20231123_BBCA_Penyampaian Bukti Iklan_31531678_lamp2.pdf

The Jakarta Post                                                                                     HEADLINES                                                                           THURSDAY November 23, 2023                 3




The frantic effort behind the Hamas-Israel truce deal
‘Excruciating’ efforts involved negotiations by the United States, Israel, Qatar, Egypt
     Agence France-Presse               to free some of the hostages                                                                                       forth”, the official said, noting         Shortly afterwards, “Hamas
                                        snatched by Palestinian militants          “We were able to track, kind of in real time,                           that discussions centered around       produced the identifying criteria
Washington                              during their Oct. 7 raids on Israel.                                                                               transportation corridors, surveil-     for the 50 hostages.”
A secret cell headed by CIA and            On Wednesday, Israel and
                                                                                    the [hostages] as they moved from Gaza,                                lance and timeframes.                     As Israel’s bombing of Gaza
Mossad chiefs, and multiple             Hamas announced a truce deal                    ultimately across the border and                                      Hamas came under intense            intensified and civilian deaths
contacts between United States          allowing the release of at least                                                                                   pressure to produce a list of hos-     soared, Biden called Netanyahu
President Joe Biden and lead-           50 hostages held by Hamas in ex-                         into freedom.”                                            tages.                                 on Nov. 14 urging him to “move
ers of Israel, Qatar and Egypt          change for Palestinian prisoners                                                                                      Communication proved diffi-         forward with this deal”, and the
underpinned an “excruciating”           in Israeli jails.                                                                                                  cult as messages had to pass from      prime minister ultimately agreed,
five weeks resulting in the truce          Qatar, which brokered the           hostages,” according to the offi-         Their safe return “gave us some   Doha or Cairo into Gaza and back.      the official said.
agreement, a US official said.          agreement, “asked that a cell be       cial.                                  confidence that [...] Qatar real-       By Oct. 25, Hamas was saying           But suddenly, with a deal in
   In a detailed account to report-     established to work on the issue          The president himself entered       ly could deliver through the cell    it could guarantee about 50 re-        sight that day, “everything stalled
ers by a senior US official speak-      very carefully, very secretly, to-     the talks, holding Zoom calls with     that we had established”.            leases in the first phase, but their   again”, the US official said.
ing on condition of anonymity,          gether with the Israelis”, the US      families of victims on Oct. 13, fol-                                        formal list came up short: just 10        Hamas had broken off talks.
a picture has emerged of a tense        official said.                         lowed by his visit to Israel five      Biden ‘engaged daily’                names.                                    Biden called the Qatari emir
international effort beset by sud-         Qatar hosts a Hamas political       days later.                              Soon Mossad director David            On Nov. 9, the CIA’s Burns          on Nov. 17, according to the offi-
den communication cutoffs with          office, and has behind-the-scenes         The release of two American         Barnea and CIA chief William         rushed to Doha to help thrash out      cial, to make clear the deal “had
Hamas, disputes over hostage            diplomatic links with Israel. It is    citizens on Oct. 20 was seen as “a     Burns were also deeply involved.     a deal text, but the identification    to close”.
lists and safety concerns on the        also home to the largest US mili-      pilot process” for the overall ne-       A flurry of phone calls between    of hostages remained a sticking           Two days later, the Americans
ground.                                 tary base in the region.               gotiations, the official said.         Biden and Israeli Prime Minister     point.                                 met with Egyptian intelligence
   The US official said the “ex-           Biden administration officials         “We were able to track, kind        Benjamin Netanyahu followed on          Biden called the emir of Qa-        chief Abbas Kamel and received
tremely excruciating five-week          were having “daily, sometimes          of in real time, the [hostages] as     Oct. 20, 22, 23 and 25.              tar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-        assurances from Hamas “closing
process” of negotiations began          hourly, senior level of engage-        they moved from Gaza, ultimate-          Biden “was engaged daily as        Thani, on Nov. 12 and “made very       the gaps”, the US official said.
with a call from Qatar to Wash-         ment with Qatar, with Egypt and        ly across the border and into free-    extremely difficult talks and        clear that where we were was not          “For the first time [they] really
ington and the Israelis, in a bid       with Israel on the issue of the        dom,” the American said.               proposals were traded back and       enough”, the US official said.         see this coming together.”




                                             Reuters/Piroschka van de Wouw
Too close to call: A voter casts a ballot on Wednesday accom-
panied by a child during the Dutch parliamentary elections
in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Dutch voters headed to the
polls for a nail-biting election that will transform the country’s
political landscape after Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s record
13 years in power.


Dutch election: Top runners
and riders to replace Rutte
   Stephanie van den Berg             ing Islam remains at his party’s
                                      core but concerns over the cost
Reuters/The Hague, Netherlands        of living, improving care for the
Dutch voters went to the polls on     elderly and limiting immigra-
Wednesday, with four major            tion are what he focuses on now.
groupings vying to propose the           After a last-minute surge,
next prime minister and suc-          polls suggest Wilders, one of
ceed outgoing Prime Minister          the country’s most recogniz-
Mark Rutte.                           able figures thanks to his dyed
   Here is a look at the top can-     blond mane, may also have a
didates:                              shot at topping the vote.
                                         His enduring popularity
Dilan Yesilgoz, leader of the         since he created the PVV in
conservative VVD Party                2006 has pushed ruling parties
   Turkish-born Yesilgoz, 46,         over the years to give the Neth-
has a shot at becoming the            erlands one of Europe’s tough-
Netherlands’ first woman prime        est immigration policies.
minister, with Rutte’s People’s          Abroad, his comments about
Party for Freedom and Democ-          the Prophet Muhammad and
racy (VVD), which she now             calls for the Quran to be banned
leads, neck and neck with main        led to sometimes violent pro-
rivals in recent polls.               tests in countries including
   In the election campaign,          Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt.
Yesilgoz has distanced herself           Death       threats    against
from Rutte, who has led the           Wilders, who has a conviction
country for more than a decade.       for discrimination after he in-
   She is campaigning to limit        sulted Moroccans at a cam-
migration and says her own ex-        paign rally in 2014, mean he
perience of fleeing to the Neth-      has lived under heavy police
erlands as an eight-year-old          protection for years.
with Turkish Kurdish human
rights activist parents informs       Pieter Omtzigt, leader of the
her views.                            center-right NSC Party
   Yesilgoz, who serves as jus-           One of the Netherlands’ lon-
tice minister, is often character-    gest serving parliamentarians
ized as more media savvy than         Pieter Omtzigt, 49, long seen
a policy expert. A self-confessed     as a policy wonk, has reinvent-
workaholic, she told journalists      ed himself as the political con-
she only does three things be-        science of the country.
sides work: sleep, exercise and           Omtzigt, who broke with the
try to eat healthy.                   Christian Democrats in 2021,
                                      founded his own “New Social
Frans Timmermans, leader              Contract” (NSC) party in Au-
of the combined Labor and             gust. He is slightly trailing the
Green Left ticket                     three frontrunners in some
   Known for overseeing the           polls.
European Union’s Green Deal               As a parliamentarian, he
as European Commission vice           earned a reputation as a “po-
president, Timmermans, 62, re-        litical pit bull” with his tenac-
turned to Dutch politics in Au-       ity and in-depth knowledge of
gust with the ambition of be-         complex political questions,
coming prime minister.                coupled with a willingness to
   The Labor and Green Left           challenge ministers of his own
(PvdA/GL) parties running on          party.
a single ticket are polling well,         One of Rutte’s cabinets col-
alongside the VVD and the far         lapsed in 2021 when Omtzigt
right Freedom Party (PVV).            played a key role in pursuing a
   Timmermans has made cli-           scandal in which thousands of
mate change, a key concern for        families had been wrongfully
leftwing voters, the central point    accused of benefit fraud on the
of his campaign, along with at-       basis of their ethnicity.
tempts to win back support of             Omtzigt has positioned him-
blue-collar workers for Labor.        self as a centrist: conservative
   A son of a diplomat, Tim-          on immigration and climate
mermans speaks English, Ger-          change but leftist on reducing
man, French, Italian and Rus-         poverty and improving health
sian in addition to Dutch.            care. His party’s top goal is re-
                                      forming lawmaking and policy.
Geert Wilders, leader of the              He has endeared himself to
far right Freedom Party               the public with his distinct re-
   Geert Wilders, 60, interna-        gional accent and the fact that
tionally known for his fiery an-      he commutes over two hours
ti-Islamic politics, has tried to     each way by train to his home
soften his tone in the current        in Enschede, close to the Ger-
campaign in the hopes of get-         man border, instead of mov-
ting his party into government.       ing closer to parliament in
   He said recently that oppos-       The Hague.