As part of the deal, Hamas has released Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Hamas must also return all remains of deceased hostages, and if they cannot, they must provide an explanation why.
Johanna Koskinen is an ambassador with Project 21 and is currently enrolled in Divinity School.
"Well first, I'll say that I'm impressed at the response President Trump has been getting since the signing of that agreement. I've watched and listened as nighttime talk show hosts and others who were convinced of Trump's inability to do anything positive all of a sudden turn and give him credit, but in terms of the actual agreement itself, I'm cautiously optimistic."
While some on the Left have given Trump his due, others have not. Koskinen said she has found it interesting to hear the amount of silence across America that followed the news of Trump's peace deal.
"The silence was not a golden silence. It wasn't a prayerful silence. It was, it was almost a silence of confusion … like what do we do now. That should give us all a moment to pause and ask questions like if the intention of these protests were in order to achieve a level of peace, if peace was in fact the goal, where's the applause?"
She said the silence would suggest that protesters had other motives.
“You are getting a response that would suggest that maybe what they thought was a cause was really just an emotional reaction."
Koskinen said she is “cautiously happy about what's happening.”
However …
“I'm in no way naive about the reality of the players on the campus and those people who are nourishing and feeding the type of hostility and resistance on both sides of the fence."
New reports say that one of the bodies Israel received on Wednesday from Hamas was not a hostage, reportedly adding to the tensions of the situation.
Koskinen said we have to always consider the reality that good faith has always been an issue.
“It’s always been an issue between Israel and Hamas and so, we more or less walk with this attitude of waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop."
