In this week’s episode of Mideast Horizons, Asher and Lahav go live after U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s press conference presenting the 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza. The co-hosts discuss the likelihood of Hamas agreeing to release all of the hostages, the contradictions in the statements about what will happen if Hamas rejects the deal, a possible role for the Palestinian Authority, and the nature of a future international force in Gaza.
While hopeful that the deal will lead to the rapid return of all the hostages, they also express skepticism about the plan’s ability to achieve lasting peace, citing Hamas’s determination to maintain its power on the ground and the political implications for Israel’s government.
This week’s guest is Dr. Adi Schwartz, a leading expert on the Israeli-Palestinian arena and co-author (with Dr. Einat Wilf) of the book The War of Return. Dr. Schwartz argues that the Palestinian refugee issue, perpetuated by UNRWA, is a core obstacle to peace and that any plan to end the war in Gaza will not be effective without addressing this issue.
Schwartz emphasizes UNRWA’s artificial inflation of the number of Palestinian refugees to over six million, compared to fewer than 10,000 actual Palestinian refugees under international refugee-status criteria. He contends that this status fuels the Palestinian narrative of a “right of return” to Israel, preventing acceptance of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. Schwartz argues that without ideological change, reconstruction efforts will only lead to further conflict.
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