Takeaways From the Gaza Peace Ceremony

I don’t pretend to be an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and anything I write here today could evaporate tomorrow with a renewal of hostilities (which I think is eventually inevitable). I am grateful that the remaining Israeli hostages have been freed and are now back with their families. I do have a few takeaways from yesterday’s treaty ceremony in Egypt. 

What in the world were all those European leaders doing there, sharing the spotlight, particularly Keir Starmer of Great Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France, Pedro Sanchez of Spain, and Mark Carney of Canada? They contributed nothing to the peace process and the deal that Trump, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and company worked out. Those four in particular threw a monkey wrench into the process with their recognition of a Palestinian state, even after the horrors of October 7th, and even as Hamas continued to fight and hold hostages. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, that corrupt little bureaucrat, was also there, for whatever reason I cannot fathom. And of course, there was Recep Erdogan of Turkey and Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, sitting up front with Trump, but they were involved in the negotiations, so I understand that. There were many others, of course, but the above names stood out to me the most.

This was clearly Trump’s show, as demonstrated by how the other leaders stood in line to shake hands with him, kiss his ring, and get their pictures taken. In Israel, he is being hailed as a hero. Here at home, the Democrats and their stooges in the mainstream media are still trying to figure out how to react to all this. Trump is taking a victory lap, and there’s not much they can say or do to change the narrative. The cessation of the fighting and the release of the hostages is undeniably one of Trump’s greatest achievements, if not the greatest. Of course, neither Trump nor Witkoff will get the Nobel Peace Prize, just as Kushner never got the prize for the Abraham Accords during the first Trump administration due to the politicization of the award.

But will the peace last? Is this “peace in our time in the Middle East”? I guess that goes to the question of whether the Palestinians, particularly the Gazans, have learned their lesson.  The landscape in Gaza today resembles images of Berlin and other major German cities at the end of World War 2, as well as Japan’s cities, most notably Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tens of thousands of Gazans have died in the 2-year conflict, both Hamas fighters and civilians. What are the Gazans thinking as they trudge back to what is left of their homes? Are they thinking enough is enough? Are the survivors of Hamas, whose leaders have pretty much all been killed, really deluding themselves into thinking that they won this war militarily as they climb out of their tunnels? 

Rational people would decide that they have learned their lesson, but we are not dealing with rational people here. The Palestinians, with their well-oiled propaganda machine, which has fooled millions worldwide, are working with a 1,400-year religious mindset that the land-all of it- must be theirs. The idea of a two-state solution is a naive Western idea. Hamas may be decimated as a military force, but the murderous, hateful ideology of Hamas is still there. The only solution I see is for Israel to fix the intelligence failure that allowed October 7 to happen and remain so strong that Hamas and its backers cannot defeat them.