Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Perhaps we will know soon, as momentum toward another exchange of hostages for prisoners has built toward an agreement in the last few days.

Israeli officials tell reporters that Hamas has signaled acceptance of the deal on the table, although that has not yet been made public. However, it still hasn't been finalized:

Hamas has given the green light to go ahead with the hostage deal, with attempts to reach a final deal expected by Wednesday night or Thursday, Israeli officials said on Wednesday. 

"We are super close," a source told The Jerusalem Post. ...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a security consultation with the Israeli negotiating team in Doha later today, an Israeli source tells the Post.

So is this real life or fantasy? Bet on the latter until the ink dries on the paper.

The Arab interlocutors believe that Hamas will take the deal this time, in large part because Donald Trump made his presence felt with both sides. Publicly, Trump has threatened to unleash "hell" if Americans remain hostage by the first day of his presidency, which is just four-plus days from now. Privately, the Arab negotiators tell the Times of Israel that Trump pushed Netanyahu further toward a deal in one day than Biden did in a year:

A “tense” weekend meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff led to a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations, with the top aide to US President-elect Donald Trump doing more to sway the premier in a single sit-down than outgoing President Joe Biden did all year, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

Witkoff has been in Doha for the past week to take part in the hostage negotiations, as mediators try to secure a deal before Trump’s January 20 inauguration. On Saturday, Witkoff flew to Israel for a meeting with Netanyahu at the premier’s Jerusalem office.

During the meeting, Witkoff urged Netanyahu to accept key compromises necessary for an agreement, the two Arab officials on Monday told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity. Neither Witkoff nor Netanyahu’s office responded to requests for comment.

If true, that no doubt will anger some of the people who have demanded a more stalwart defense of a key US ally. Trump has been very strong on support for Israel's attempts to destroy Hamas after October 7, but he also prefers to have that war finished before he takes office. Did Trump force Netanyahu to take a deal that would return the war to a frozen conflict that allows Hamas to rebuild?

Perhaps not. Later in the same article, Arab negotiators admit that the current deal is the same one that Israel proposed in May -- one which the Biden team kept interfering with:

One of the Arab officials said that the three-phased hostage deal currently being finalized between Israel and Hamas is largely the same as the proposal that was proposed by Israel last May. ...

A third Arab official from one of the mediating countries argued that concerns of domestic political pushback in the middle of an election season kept Biden from putting more public pressure on Israel.

He pointed to a meeting Blinken held with Netanyahu in August after which the secretary announced that the Israeli premier had accepted a US bridging proposal for a hostage deal. Netanyahu also announced that he had accepted the US bridging proposal. The Arab official, along with a member of Israel’s negotiation team, told The Times of Israel that this was emphatically not what had unfolded in the meeting and that Blinken’s comments had thrown a major wrench in that round of talks, which ultimately fell apart.

The Jerusalem Post explanation of the deal does make it look very, very familiar at least. The deal will unfold in three phases, the first of which would trade hostages for prisoners at an unknown ratio and would last six weeks. The IDF would pull back to defensive positions but remain in Gaza and still control the Philadelphi Corridor. Phase 2 would have more exchanges and further pullbacks of the IDF; Phase 3 would exchange the rest for a full IDF withdrawal. That's essentially the same deal as in May, which Hamas held up and then scotched with its usual Hamas Hokey Pokey, helped along by the Biden-Blinken incompetency in the conflict.

Time has run out on the Biden-Blinken team, thankfully. Trump may have influenced the talks this time, but starting on Monday, Trump will take complete charge of the US side. That means that arms will almost certainly flow unobstructed to Israel and that Netanyahu will get more diplomatic cover to conduct the war as he sees fit. The window on this Israeli proposal from May is closing fast, in other words.

And reportedly, Mohammed Sinwar realizes it:

Officials in Jerusalem tell Israeli media that the deal is expected to be signed tonight or tomorrow, and that a joint declaration is anticipated soon afterwards. ...

“There is a breakthrough in the hostage deal negotiations in Doha. Hamas military leader in Gaza Mohammed Sinwar gave his OK,” Walla news cites an Israeli official as saying.

We'll see. This may well be real life, but until the hostages get returned, don't entirely bet against "fantasy."

Update: Media reports a few minutes ago claimed that the deal had been concluded. Netanyahu's office says not so fast:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says ceasefire deal with Hamas has still not been reached and that the final details were still being sorted out. That comes after multiple mediators had said Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza and the release dozens of hostages after more than 15 months of war.

That's because the terrorists tried to play the Hamas Hokey Pokey again:

The Israeli negotiating team was recently informed that Hamas decided at the last minute to make new demands - this time regarding the Philadelphi corridor, in contrast to the maps that have already been approved by the cabinet and American mediators.

Israel strongly opposed any changes to these maps, the source said.

An informed source told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Hamas found a "loophole" in the agreed-upon deal, with Egypt agreeing to amend the deal and "close the loophole" based on Hamas's demands in the latter stages and in coordination with the Israeli team, as per the Arab media report.

As I wrote earlier, don't count on this deal holding up until the hostages get released. And even if it holds up through Phase I, don't be surprised when Hamas reneges and demands a renegotiation at that point, too.