PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
January 15, 2025
CONTACT:
Dede Laugesen at [email protected]
VICTORY COALITION URGES PRESIDENT TRUMP TO DISAVOW ANTI-ISRAEL CEASEFIRE DEAL THAT WOULD SAVE HAMAS
Trump Envoy Witkoff Coerces Netanyahu, Serves Biden Agenda
WASHINGTON, D.C.— President-elect Donald Trump’s personal prestige and incipient authority has been dangerously misapplied to euchre Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do the bidding of a Biden administration determined to ensure the survival of Hamas, weaken Israel and topple its government. A new Briefing Paper by the Victory Coalition documents the extent to which the tentatively agreed ceasefire brokered by Trump’s special Mideast envoy-designee, Steven Witkoff, is aligned with Biden’s failed policies, but diametrically opposed to the pro-Israel record of the former president and his incoming subordinates.
Specifically, the deal would assure that Israel is obliged to:
- stop attacks on Hamas;
- suspend air operations a minimum of ten hours per day;
- in exchange for 33 dead or alive hostages, send 1,000-1,300 convicted terrorists back to Gaza;
- in the unlikely event a second phase actually materializes, free another 3,000 imprisoned terrorist in exchange for the remaining living or dead hostages;
- withdraw from all of Gaza, including in due course entirely from the Philadelphi corridor and the buffer zone between Gaza and Israel;
- remove Israeli forces from the Netzarim Corridor separating north and south Gaza, thereby eliminating the logistics structure it affords the IDF for ready access to the entire Strip;
- enable the entire population of northern Gaza to return there, including fighting-age males, with “remote monitoring” by Israel, but the actual screening conducted by Qataris and Egyptians;
The practical effect of these concessions would be to fracture Israel politically, greatly undermining support for Bibi Netanyahu. In addition, the opportunity will be squandered to have Israel emerge from the present conflict as the strong and secure ally who will allow the United States under Donald Trump to safely play a less direct and costly role in the region’s conflicts.
Worst of all, the Witkoff deal assures that there will be in the future further war between Israel and Hamas, likely embroiling the United States on President Trump’s watch and under circumstances far less conducive to success.
The Victory Coalition believes that President Trump has a fleeting opportunity to disown this train-wreck. If he fails to do so promptly, however, the narrative will be that, thanks to his hapless envoy, the incoming administration will bear responsibility for what is coming next and for being unprepared to deal with it.
The Coalition recommends that Donald Trump let Israel fight without getting his administration dragged into managing the situation in Gaza. Such subversive micromanagement was Team Biden’s anti-Israel agenda and they are perilously close to embroiling Trump in it, too.
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CONTACT:
To interview representatives of the Victory Coalition, contact Dede Laugesen at [email protected]