Daily Briefing Mar. 8: Day 519 – Haviv Rettig Gur on Egypt’s ‘silly’ plan for postwar Gaza

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today’s Daily Briefing, which is a bonus episode of our weekly What Matters Now podcast series.

At a Cairo summit of Arab leaders on Tuesday, a consensus of states adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave — in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision.

The over 100-page “Early Recovery, Reconstruction, Development of Gaza” plan envisions a Gaza Administration Committee, made up of independent technocrats, to manage an initial six-month transitional phase. It also urges elections in all Palestinian areas within a year, if conditions support such a move.

The rub? The plan doesn’t explicitly tackle the issue of Hamas and how the terror group will be disarmed — if at all. It also pushes for a Palestinian state before addressing any of the armed Palestinian factions.

Rettig Gur dissects elements of the plan and weighs in on its seriousness.

And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now.

This conversation can also be viewed here:

Please see today’s ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Netanyahu confidant ‘lashed out’ at US envoy over direct talks with Hamas — official

Trump defends direct US-Hamas talks as Israel seethes, attempts to sabotage them

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

Check out yesterday’s Daily Briefing episode here: