Netanyahu and the Trump Peace Plan

Celebrations in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv (JNS)

I never lost confidence in the motives behind Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war tactics and goals - despite the almost universal condemnation of them by the left from all corners of the globe. Including left-leaning Democrats in the US and their willing collaborators in the media. Not to mention the left-leaning Israelis who never liked him to begin with. They have been merciless in their condemnation of the prime minister.

The ICC issuing a warrant for his arrest as a war criminal only added fuel to their fire, prompting Israel’s erstwhile international supporters to declare recognition of a Palestinian state — something that Hamas, the 21st-century version of Nazi Germany, openly applauded, thereby considering their Nazi-like atrocities of October 7^th two years ago a “success.”

Meanwhile, the left-leaning entertainment industry added its own sense of moral outrage to what Israel has been doing over the past two years. Many A-list actors have advocated boycotting Israel culturally. Not to be outdone, heterodox rabbis - who generally lean strongly to the left - have called Israel’s tactics (read: Netanyahu’s tactics) over the past two years a spiritual catastrophe.

An automatic corollary to vilifying Netanyahu is the vilification of the president. Their hatred for both Netanyahu and Trump is unconditional. No matter what either of them do, it is twisted into negative terms. Any talk of getting the hostages out or ending the war was dismissed as mere bluster because, they said, Trump was all talk and no substance, and Netanyahu had no real interest in ending the war or rescuing the hostages. His only interest was self preservation.

But as I said, I never lost faith in Netanyahu’s stated goals. I believed him. Nor did I believe that the president’s support for Israel was whimsical — dependent on the mood of the moment. I truly believed that both Netanyahu’s and Trump’s motives were genuine.

Well, guess what happened. A deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas that will secure the release of all the hostages. It is estimated that the surviving hostages will be released just before the holiday of Simchas Torah next Monday night. Netanyahu has agreed to pull back his troops to an agreed-upon line in Gaza, and hostage families are beyond overjoyed at this development. Calling for the president to get the Nobel Peace Prize!

The president managed to work out a deal supported by Arab and European leaders, as well as by Netanyahu and Hamas. If I understand correctly, even those Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for the hostages will not include any of the violent terrorists currently in Israeli prisons. A feat thought impossible just a few weeks ago, even by me. I never thought Hamas would agree. But they did. And the left-leaning critics who were certain Netanyahu would never pull back his troops were wrong too.

And the man who made all this happen is one of the most hated people by the left in American history. I have to wonder how they can possibly spin this into a negative. (But I am absolutely certain that they will.)

I could not be happier about this turn of events. I am overjoyed that the innocent hostages - who were so miserably treated by their Hamas captors - will finally be released after two years of pure torture. Torture that was barely noted by the mainstream, left-leaning media, which chose instead to focus only on blaming Israel for Palestinian suffering, as presented by Hamas’s so-called Health Ministry; its network of sympathetic reporters in Gaza; and a UN with a long history of anti-Israel bias.

I am happy as well for the families of these poor hostages, who will finally get to see their loved ones alive and help nurture them back to health — both physically and mentally. That will surely not be easy.

I am grateful that there will be no more blood shed by soldiers protecting their countrymen in Gaza. And I am also happy at the changed conditions for Israel, which — through the leadership of its prime minister — has managed to all but destroy the capacity of  Iranian proxies whose goal was to annihilate the Jews of Israel. They are now a shadow of their former selves. I am glad that the demise of Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad - an ally of Iran - was a byproduct of all this and is no longer the threat it was, and that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back by years. Iran is now focused on restoring itself as a relevant Middle Eastern power instead of pursuing Israel’s destruction.

I doubt that Trump will get the Nobel Peace Prize for this. But if anyone deserves it, Trump does. He has certainly done far more than the last recipient who got one for similar reasons — Barack Obama. But Trump won’t get it. He is too hated by the European nations, including Norway, which awards the Peace Prize. Nor will Netanyahu get any relief from being labeled a war criminal, despite the fact that his accusers have long since abandoned any pretense of impartiality when it comes to Israel.

So it won’t be a perfect ending for either Trump or Netanyahu, both of whom deserve far more credit than they are getting — and certainly not an indictment as a war criminal, as is the case with Netanyahu. But history will remember what he accomplished. They won’t care about a bottle of champagne or a few Cuban cigars he may have received as gifts, or that he made many political enemies. I believe he will instead be remembered as one of the most consequential leaders Israel ever had — right up there with Ben-Gurion and Begin.

As for Trump, the jury is still out on him in terms of domestic policy. But when it comes to foreign policy, he is on the verge of accomplishing what few thought possible: peace in the Middle East. And that will be his legacy.