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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 7h

“Because there will be Hamas fighters who want to fight to the death, who are not prepared to turn over their guns, who don't want amnesty. They want to fight.”

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 7h

“My biggest fear is that what's going to happen as we move past this wonderful first phase and guns go silent is we'll have a low-level insurgency of a kind that's very familiar to the United States and to Israel, which could continue indefinitely,” added Ignatius.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 7h

But as cautious relief spreads across both Israel and Gaza, uncertainty remains over whether the deal will hold.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 7h

“This 20-point peace plan is essentially a surrender document for Hamas. Hamas gives up its weapons, it gives up future political control in Gaza," Ignatius said. "It's an unlikely series of things for them to agree to.”

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 7h

David Ignatius, foreign affairs columnist at The Washington Post, said “exhaustion, pressure from the Palestinian population in Gaza" and “pressure from every Arab country” were likely factors.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 7h

Washington Week guest moderator Vivian Salama asked her panel what could have motivated Hamas to accept the agreement at this stage.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 7h

This week saw the announcement of a potentially historic Israel-Hamas peace agreement brokered by President Donald Trump, which could bring an end to the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages as the deal enters its first phase.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 1d

"Netanyahu knows that he needs Trump. He needs the United States more than anything, ... so when Trump pressures him, it certainly matters," said @markmazzetti.bsky.social.

"The September 9 strike the Israelis took in Doha ... changed things for Trump and for the White House."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 1d

"This 20-point peace plan is essentially a surrender document for Hamas," said David Ignatius.

"My biggest fear is that what's going to happen as we move past this wonderful first phase, ... is we'll have a low-level insurgency ... which could continue indefinitely."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 1d

"You had the effort that Jared Kushner was making, which was the long-term plan for a post-war Gaza. And the other effort you had with Steve Witkoff to get a hostage deal," said @jonathankarl.bsky.social.

"Well, those come together, and Witkoff and Kushner are working together."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 1d

"I was in Gaza in November, a month after the October 7 attack. ... I watched as the civilian population of Gaza City streamed out of Gaza City," said David Ignatius.

"Today, I saw pictures of a line as long as that one I saw in November, moving back from the south toward Gaza City."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 1d

How is President Trump feeling about the Israel-Hamas peace deal?

"The president is pumped," said Nancy Cordes.

"But behind the scenes, I would say that senior advisers are nervous because they will say openly that there are still so many things that can go wrong."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 6d

“We've seen even before the shutdown, they were canceling projects, they were rescinding funding,” Desiderio added. “And that's part of what Democrats are saying in response to this targeting of blue states, is that, yes, it's bad, but he's been doing it whether we're in a shutdown or not.”

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 6d

In the past week, Vought has withheld and canceled billions of dollars in funding for infrastructure and green energy projects in Democratic-led states, and vowed more mass layoffs of the federal workforce.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 6d

Vought is "really a central player, probably the central player in the executive branch, aside from the president himself. He has an immense amount of power,” Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News told Washington Week moderator Jeffrey Goldberg.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 6d

Vought was the main architect of Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that President Donald Trump denounced during his reelection campaign but is now enacting.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 6d

Amid the current federal funding fight between Republicans and Democrats, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought has turned out to be a key player in the ensuing government shutdown.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 8d

"It's also important to know that Democrats are also looking at how Trump is weaponizing this shutdown against their constituents," said Toluse Olorunnipa.

"They are watching to see the various projects that are being taken away, the people who are potentially going to be laid off."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 8d

"[OMB Director Russell Vought] is really a central player, probably the central player in the executive branch aside from the president himself. He has an immense amount of power," said @andrewdesiderio.bsky.social.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 8d

"This has become a very normal course of doing business in Washington," said @lacaldwelldc.bsky.social.

"This is the only leverage that Democrats feel like they have in a system right now where the administration and the president is just rolling, you know, so fast over Democrats."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 8d

What is Trump getting out of the government shutdown?

"It's not necessarily something he would have chosen, but he likes a fight. He thinks publicly, gleefully, that it benefits him and Republicans politically," said @ashleyrparker.bsky.social. "He's also enjoying the trolling aspect."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 14d

"The sort of the sequence of events that led up to this moment and in particular, Donald Trump tweeting at his attorney general to go get this guy because I don't like him."

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 14d

"Firing of the previous prosecutors, the reporting, widespread, credible, I believe, that all of these prosecutors didn't think there was enough to bring a case," Hayes added.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 14d

"We'll learn more about the case, we'll learn what they're going to argue in the coming days and weeks, but I think it's the stuff that preceded the indictment that is the most troubling," said Stephen Hayes of The Dispatch on Friday’s episode of Washington Week.

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Washington Week with The Atlantic @washingtonweekpbs.bsky.social · 14d

Comey was charged on two felony counts, obstruction of a congressional proceeding and making a false statement, in connection to his involvement with the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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