Netanyahu, Hamas under immense pressure: ‘Any successful peace deal is a victory for all sides’

The US-Israel peace plan for Gaza is where idealism, ideology, dogma and realpolitik collide. For Hamas, the plan “isn’t a peace deal so much as a conditional capitulation,” explains Dr. Nick Westcott, Professor of Practice in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London. And for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he finds himself in the most unenviable position, a veritable checkmate, “squeezed between US pressure and his own coalition: to yield is betrayal, but to resist is political suicide.” While this is a very “tough sell” for both sides, this proposal remains “the only conceivable pathway out of this war.”