Can the Israel-Hamas Deal Hold?

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.6 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Every Israeli-Palestinian peace deal has failed. Could Trump’s be any different? On Oct. 10, the Israeli cabinet approved a cease-fire deal brokered by the Trump administration, Turkey and Qatar. Since then, the living Israeli hostages have come home. Nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel have been freed. Israeli forces have partially withdrawn from the Gaza Strip, and they’re allowing in more desperately needed aid. This is finally, hopefully, the end of this war. But that was just the first part of the deal. The next phase is a lot more ambitious — and ambiguous. And while President Trump said the region would now “live, God willing, in peace for all eternity,” history would suggest otherwise. Robert Malley has worked on Middle East policy under President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden and President Bill Clinton. Hussein Agha negotiated on the Palestinian side, working under both Yasir Arafat, the first president of the Palestinian Authority, and the P.A.’s current president, Mahmoud Abbas. Together they wrote a sweeping new history of attempts at peace, “Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine.” They join me to examine what could go right — or wrong — as the rest of the deal takes shape. Mentioned: Tomorrow Is Yesterday by Hussein Agha and Robert Malley Book Recommendations: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe Dirty Hands by Jean-Paul Sartre The Just Assassins by Albert Camus The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris and Jack McCordick. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Chris Wood and Ashley Clivery.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The On October 9th, the Israeli government voted to ratify an agreement between Israel and Hamas, an agreement brokered by the Trump
0:40.2	administration, by Qatar, and by Turkey, that finally, finally brings an end, hopefully, to the war
0:48.3	between Israel and Hamas. This deal has already led to the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, 20 of them.
0:55.6	They came home in an incredibly emotional thing to watch.
1:00.1	There is a release of Palestinian prisoners, which has also happened, a cessation of hostilities,
1:06.5	which has more or less happened.
1:09.6	There is the bringing in again of much more help for
1:14.1	Gazans who are starving, who are homeless, who have endured unimaginable suffering and
1:20.6	devastation over the past two years, and an Israeli withdrawal further back from Gaza.
1:28.0	That is phase one, but the deal also has a phase two, a much more ambitious and ambiguous phase,
1:34.3	where it is much easier to imagine a lot going wrong and things falling apart.
1:39.8	But it also offers possibilities, maybe, that have not been on the table for some time.
1:44.8	Rob Malley has been a Middle East negotiator under President Obama, under President Biden,
1:51.6	under President Clinton.
1:53.2	He is the former president and CEO of the crisis group in a lecture now at Yale.
1:57.4	Hussein Agha has been a negotiator on the Palestinian side, working under Arafat,
2:03.5	under Abbas, and in many, many, both public and not so public, negotiations with Israelis
2:10.1	and other stakeholders in the region. The two of them together have written a fantastic new book
2:15.9	called Tomorrow is Yesterday. It is a very up close and personal
2:20.0	history of how these negotiations played out and why they have failed over and over and over and
2:26.4	over again. These are two people who have devoted their lives to trying to find a solution
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York Times Opinion, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York Times Opinion and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.