Is the Gaza war finally over?

That and so much more this week on the dispatch podcast.

I'm Steve Hayes, and I'm pleased to be

joined by my dispatch colleagues Jonah Goldberg and Sarah Isker. And by David French of the New York

Times, Jonah, President Trump was holding forth yesterday in the Oval Office, taking questions

from friendly reporters, berating unfriendly reporters in his mind when Secretary of State Marco Rubio passed him a

handwritten note on White House stationary. The note said, quote, very close, we need you to approve a

truth social post so you can announce deal first. Rubio was referring to the imminent deal to end the war in Gaza. And the true social post,

when President Trump finally posted it a short time later, read as the following. I am very proud to

announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first phase of our peace plan. This means that all of the hostages

will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed-upon line as the

first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace, strong, durable, everlasting,

all-capitalized. All parties will be treated fairly. This is a great day for the Arab and

Muslim world, Israel, all surrounding nations and the United States of America. And we thank the mediators

from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this historic and unprecedented event happen.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Jonah, Donald Trump is scheduled to fly to the region this weekend.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has invited him to address the Israeli parliament.

There seems to be, at least for this moment, optimism all around.

Are you optimistic?

What are your thoughts on the deal?

What's in it and what does it mean? So, yeah, I'm optimistic. I think Trump does, we can get to how much praise he deserves and

you know, all that kind of stuff. But this is an unalloyed good thing on the merits, I think.

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