as Israel says ceasefire now in effect

Thousands of Palestinians travel back to the north of the territory after IDF forces retreated to deployment lines

Israel-Gaza
Israelis and Palestinians celebrate as Netanyahu says ceasefire deal approved by government

‘Everyone is still afraid’
Ceasefire deal brings relief to Gaza but fears remain over future

Gaza
Two years of displacement and destruction in Gaza – photo essay

ATTACHMENT TWELVE – FROM NBC VIA 1440

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT APPROVES FIRST PART OF PEACE DEAL TO RELEASE HOSTAGES

There is still uncertainty about whether Hamas will disarm and disband, as Trump's plan outlines, or what Gaza's future governance might look like.

By Alexander Smith and Freddie Clayton Oct. 9, 2025, 5:15 AM EDT Updated Oct. 10, 2025, 1:04 AM EDT

The Israeli government approved the first part of the peace plan to end the conflict in Gaza, after a brutal two-year war that has ravaged the Palestinian enclave and sparked a global outcry, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early on Friday local time.

“The government has just now approved the framework for the release of all of the hostages — the living and the deceased,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement posted on X.

Under the terms of the deal, the ceasefire should take effect within 24 hours.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he plans to travel to Egypt for an official signing of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and that hostages will be released “on Monday or Tuesday.”

Trump's announcement on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire deal was widely welcomed Thursday by world leaders, the families of hostages and Palestinians who have endured more than two years of war.

But huge questions remain about whether Trump's 20-point plan can successfully resolve the long-term future of the Gaza Strip, with uncertainty over its directive for Hamas to disband, as well as the governance of the shattered enclave.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu's office said Thursday that a ceasefire would take effect 24 hours after the Cabinet had agreed on the deal and hostages would be released after 72 hours.

Separately, the United States military is preparing options to deploy as many as 200 U.S. troops to Israel to support stabilization in Gaza and the flow of humanitarian aid and security assistance into the enclave, two U.S. officials familiar with the planning said.

The U.S. troops will stay in Israel, where they will support logistics, transportation, engineering and planning, the officials said.

“They will not be in Gaza. No U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza,” one of the officials said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to President Donald Trump during a roundtable discussion in the State Dining Room of the White House on Wednesday.Anna Moneymaker Getty Images

While the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared imminent, explosions were seen and heard in southern Gaza on Thursday morning.

Trump said Wednesday on social media that the sides had taken the "first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace," calling it "a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding nations, and the United States of America."

Among those to welcome the announcement was United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who urged "all concerned to abide fully by the terms of the agreement" and described it as a "momentous opportunity" to recognize "the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people."

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "praised the great efforts made by President Trump and all mediators to reach this agreement."

Palestinians celebrate the news in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Thursday.AFP via Getty Images

Netanyahu said he had "a very moving and warm conversation" with Trump in which they "congratulated each other on the historic achievement of signing the agreement to release all the hostages," his office said in a statement.

"If indeed this deal can hold, it'll bring in an era of peace that we haven't seen now in the Middle East for several years, ever since that terrible attack on Oct. 7," Col. Steve Warren, former principal deputy chief of public affairs at the Pentagon, told NBC News on Wednesday.

The plan could come with a political cost for Netanyahu inside Israel. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, said Thursday on X that his party will “bring down the government” unless Hamas is “dismantled.”

Celebrations and cautious optimism

The announcement came after indirect talks involving Israel, Hamas and Steve Witkoff, U.S. ambassador at large, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Trump announced the breakthrough one day after the second anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,200 were killed and another 250 were kidnapped, and the start of Israel's war on Gaza in which more than 67,000 people — mostly women and children — have been killed, according to local health officials.

While many governments defended Israel's initial right to respond to the attack, the scale of civilian death and suffering wrought by its war have drawn increasing international condemnation and isolation for the Jewish state. Last month, the United Kingdom became the latest Western nation to recognize Palestine as a state, joining a majority of countries that now do so worldwide.

Much of Gaza is now a rubble-strewn wasteland, with most of its buildings damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N. And the world's leading body on hunger, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, has declared that a famine is now playing out inside the cramped territory.

Israel's military operation has been deemed a genocide by a U.N. commission of inquiry, the world-leading International Association of Genocide Scholars, and human rights groups such as Amnesty International. Israel denies the charge, saying it is only attempting to destroy Hamas, which it blames for putting Palestinians in harm's way.

After news arrived that the first ceasefire phase had been agreed to, some Palestinians on the ground inside Gaza were celebrating — cheering, dancing and singing, video showed.

The first phase of Trump's deal would see the return of the remaining 48 hostages, around 20 of whom are believed to be alive, while the Israeli military said it was poised to withdraw from Gaza to an agreed-upon line.

Trump told reporters that while the administration knows where most of the hostages believed to be alive are, finding the bodies of deceased hostages could be a “bigger problem.”

An international force tasked with finding missing hostages in the Gaza Strip will be established as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal, Israeli broadcaster i24 reported, citing Israeli officials.

There were celebrations in "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv early Thursday, the culmination of two years in which families and friends of the remaining captives have angrily campaigned for their government to prioritize their loved ones over the continuation of the conflict.

Relatives of Israeli hostages celebrate in Tel Aviv after the announcement Thursday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a peace plan.Emilio Morenatti AP

They could be heard in video chanting "Nobel prize to Trump" — a reference to Trump's long-standing ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which is being announced Friday.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of Israeli hostages, said its members were feeling "a mix of excitement, anticipation, and concern" at the news. It expressed its "profound gratitude to President Trump and his team for the leadership and determination that led to this historic breakthrough: an end to the war and a comprehensive agreement to return all the hostages."

Ruby Chen, father of hostage Itay Chen, a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen, said on "Stay Tuned NOW" that while he d this cautious hope, the captors had not “provided any sign of life" for his son.

Lasting agreement unclear

While Hamas has agreed to participate in the hostage and prisoner exchange, it has not said it will disarm and disband — a key stipulation of Trump's proposal.

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday that no Palestinians would surrender their weapons, though he did not explain whether that was the group’s official position.

Prominent Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, whose supporters dub the “Palestinian Nelson Mandela,” will not be released as part of a ceasefire agreement, Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told reporters Thursday.

The first phase also does not address Gaza's medium and long-term future. Trump's plan says the enclave should be temporarily governed by a "technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee" overseen by a "Board of Peace" led by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. That is until the Palestinian Authority, the chief political organ in the region, can be "reformed."

The Israel Defense Forces said it was moving to "adjusted deployment lines soon" but warned that parts of Gaza were "still considered a dangerous combat zone" and that its troops were "deployed and operating anywhere in the Strip."

Israel shattered the previous ceasefire — which lasted from Jan. 19 to March 18 — by launching a barrage of deadly airstrikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, ending two months of relative calm and plunging Gaza into a renewed humanitarian crisis.

Israel blamed Hamas for the resumption of hostilities, citing the militant group’s refusal to meet Israel’s demand to release more hostages.

ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN – FROM IUK