Michigan Jewish and Arab American community leaders react to Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal

As celebrations have filled the streets of both Israel and Gaza following the announcement of a ceasefire agreement, reactions are pouring in over 5,000 miles away in Metro Detroit.

“All news is positive right now, but we’ve seen these things before, and we proceed with cautious optimism,” said David Kurzmann,  the senior director of community affairs with the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit.

“We’re approaching the situation with a lot of cautious optimism,” said Faye Nemer, CEO of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) American Chamber of Commerce.

On Wednesday, President Trump announced that Israel and Hamas reached a deal to release all hostages and for Israel to begin to withdraw its forces. Mr. Trump calls the agreement the “first phase” of a deal to end a two-year war.

However, Nemer told CBS Detroit that the history of ceasefire deals makes her wary, but that moving forward, she’s happy President Trump was able to finally deliver on a promise he made to the Arab American community, albeit in a deal she says is far from perfect.

“OK, it’s a great first step, but for us to achieve long-lasting peace in the region, we want something a little bit more concrete, and I think that would be aligning to other Western nations that have recognized a state of Palestine,” said Nemer.

Kurzmann says that the news of the 20 hostages thought to still be alive coming home is an emotional win for the Jewish world, and that hopefully this is the beginning of a peaceful future moving forward.

“It’s our deep hope that this is the beginning of a new chapter where the hostilities are over, where there’s no more fighting or violence. But where we return to the days just prior to Oct. 7, 2023, when we saw growing normalization between Israel and its Arab neighbors.”

As both sides react to what is hopefully the beginning of the end of what has been a devastating two years abroad, Javed Ali, former senior director of counterterrorism on the National Security Council and current University of Michigan professor, tells CBS Detroit that there needs to be a concerted effort to ensure that this peace plan goes as smoothly as possible. 

“The full implementation of all 20 points, this is going to take a long period of time, and there’s going to have to be a very aggressive level of oversight and monitoring and verification,” said Ali. 

Ali says that he’s more confident that this agreement may lead to a long-lasting peace.

“I do think this is different just because of the more optimistic and positive tone from all parties involved, perhaps outside of Hamas have put on it. President Trump seems to have really leaned into it and has put a tremendous amount of pressure on all the parties involved.”

On Thursday, U.S. officials announced that 200 service members would go to a coordination center in Israel to support and monitor this ceasefire deal.