A DAY TO REMEMBER!

October 13th of 2025 will be a date to remember in world history. The next to impossible actually happened. The Mideast peace process overseen by President Trump, actually produced real progress. Twenty living Israeli hostages were released by Hamas and Israel released approximately two thousand captive Hamas criminals and detainees back to Hamas. I’m sure that readers of this post are well-aware of what is going on in the Mideast, but the first link, second link and third ink offer additional information and pictorial graphics about the events of that day.

Technically, Hamas has not yet complied with the Phase One portion of the overall agreement because it was supposed to return the remains of about 28 deceased Israelis who died during their captivity in the Gazan tunnels. Realistically, some of those remains may never be found as Hamas surely did not have a large refrigerated morgue to preserve those remains. I expect Israel to be very firm on the need for Hamas to find and return those remains before Israel moves on to the next stage of the agreement. An unspoken factor is that Israel has to be sure that there are not yet living Israeli hostages being tortured in the Gaza tunnels, and the only way that can be known is if the remains of the presumably deceased hostages are all found and handed over to Israeli authorities for identification procedures. Only four bodies have been returned to Israel the last I read/heard a report on this topic. Technically, until Hamas returns the remains of all the deceased Israeli hostages (a requirement under the terms of the agreement), I don’t think Israel has any obligation to proceed to the second phase of this agreement.

The fourth link and fifth link show a number of the world leaders which attended the follow-up international meeting in Egyptian territory. At that meeting, the heads-of-state of the USA, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey signed an agreement that they would be guarantors of the peace agreement in the stages that are yet to be implemented. I understand the role of the “guarantors” is to be ready to “lean on” the parties to keep their parts of the agreement. That means the USA will lean on Israel to keep its part of the agreement and Egypt, Qatar and Turkey will “lean on” Hamas to keep their part of the agreement. It was a surprise to me that so many world leaders were at the follow-up meeting in Egypt. Many nations that were not a part of the direct Mideast peace agreement negotiations were present at that meeting.

I saw the heads-of-state of many European nations (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, etc), and many Arab heads-of-state were present as well. Nations from as far off as Pakistan, Indonesia and Paraguay were seen or said to be in attendance. Clearly, some things much bigger than just an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire agreement were apparently being discussed behind the curtains by these world leaders. Perhaps in the future we will learn more about what transpired among these leaders when they were not with the media. Something big had to be discussed for as many as two dozen major world leaders to suddenly clear their schedules to meet together in Egypt.

The role of Egyptian President Al-Sisi, the host of this impromptu world Summit Meeting, is favorably mentioned in the fifth link (an Arab news source). President al-Sisi deserves more credit that he receives. As a brief historical note, an ally of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, won an election in Egypt years ago and real and ex-terrorists were being put into positions of power in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood was an ideological ally of Hamas, and you can be sure the peace agreement just signed in Egypt would never have taken place if the Muslim Brotherhood had not been removed from power in Egypt. Al-Sisi was a general in the Egyptian army at that time, and he saw that the Muslim Brotherhood would ruin Egypt. He led a military coup to remove the Muslim Brotherhood from all positions of power and took charge of Egypt. Al-Sisi’s action was critically important to Mideast politics. Al-Sisi honored a peace treaty with Israel, and Al-Sisi saved Egypt from chaos as well as a likely all-out war with Israel if the Muslim Brotherhood had remained in control of the Egyptian military.

The sixth link focuses on President Trump’s speech to the Israeli Knesset, a rare honor for a US President. Trump was understandably well-received as a hero by the Knesset for his role in making this peace agreement come into being. It was a love fest between President Trump and a top American ally in the Mideast. In what was a surprise to me, Trump addressed a simmering issue in Israeli internal politics. He called on the Israeli President to pardon Prime Minister Netanyahu. Netanyahu has been accused of various corruption charges by his political Israeli rivals and his rivals in Israeli politics want him tried for those supposed crimes. Trump and Netanyahu have forged a very close relationship in bringing this peace agreement into being, and Trump does not want to lose Netanyahu as a critical partner in the phases of the peace agreement which need to be fulfilled in the future.

Interestingly, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was not present at the peace agreement signing ceremony in Egypt even though he is the head-of-state of Israel, one of the two principal parties to this agreement, along with Hamas. The seventh link reports that Netanyahu said his absence was due to his need to observe a Jewish religious day, but there may be more to this story than meets the eye. A number of internet links reported that Turkish President Erdogan refused to attend to sign as a Guarantor if Netanyahu was going to be at the meeting. Erdogan reportedly told President Al-Sisi of Egypt that Erdogan would “turn his plane around” and fly back to Turkey if Netanyahu attended the ceremony (eighth link). Turkey’s Erdogan has long been hostile to Israel and to Netanyahu, and that hostility could yet jeopardize the entire Agreement. If Turkish, Egyptian and Qatari troops are sent into Gaza to act as peacekeepers there as part of a future stage of this agreement, there is a risk of an Israeli-Turkish war if Turkish troops exchange gunfire with Israeli IDF personnel. Erdogan has threatened Israel with war in the past. This is one of the many sensitive issues which need to be addressed in order to keep this Peace Agreement on track. Another unresolved sensitive issue is to whom will the Hamas fighters hand over their weapons and where will they go after they do so.

During the meeting of world leaders. President Trump yielded the microphone to the Pakistani leader. In an impassioned short speech, he credited President Trump with preventing a Pakistani-Indian war several months ago, and he stressed Pakistan had recommended Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize (ninth link). Personally, I think Trump deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for several peacekeeping efforts around the globe. Even former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, praised Trump for his accomplishments in pursuit of global peace.

I’ll bring this post to a conclusion. While we must realize that the Israeli-Hamas Peace Agreement is fragile, it is holding for now. President Trump has a dominating presence in this process and all can be assured he wants it to come to a successful conclusion. The date of 10-13-25 will be a date to remember in Mideast and world history.

A DAY TO REMEMBER!

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