Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the latest top U.S. official to visit Israel as part of a push to maintain the Gaza ceasefire. Reports suggest the Trump administration is worried about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu undermining the agreement, with the U.S. visits dubbed "Bibi-sitting" missions to prevent any sabotage. Meanwhile, lawmakers in the Knesset have advanced a bill to apply Israeli sovereignty to all illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank — a move that would effectively annex the territory and kill already dim hopes for a future Palestinian state on that land.
For more on the state of the Gaza ceasefire and the future of Palestine, we speak with Robert Malley, co-author with Hussein Agha of the new book Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine. Malley is a veteran negotiator involved in previous U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and Palestinian leadership. He says despite the many flaws in the Trump plan, including "deciding everything for Palestinians without Palestinians having a voice," it has at least halted the worst of the violence. He also notes the "double standard" in how all U.S. administrations have dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as "the search for a two-state solution became a gimmick" while the U.S. allowed Israel to entrench its occupation.
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