The luck of the draw makes this the first First Draft post since the hostage/prisoner swap and ceasefire between Hamas and Israel started to take place. I’m so happy that the last 20 living hostages are making their way to Israel after an unfathomable ordeal, and that this agreement might mean a significant improvement in the lives of so many (remaining) civilians in Gaza.

A quick tour of the responses from our living Democratic presidents:

Bill Clinton’s first paragraph nailed the essential context from October 7 until today.

You can tell Biden wrote his statement himself despite his ongoing health challenges. He’s allowed to remember out loud what his own team did in this arena. Also classy for not delving into why more wasn’t accomplished and for giving unqualified credit to Trump for this latest and major step in the right direction.

As of Monday night, Obama’s last statement was from a few days ago, but it looks forward to this moment, acknowledges the decent person’s unavoidable mix of emotions, and dares to mention “recognizing the common humanity and basic rights” of all involved as a rebuilding of Gaza develops. Time will tell.

Of course, Trump is gonna Trump, and I’ll leave it to others to document the failures of judgment and decorum on his Israel trip.

I have always wondered if Hamas’ taking of hostages that October 7 worked out like they thought it would. For a group who planned and executed a shockingly effective massacre of innocents, the hostage component of the plan felt unwise from the start. Time would reveal that it was every bit as misguided as it was malevolent.

When Netanyahu opened his response by committing the war crime of shutting off water to the population at large in Gaza, the switch had been flipped on his government’s feat of turning a wave of near-global goodwill into an unprecedented international reevaluation of the morals surrounding the Israel/Gaza situation as a whole.

I never thought anyone would top making so much compassion and goodwill disappear as fast as George W. Bush did in the years after 9/11, but Bibi pulled it off. I guess Netanyahu being his own Dick Cheney helped his odds. (Bush has yet to make a public statement on recent developments.)

All that aside, sincerely, let us appreciate that this was a better day than so many that came before it on a road as long and difficult as this one.

And for all involved, I’m just glad that none of the hostages happened to be in possession of Trump’s tax returns or the Epstein files.