David Rohde: I Didn’t Get the Feeling that Trump’s Meeting with Netanyahu Yesterday Pushed the Gaza Deal Forward

EXCERPT:

ROHDE: "I did not. And I see the first phase and the initial agreement back in November as the signature foreign policy achievement of President Trump’s first year back in office. It reduced the killings. 400 Palestinians have died since then, but the death rate has dropped. The hostages were brought home. There’s one — the remains of one policeman who was killed that hasn’t been returned, but it was a huge step forward. And I agree, it’s slowed since then, it stalled. There was no details about the creation of a stabilization force. That was envisioned to be up to 10,000 troops. It was hoped that it would come with forces from Egypt and Turkey and other Muslim majority countries, but none of that has come to fruition. And the key issue here is, how will Hamas be disarmed? How will it — some have talked about politically, how will Hamas be marginalized? And the fact is that the Palestinian Authority has very little role in this plan so far, and there’s no sort of alternative in terms of governing — a Palestinian role governing Gaza that’s emerged. So that’s the key issue. There was no, that I heard, progress on that. Lots of positive talk, I think, that helps them both politically domestically, but no progress on that key issue."