FINKELSTEIN: Israel Agreed to Similar Ceasefire for Obama Inauguration

Finkelstein said he believes that once the hostages are exchanged, the truce “will vanish like snow in the spring sunshine.”

Norman Finkelstein, the Middle East scholar, mentioned how Israel stopped its bombing campaign in Gaza back in 2009, before Barack Obama took office in the U.S. because he didn’t “want this sideshow” in Gaza to distract “attention from his coronation.”

Trump, likewise, “didn’t want to begin his presidency by having to unleash a savage assault on Gaza,” which would be a “merciless” and “heartless” note, he said.