Alicia so what can we expect from Benjamin netanyahu's visit to the White House as the ceasefire deal continues to hold let's ask retired US Army General Dana pitar General thank you so much for being here uh it seems as though these two men uh Netanyahu and Trump have been very supportive of each other in the past but there is a potential difference here in that obviously president Trump wants the situation in the Middle East to be quiet so he can focus on the priorities here at home Netanyahu has some pressure from his rightwing to resume
the war when we get to the second phase so how do you see the meeting at the White House playing out General well good morning Jonathan uh you're right it's it's really an opportunity it's an opportunity uh with uh president Trump's relationship with prime minister benjin Netanyahu for uh more stability in the region and possibly even peace but that's got to be shaped and it's going to be I I assume some very hard discussions as far as what the next steps are there's a real opportunity here for uh possible peace agreements between the Palestinians Israelis
Israel and Lebanon Israel and Syria uh but that's got to start with the the freeing all the hostages it's got to start with humanitarian assistance to to Gaza and eventually investment and rebuilding of Gaza and general it strikes me though that the rightwing in uh Israel is very concerned when we see the pictures of the hostages being released for instance uh we see many many Hamas Fighters all of them masks standing there it is impossible for Netanyahu to argue that he has achieved his goal of destroying Hamas and there are many in his coalition government
who thinks that has to fulfill that goal that means resuming the war in phase two he he cannot claim he's destroyed Hamas at this point can he possibly not because Hamas still has capabilities but Wars are resolved through negotiations in peace Israel has for the most part won this war yes Hamas sell some capabilities but they've won the war so now it's time to have the peace and rebuild Gaza have a stable relationship between the Palestinians and Israel which benefits both so do you believe that we will see a different governing Authority other than Hamas
in Gaza within the next 12 to 18 months General I think that's actually non-negotiable that there's no way Israel uh can have a government that involves Hamas on the Palestinian side uh so so that must be a requirement of any kind of peace agreement as Hamas is not a part of it and general could I quickly turn to uh another major conflict that between Russia and Ukraine it seems as though there is a great deal of pressure now on both sides from the Trump Administration uh to come towards some agreement are you optimistic that there
will be a peace deal in that conflict and will it satisfy both sides well I think there's an absolute opportunity here uh with the incoming Trump Administration which has relations with both uh uh Vladimir Putin of Russia and of course uh president zilinski of Ukraine to bring both to the table now neither one will want to give up certain things but they're both going to have to give up certain things if there is in fact going to be peace on the Ukrainian side Ukraine has got to understand that they will not be able to keep
all their territory uh president Trump has also talked about Ukraine having elections at some point in the near future and on the Russia side uh Russia will have to be satisfied uh with the territory that they have and renounce any claims to additional territory for Ukraine and also agree that Ukraine can be a part of NATO in the future neither side wants those things uh but to have a peace agreement um they're going to need to General Dana pittard a pleasure to talk to you this morning thank you so much for spending part of your
Sunday with us General thank you Jonathan
