Judging Freedom - Scott Ritter : Can We Trust the Israel–Hamas Deal?

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Scott Ritter : Can We Trust the Israel–Hamas Deal?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's audible.ca. slash wondering. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, October 9, 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 the bodies of those who have perished will be turned over to Israeli authorities, and the Israelis will be freeing some 1,200 Palestinian hostages or prisoners, whatever term you want to use. and then Israel will withdraw to, I guess, what it is, the 70% line,

meaning they will withdraw from 70% of Gaza. And then once this is done, I think they move on to the next phases of this ceasefire slash peace plan. Is there a 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 signed on. And people should understand, Hamas, this isn't the first time 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. And Hamas has agreed to disarming the timetable

of that, how it will be done. I still think that those are details that have yet to be solidified and 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 resume bombing. But I think this agreement, if it's going to reach maturity, requires Hamas to be verifiably disarmed. Why would Hamas 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 the days and weeks after. October 7th, 2020, 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.

You know, Trump has packaged it up and has sold it to the Israelis. 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 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 will be willing to do all this. Is it, does the agreement provide for a Palestinian state?

Because Netanyahu has said over and over and over again, it'll never happen. ever agree to it. And quite frankly, he knows if he does agree to it, Smortrich and Gavir and their colleagues leave the government. So sad, too bad to be Benjamin Netanyahu. This agreement, if it's going to reach maturity, requires a pathway to a two-state solution. International commitments guarantee tours, including the United States and its president. And, 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, this president has committed a tremendous amount of political capital to this.

This is, in his imagination, the pathway to a Nobel Peace Prize. And he's not going to let Bebe Netanyahu get in the way of this. And two, one of the reasons why Netanyahu is even talking about this is that Israeli support in the United States is rapidly chipping away. of it's actually pouring off the what was a robust infrastructure now is a bare skeleton Donald Trump has acknowledged that Israel doesn't have control over the Congress that they once enjoyed the absolute control and we see an important constituents in the United States support for Israel is rapidly waning of the make America great again contingent are tired of finding out that America is second to Israel and then yahoo

has to be very careful about how he proceeds. If his coalition government collapses, so be it. But if he actually 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, he might be able to build a new. The coalition he has right now is an extremist coalition, premised on the necessity of conflict. If Netanyahu chooses to path to peace, there's a possibility he could build a temporary governing coalition that keeps him as prime minister and doesn't require him to have the Bingavirs and the Smotritches 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 piece through strength thing, threatening Hamas. There will be hell to pay, as if Gaza hasn't been subjected to hell many times over. You know, there were the movements of American military aircraft into the region that creates the, you know, perception of the threat of military force. And I think what Trump is believing, leading himself to believe, is that this is what, you know, but pushed Hamas into accepting this peace deal. But I would remind the president, let him enjoy his moment. 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 Trump mentioning military involvement. He mentions a lot of other things, as he often does. But I want your thoughts on this. Chris, cut number 18.

tremendous help, as you know, with everybody from Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner and Marco and we had to everybody. J.D., 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. The whole world came together, to be honest. So many countries that you wouldn't have even thought of it, they came together. The world has come together around this deal.

All right. He likes to thump his chest. I guess he still believes he could win the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced tomorrow, Friday, October 10th at 5 in the morning, 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. 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 world is a very simplistic world. But underneath the simplicity of how his brain operates, there's a lot of complex negotiations taking place. A 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 bombed that Middle East nation illegally, by the way. In other Arab nations, people need to recall that when Trump first put his, you know, I'm going to forcefully evacuate everybody, we're going to turn this into a beachside resort. I said that is an opening gambit, and he got a response from Arab nations. And then later on, he backed off and played 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 counteroffer to Trump,

that counteroffers at play here. There's not going to be the forceful evacuation of Palestinians from Gaza. There will be Arabs coming in to rebuild Gaza. And that was the original counterproposal. 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 declare yourself to be Hamas and ask for amnesty and stay, but you won't have any role in a future government.

And Hamas came back and said, we'll buy into this Palestinian elite architecture, the technocrats and all that. But we're going to play a role too. And the president went, okay. And that's what sealed the deal, was the continued political. political viability of Hamas. But yeah, the president, you know, 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 Palestinian hostages, chief among whom is, you know his name, he's been there for 20 years, he's the person.

Yes, Margutti. When they are freed, what is for, what is the, 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. Donald Trump, as usual, overplaying his hand, saying he's brought a peace to the world. I can't resist running this for you, Scotty. This is on a telephone

interview with Sean Hannity last night, just like the other clip was, but it's certainly the president. Cut number 19, Chris. You know, having the ability to deal with trade, having the ability to use tariffs to help me make a point. The tariffs 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 peace deals 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.

Tarasov strengthened the East, strengthened Bricks, strengthened Shanghai, and taught two-thirds of the world. They don't need to 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, you know, letter that he wants to receive. He lives in his own fantasy world. Look, let's give the president credit where credit is due. But I don't know the extent to which his tariffs, you know, did this. I will say this, that when he put that proposal out about, you know, clearing out Gaza forcefully and all this stuff, it did cause the Arab world to come together and put together a counterproposal.

And that counterproposal 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, you know, 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 to 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 constituency. And this is what brought it to the table. So Trump can live in his own world. He can populate it with whatever imaginations he wants. But I think when we do a cause-effect analysis of what actually pushed this. peace plan forward, you know, etc. It's not going to be about Trump tariffing people and flexing muscles. It's going to be about support for Israel rapidly waning, creating a panic in

Israel. Why else would an 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, you know, rally behind Israel and isolate and de-platform 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 them that. Scott Ritter, thank you very much. I appreciate you coming on, my friend. I know you have a busy morning. 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 1 o'clock this afternoon from somewhere in China, Pepe Escobar, at 2 o'clock, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, at 3 o'clock Professor John Mearsheimer. At 4 o'clock, Professor Jeffrey Sachs.

Johnson-Napal for Judging Freedom. Thank you.