Hold Your Fire! Special Episode: Rob Malley on Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wider Middle East
Oct 8, 2025
Rob Malley, former president of the International Crisis Group and U.S. special envoy to Iran, delves into the nuances of Gaza, Trump's peace plan, and insights from his new book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He discusses Hamas's conditional acceptance of negotiations and the complexities of hostage dynamics. Malley also critiques the failures of the two-state solution and examines the impact of historical missed opportunities. The conversation reflects on societal trauma and explores innovative alternatives to conventional peace frameworks in the region.
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Episode notes
Politics Trumps Text In Deals
- Peace proposals often matter less for their text than for the politics and who is prepared to enforce them.
- Rob Malley argues Trump's plan is politically decisive only if he sustains pressure to end the killing and secure hostages.
Neocolonial Flaws Undermine The Plan
- The Trump proposal smells of neocolonialism because it envisions external trusteeship without Palestinian input.
- Malley thinks those details make the plan both terrible and unlikely to reach final implementation.
Immediate Humanitarian Ends Trump Long-Term Fixes
- For Malley the immediate test of any agreement is whether hostages and prisoners are released and killing falls substantially.
- Humanitarian relief and reduced violence matter more now than unresolved later-stage political mechanisms.
