. you are live in the cnn newsroom. my colleague kaitlan collins is in tel aviv. jim acosta is off tonight. thank you for being with us. we are continuing with our breaking news. emotions running high in israel tonight as a second group of hostages make its way back home. right now, these 13 israeli hostages ranging in age from 67 to just 3 years old are on their way to loved ones after being taken from their home by hamas seven weeks ago. at the same time, some 39 palestinian prisoners are returning to the west bank to large celebrations. you can see it there. up to the minute coverage of this second day of what is expected to be at least a four-day pause in the fighting between israel and hamas. kaitlan? reporter: yeah. it s all a major question as we saw tonight. it came down to the wire with the second phase of this agreement. it appeared for a moment that the deal might be off as there was a dispute between hamas and israel over whether or not israel was living up to
banana peel. this is going to be the true test of both kevin mccarthy and the republicans and their ability to govern. going forward, does a deal with white house concessions in areas they value does it just sort of encourage this thing going forward, even if it s not until 2025? chit looks like it won t be. does this show economic hostage-taking works? where a party can threat ton send the country off a cliff, affect the global financial system, and get what it wants? or at least a lot of what it wants. this kind of brinksmanship is dangerous. it s dangerous in american politics, it also sends a terrible message to the globe, the rest of the world. it s not the way a stable superpower ought to behave. and if our word can t be our bond and if people start to doubt us, wonder if we re a reliable partner, wonder if we re capable of delivering on our promises, are we steady enough to be global leaders?
but at the very least, it s a good ting that this is not coming up again next year, because next year is an election year in the united states. as irrational as everyone has behaved in the negotiations this year, you can just imagine how many more theatrics you would get if everybody s watching the poll numbers, if politicians are paying more attention to how they re posturing around the debt limit, how it plays for the election, the global economy, and policy goals they re trying to aim for. a very good thing this is not going to be a political football yeection year. you can imagine. does a deal with white house consensuses in areas they value just encourage this sort of thing going forward, even if it s not until 2025? does this show, you know, that economic hostage-taking works? where one party can threaten to send the country off an economic cliff and rock the global
so it s not a question of maximum pressure. it s staying essentially the way it is. at some point hopefully a deal for the good of millions of people, a deal will be worked out. well, what s going to happen is south korea will do that. no, i don t think the united states is going to have to spend. i think south korea will do it. i think china, i think frankly china will help out. i think that japan will help out. no, i don t see the united states spending a lot of money. you know, we have three hostages. how much money did i spend for the hostages? tom, how much money did he spend for the hostages? well, in what it cost us in terms of prestige and diplomacy and process, it was pretty expensive. one of the things that this proved is that hostage-taking works. the north koreans have really played this masterfully. they have gotten just about everything they want out of there and given up, well, nothing, frankly. other than to give us some rhetorical promises about what they might thi
maximum pressure over? it s going to remain what it is now. i don t want to use the term maximum pressure anymore because i don t want to use that term because we re getting along. you see the relationship. so it s not a question of maximum pressure. it s staying essentially the way it is. at some point hopefully a deal for the good of millions of people, a deal will be worked out. well, what s going to happen is south korea will do that. no, i don t think the united states is going to have to spend. i think south korea will do it. i think china, i think frankly china will help out. i think that japan will help out. no, i don t see the united states spending a lot of money. you know, we have three hostages. how much money did i spend for the hostages? tom, how much money did he spend for the hostages? well, in what it cost us in terms of prestige and diplomacy and process, it was pretty expensive. one of the things that this proved is that hostage taking works. the north korean