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Oct. 9, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
16:09
Scott Ritter : Can We Trust the Israel–Hamas Deal?
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom.
Today is Thursday, October 9th, 2025.
Scott Ritter joins us now.
Scott, a pleasure.
Thank you very much for accommodating my time.
What is your understanding of phase one of the so-called Trump peace deal, which the president announced Hamas and the Israeli government had agreed to last night?
My understanding is that there will be a hostage release, that is the Israelis that Hamas and Islamic jihad are currently holding, the living, and uh the bodies of the those who have perished uh will be turned over to Israeli authorities, and the Israelis will be uh freeing some 1,200 um Palestinian hostages or prisoners, whatever term you want to use.
Um, and then Israel will um withdraw uh to, I guess what it is the 70% line, meaning they will withdraw from 70% of uh of Gaza, and then once this is done, I think they move on to the next phases of uh of this ceasefire/slash peace plan.
Is there a uh requirement or a phase, I don't know what terminology to use for Hamas to lay down its arms.
I believe it is.
I believe that part of the agreement that Hamas has uh signed on.
And people should understand Hamas this isn't the first time uh the issue of you know disarmament has been raised, and Hamas has said in the past that it is willing to disarm if certain conditions are met, including Palestinian statehood.
Um Hamas has agreed to um disarming the timetable of that, how it will be done.
Um I still think that those are details that um have yet to be solidified and uh acted on and you know could you know lead to Israel doing what Israel does best, which is to violate ceasefires, lose their patience and um and resume bombing.
But uh I think this agreement, if it's going to reach maturity, requires Hamas to um to be verifiably disarmed.
Why would Hamas uh give up the only leverage it has, which is the hostages and its weapons in a trust with Israel, which has betrayed that trust regularly, consistently, systematically, and uniformly because Hamas wants a Palestinian state.
I mean, that's what this was all about.
This was about creating the conditions for a Palestinian state, and now Hamas actually has a deal.
Again, people need to put this in perspective.
Go back to uh the days and weeks after October 7th, 2023, uh, when the initial discussions were had, you know, being had about a ceasefire and what Hamas's demands are.
Every single demand of Hamas has been met.
I mean, this is a Hamas peace treaty.
Uh you know, Trump has packaged it up and has sold it to the Israelis.
Uh, but Hamas is getting everything they asked for.
So, you know, why would Hamas do this?
Because this is what they've wanted all along.
The idea that they're a terrorist organization that exists uh just to run around and blow things up and commit violence and kill Israel and all is absurd in the extreme.
Hamas has been fighting for a Palestinian state, for a Palestinian homeland, and this agreement creates the opportunity for that.
So that's exactly why Hamas should be willing to do all this.
Is it um does the agreement provide for a Palestinian state?
Because Netanyahu has said over and over and over again, it'll never happen, it'll never agree to it, and quite frankly, he knows if he does agree to it, Smotrich and Gavir and their colleagues uh leave the government.
So sad, too bad to be Benjamin Netanyahu.
Um this agreement, if it's going to reach maturity, requires a pathway to a two-state solution.
Um international commitments, guaranteed tours, including the United States and its president.
Um, you know, Israel, of course, always has the option to blow things up and walk away.
But I think the Israelis understand that they live in different times right now.
One, um, this president has committed a tremendous amount of political capital to this.
This is in his imagination, uh, the pathway to a Nobel Peace Prize.
Um, and he's not going to let Bibi Netanyahu get in the way of this.
And two, um, one of the reasons why Netanyahu is even talking about this is that Israeli support in the United States is rapidly you know, chipping away.
Um it's it's it's actually pouring off.
Uh the what was a robust infrastructure now is a bare skeleton.
Uh Donald Trump has acknowledged that Israel doesn't have control over the Congress that they once enjoyed, uh, the absolute control.
And we see in important constituents in the United States, support for Israel uh is rapidly waning.
Uh the make America great great again contingent are tired of finding out that America's second to Israel.
And um Netanyahu has to be very careful about um how he proceeds.
If his coalition government collapses, so be it.
But if he actually is you know means to join a viable peace plan that is supported by the United States that looks like it's not just a temporary stopgap measure, um he might be able to build a new coalition.
The coalition here has right now is an extremist coalition, uh premised on the necessity of conflict.
If Netanyahu chooses to path the peace, there's a possibility he could build a temporary governing coalition that uh keeps him as prime minister and uh doesn't require him to have the Bengavirs and the Smotrices and these other genocidal maniacs.
President Trump said, I'll play the clip in a minute, that the United States military was instrumental in getting this agreement.
What do you think he meant by that?
I think he's you know, this is this whole peace-through strength thing, um, threatening Hamas.
There will be hell to pay, as if Gaza hasn't been subjected to hell uh many times over.
Um, you know, there were the movements of American military aircraft into the region that creates the you know perception of um of of the threat of military force.
And I think what um what Trump is is believing, leading himself to believe is that this is what uh pushed Hamas into accepting this uh peace deal.
But I would remind the president, let him let him enjoy his moment.
Uh but at some point in time I would whisper in his ear, Hamas won.
Hamas won.
They got everything they wanted.
Thank you, Mr. President, on behalf of Hamas.
Here's uh Trump mentioning military involvement.
He mentions a lot of other things as he often does, uh, but I want your thoughts on this.
Chris Cut number 18.
We had some tremendous help, as you know, with everybody from uh Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner and Marco and we had everybody, JD, the whole group was just amazing.
And the military was, as you know, very instrumental in getting this done.
We have a great military with great leadership.
Uh the whole world came together, to be honest.
Uh so many countries that you wouldn't have even thought of it.
They they came together.
The world has come together around this deal.
All right.
He he likes to uh thump his chest.
I guess he still uh believes he could win the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced tomorrow, Friday, October 10th at 5 in the morning uh Eastern time.
But I still don't get this.
And the military was, as you know, very instrumental in getting this done.
Did the president of the United States threaten either Netanyahu or Hamas with the entry of the United States military into Gaza?
Yeah, absolutely.
Not Netanyahu.
He threatened Hamas.
So there will be hell to pay.
And then he deployed military assets accordingly.
So it was a direct threat to Hamas.
Whether Hamas paid any attention to it is not.
You know the president's role is a very simplistic world.
But underneath the simplicity of how his brain operates, there's a lot of complex negotiations taking place.
Gutter was instrumental to making this peace deal happen.
Hamas was instrumental.
The people who negotiated this peace deal, the ones that Israel was trying to assassinate in Gutter when they when they bombed that Middle East nation illegally, by the way.
People need to recall that when Trump first put his, you know, I'm going to forcefully evacuate everybody.
I said that is an opening gambit.
And he got a response from Arab nations.
And then later on he backed off and played, you know, like he didn't want to do that.
But now we're back to that.
We have a deal now because those Arab nations that put a counter-offer to Trump, that counter-offers at play here.
There's not going to be the forcible evacuation of Palestinians from Gaza.
They're building Gaza.
That was the original counter-proposal.
The thing that tied that down was Hamas.
And look at the president.
He made a compromise because he said Hamas had to go.
You know, you could uh you could declare yourself to be Hamas and ask for amnesty and stay, but you won't have any role in a future government.
Hamas came back and said, we'll buy into this uh Palestinian elite architecture, the technocrats and all that, but we're going to play a role too.
The president went, okay.
And that's what sealed the deal was the continued political viability of Hamas.
But yeah, the president, you know, uh verbally flexed some muscles, but I don't think that that verbal flex had anything to do whatsoever with a very lengthy, complex ongoing negotiation that's been taking place.
When the uh Palestinian hostages, chief among whom is you know his name, he's been there for uh 20 years.
He's the person, yes, Margouti.
When they are freed, what is for what is there for them to come back to in Gaza?
Anything but rubble.
I mean, look, Gaza's been destroyed, but you know what's there?
Palestine.
You think they give a damn about buildings and marble and all the garbage that you know Donald Trump and his elites care about?
Palestine.
The thought is now reality.
Gaza isn't just an open-air concentration camp.
Gaza is going to be part of a free and independent Palestinian state.
And that's what they're going back to, and that's what they've been struggling for for all these years.
Uh Donald Trump, as usual, overplaying his hand, saying he's brought a peace to the world.
I can't resist uh running this for you, Scotty.
Uh, this is this is on a telephone interview with Sean Hannity last night, just like the other clip was, but it's certainly the president.
Uh cut number 19, Chris.
You know, having uh the ability to deal with trade, having the ability to use tariffs to help me make a point.
The tariffs have have brought peace to the world.
I'm telling you, they brought peace to the world, and not only here, but with so many other deals.
You know, I've made seven uh peace deals uh where countries were in many cases 30, 31 years, 135, 137 years they've been fighting and millions of people being killed, and I brought peace.
I'm not so sure I understand what he's talking about.
Tariffs have strengthened the East, strengthened BRICS, strengthened the Shanghai and taught two-thirds of the world they don't need to integrate to uh uh engage in commercial intercourse with the United States if they don't want to.
Yeah, no, this was he was verbally dictating the Nobel Peace Prize um you know letter that he wants to receive.
Um he lives in his own fantasy world.
Um look, let's give the president credit where credit is due.
I don't know the the extent to which his tariffs uh you know did this.
I will say this that um when he put that proposal out about uh you know clearing out Gaza forcefully and all this stuff, um, it did cause the Arab world to come together and put together a counter-proposal.
And that counter-proposal is the heart of this deal.
And that was done before terrorists before threats for anything.
So the Arab world has always wanted a deal.
But you know, the problem was dealing with Israel, how to get Israel to play responsibly.
And this is where Donald Trump has contributed, because only the United States can make Israel play responsibly.
And it wasn't through sanctioning Israel or anything like that.
It was a reality that Hamas's master plan, which again was articulated right after October 7th, of sucking Israel into Gaza and letting Israel be Israel.
And the horrific reality of Israel will cause the world to shy away, turn away, and support the bleed off.
That plan worked.
And you know, Trump was able to take advantage of the fact that Israel recognized it was losing support internationally and more critically amongst an American domestic uh constituency.
And this is what brought it to the table.
So Trump can live in his own world.
He can populate it with other whatever imaginations he wants.
But I think when we do a cause-effect analysis of what actually pushed this peace plan forward in, you know, et cetera, it's not going to be about Trump uh tariffing people and flexing muscles.
It's going to be about support for Israel rapidly waning, creating a panic in Israel.
Why else would a Israeli prime minister go on American social media not once but twice and say, I didn't kill Charlie Kirk?
We didn't kill Charlie Kirk, because he understood that even the thought of Israel being involved was stripping aid away.
Why did he go out and challenge the First Amendment of the United States, asking Americans to, you know, on social media to rally behind Israel and isolate and deplatform those people who didn't agree.
Understand, you know, he didn't understand the politics of the time.
That didn't rally people.
That alienated people.
Again, the MAGA crowd was going, that sounds an awful lot like Israel first, America last, and support waned.
So I think it's what Hamas did that shaped this potential more than anything the president did.
The president provided leadership, and I'll give him that.
Sky Ritter, thank you very much.
Appreciate your coming on, my friend.
I know you have a busy morning.
Uh all the best.
We'll look forward to seeing you next week.
Thank you, my friend.
Thank you.
Of course.
And coming up later today at one o'clock this afternoon from somewhere in China, Pepe Escobar at two o'clock, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson at three o'clock, Professor John Meersheimer at four o'clock, Professor Jeffrey Sachs,
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