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00:00Let's get Ofer Bronstein. He's in Tel Aviv. He's a political scientist in charge of the Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement.
00:08Welcome, Ofer Bronstein. First, can we get your reactions to that first phase in the ceasefire deal?
00:15It's very moving. It's very difficult for me to imagine what this family went through in the last close to 500 days.
00:24You know what it is to have your child, your father, your husband, not knowing where he is, not having any news, knowing that he's underground somewhere, not knowing if he's dead or if he's alive.
00:41They went through a really, really horrible one year and a half, and I'm very glad that finally three families are going to be able to reunify today.
00:50Three young girls will be able to go back home today. And the whole country, as you saw the picture from the square of the hostages, what we call in Tel Aviv, the whole country is with them, is supporting with them.
01:05It was every day in the street to ask for the release of the hostages. Now it's only three, and I think that this deal is not a good deal.
01:14I don't understand why it was done this way. Every week it will be only three. And for the Palestinian side, every week it will be a few dozen or hundreds of prisoners.
01:27And the ceasefire will be holding on the head of the Palestinians if it will be the end of the world or if it won't be the end of the world. And this is absolutely horrifying.
01:38They have to make a deal and help them, the new Trump administration, as well as the international community and the Arab countries that were very involved, and we have to salute them, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, France as well.
01:52I want to remind you that some of the negotiations took place in France. One day you will know exactly the details.
01:57But they have to put pressure on Israel now and on the people who have pressure on the Hamas for a permanent deal.
02:04The release of all the hostages, alive or dead, we don't know, the release of the prisoners and Israel committed to release, which is around 1700 or 1800, and the end of the war.
02:16Not a ceasefire, but the end of the war.
02:19And then to move forward, you know, in this situation, both society lost.
02:27Nobody won this war. They all lost this war.
02:31So many damages, so many victims. For what?
02:35And I want to remind you, the Hamas is not representing the Palestinian people.
02:40The Hamas is the enemy of the Palestinian people.
02:43The Hamas is carrying a green flag, not a Palestinian flag.
02:47The Hamas doesn't recognize the State of Israel.
02:50The Hamas doesn't recognize any agreement that was made with Israel by the Palestinian Authority, by Asrar al-Affad, by President Mahmoud Abbas.
02:57Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority himself, last week, said that all of that is due to the Hamas.
03:06The Hamas is the main responsible of this catastrophe that both people are living.
03:13So the Hamas should not be a partner, should be out of the equation.
03:17The Palestinian Authority should be a partner, maybe a new one.
03:19As you said before, the Israeli politics are going through a turmoil.
03:25The coalition of Mr. Netanyahu is a very fragile one.
03:29I believe, like that, he won't be able to save power for too long.
03:34Mainly, let's not forget, he's in the middle of a judgment, of a trial, which is making it more complicated for him.
03:43I believe in the next few months, or maybe one year, it will be a new election in Israel and a new government will rise.
03:50And I believe that it will be the same thing from the Palestinian Authority.
03:53It will be the time for the international community, for France, for the Americans, once and for all,
04:00to put all their weight on the Israelis and on the Palestinians, to get to a permanent agreement of peace between the two people.
04:07The Palestinians deserve to get back their dignity, their freedom, to have progress, to have a better life.
04:19And the Israelis deserve to be recognized by the Arab and Muslim world, and not to be scared, and not to feel that their life itself, their existence itself, is at stake.
04:30It's possible. Both societies are wanted.
04:33We hope that we have courageous people to go for it.
04:38And I really think that it's a time for the international community to put their foot on the door and to say, enough is enough.
04:44It was expected. People were surprised on the 7th of October.
04:49It's people that did not want to see that it's going to happen one day or another.
04:53Without peace, we will always have terror. Without peace, we will always have a victim.
04:58Only peace can guarantee the security of Israel and the well-being of the Palestinians.
05:03So now it's time. It's not going to be easy.
05:06It's so many scars now in the Israeli society and in the Palestinian society.
05:11Both societies want peace, but at the same time, they want revenge.
05:15They're very confused. We have to let them some time to heal and to move forward.
05:22We need courageous leaders, determined leaders in Israel, in Palestine.
05:26And I know them. They exist.
05:29They are there, waiting to take power and to take their people to a better place.
05:34And we need the international community to say, enough is enough.
05:37It's time for you to end this war.
05:40The Israelis and the Palestinians are not going to disappear.
05:44The Israelis will stay wherever they are, and the Palestinians will be wherever they are.
05:49And nothing will change it.
05:50Only more and more and more victims and more and more sorrow for both people.
05:56So what we have to do is to find the right way for both people, which is 15 million altogether.
06:0215 million, it's not much to live in a good neighborhood relationship, and then later on to live in peace.
06:10Let me bring in my colleague Lila Jacinto. She has a question for you.
06:16Yes, Mr. Bernstein. Thank you for being with us.
06:18You know, actually, what struck me when you were talking about determined Palestinian leadership,
06:24this morning, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Shar, you know, put the Palestinian Authority in the same boat, so to speak,
06:33as Hamas, when he said the Palestinians, that the PA, the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, supports terrorism.
06:40You know, you know the Palestinian leadership.
06:44What role can you envisage for the Palestinian Authority and what's with the future Palestinian leadership
06:52if we have to move to this phase where we can talk about a lasting peace?
06:57You know, Lila, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is a personal friend of mine.
07:04Someone that I have great respect for.
07:07And it's someone who, from the day one that he was in power, even as prime minister of Yasser Arafat,
07:14number two of the PLO, said that he condemned terrorism, he condemned violence.
07:21He knew that by violence, the Palestinian people won't get what they need and what they deserve to get.
07:27He always condemned it. He was a partner of peace with all the Israeli prime ministers.
07:31He signed peace agreement with all the Israeli prime ministers.
07:35Let me remind you that Mr. Netanyahu himself signed agreement with Yasser Arafat.
07:41Mr. Netanyahu himself signed agreement with Mahmoud Abbas and Abu Mazen.
07:45Let me remind you that in the West Bank, the weak Palestinian Authority,
07:50and it's weak because the Israeli government, right-wing government, made sure that it will stay weak,
07:55made sure that the Palestinian people will be divided.
07:57A month before the 7th of October, the Israeli minister of finance and Mr. Netanyahu himself
08:03said we need the Hamas for us not to never see a Palestinian state.
08:09So it was in their interest to see the Hamas in Gaza and the PLO and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
08:15Now it's over. We need to have only one partner, only one Palestinian Authority.
08:20Mahmoud Abbas is an old man, a great man. He will have his place in history, but he's 89.
08:25It's time for a young generation of Palestinians to lead their people, and I know them.
08:31They are leaders that want peace. They are young, capable, fantastic people who want peace.
08:38They understand by the bullet and by the arms and by terrorism, they won't get anything.
08:44In the opposite, they'll get destruction. They'll get more victims. That they know.
08:49But the Hamas don't care about that.
08:50He knew that the Israelis will react to the 8th of October, 7th of October, the way they reacted.
08:57He knew that the Palestinian people will pay the prices, but he didn't care.
09:01He was hoping that the world will be against Israel, which happened, because I think that the Israelis overdid.
09:07They could have dealt with that in a different way, but that's another issue.
09:11The positive things that I can say is that because of the 7th of October, we are witnessing a huge change in the Middle East.
09:18So Hezbollah was eradicated. Finally, after years of expectation, Lebanon have a president, they have a prime minister,
09:27and the president and the prime minister declared very clearly it will be only one army in Lebanon.
09:33So the Lebanese are taking back their own country. Syria went to a revolution.
09:39The monster of Assad disappeared, and Iran is very wicked.
09:44It's not the same Iran that we knew a few months ago.
09:48So maybe it's an opportunity now for the whole region to change.
09:52For Israel to make peace with the Lebanese, because it's no issue with Lebanon.
09:55And for the Israelis to make peace with the Palestinians.
09:59Because we know the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a two-state solution.
10:05It's time for the international community, and I'm personally pushing President Macron.
10:10I gave him a very, very important report a few days ago, and I'm pushing him publicly to recognize the Palestinian state.
10:17I push the international community to recognize the Palestinian state.
10:21And for the Arab and Muslim countries to recognize Israel.
10:24Only by peace, Israel will secure its life.
10:29Only peace will bring security to Israel.
10:33And we saw Israel having a good relationship with some Arab countries.
10:36It was good for all sides.
10:40Economically, we have to put our energy, our means, our wealth into the well-being of the people.
10:47We cannot put it only in hurting each other, and in buying more and more weapons.
10:52Well, obviously we'll keep watching this story, which is still unfolding.
10:57Thank you very much, Alfred Braunstein.
10:59You're a political scientist from Tel Aviv.