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| Celebrations in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv (JNS) |
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 7th 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.
Comments to this post can be made at Emes Ve-Emunah II where it is cross-posted
