ALEX TRAIMAN/
Barely two weeks after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will arrive in Washington as the first foreign leader to make an official state visit to the White House.
The invitation is a demonstration of respect and friendship to a key American ally and one of the world's longest-tenured and most accomplished leaders. More importantly, Netanyahu's visit signals the importance and strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship, which took a beating under the Biden administration.
The speed of the invitation may have come as a bit of a surprise to some, but like many other items on his policy agenda, Trump is wasting no time putting diplomacy into motion. The president has stated repeatedly that he wants the wars raging around the world to come to a close.
Even before stepping into office, Trump said there would be "all hell to pay" if the remaining hostages--including American citizens--held by Hamas and other Gazan terror factions were not released prior to his inauguration. To make sure that happened, the incoming president dispatched Special Envoy-designate Steve Witkoff to the region to negotiate a hostage release and temporary ceasefire.
Phase 1 of such an agreement was agreed to just days prior to Trump's inauguration, and the first three hostages were released the same day Trump was sworn into office. So far, over a dozen hostages have already been released by Hamas, with at least a dozen more living hostages set to be released in the coming weeks. Israelis are roundly celebrating the slow-drip return of the hostages, who have suffered over 15 months of cruel captivity.
Yet the deal is both imbalanced and unjust. Israel is releasing approximately 1,900 Palestinian prisoners in return for only 33 of the 98 hostages Hamas was holding when the ceasefire took effect. Many have blood on their hands and are serving life sentences
While phase one calls for a six-week ceasefire, the Israel Defense Forces has withdrawn from key positions throughout Gaza, including the Netzarim Corridor the army paved to divide north and south Gaza, which allows Hamas to regroup and would make the restarting of hostilities more complicated.
Hamas has consolidated its forces, established a new command structure following Israel's assassinations of its top leadership and recruited new fighters to its ranks. Now it is being bolstered with additional fighters released from Israeli prisons.
Phase 2 of the deal is intended to call for a permanent ceasefire and the return of all living hostages. Phase 3 would see all bodies returned and rebuilding efforts commence. Israel will likely be pressed to release even more murderers in exchange for the remaining hostages in both phases.
It is strongly believed that Netanyahu will impress upon Trump the need to resume fighting in Gaza. The surreal scenes of the hostage transfers so far demonstrate that Hamas remains in charge in Gaza, retaining a potent albeit heavily diminished fighting force.
As part of the ceasefire arrangement, hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been allowed to migrate from humanitarian safe zones in Gaza's south back to the once heavily-populated north, only to find that their homes and neighborhoods have been destroyed.
Many residents have just as quickly returned south as the level of destruction throughout Gaza comes into focus.
Over the past several decades the P.A. has refused to crack down on terror organizations in its territory, and continues to pay salaries to Palestinian terrorists sitting in Israeli jails. The P.A. has done nothing to lay the groundwork for peaceful coexistence with Israel and consistently incites terror in its schools, television and in public speeches.
Israel has insisted the P.A. cannot and must not be the answer in Gaza. As far as Israel is concerned, the P.A. and Hamas are two sides of the same coin.
So if Hamas is not in charge, and the P.A. cannot take over, who governs Gaza after the war remains a pressing question, one Trump and Netanyahu will try to answer.
Most important: Iran
For years, Iran has been developing an intricate network of underground illicit nuclear weapons facilities. Both the Obama and Biden administrations thought it best to lift sanctions and flush the Iranian regime with cash for its nuclear pursuits. Trump famously withdrew from the Obama-brokered 2015 Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and initiated a maximum-sanctions campaign against it, nearly bankrupting the Islamic Republic. However, this decision was reversed by the Biden administration.
Iran has provided funding and material support to Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. In addition, Iran has fired over 300 ballistic missiles, 100 cruise missiles and drones at Israel.
As Israel considered retaliating, the Biden administration urged Israel not to strike Iran's nuclear or oil facilities--the latter being Iran's economic lifeline. Trump for his part had said during his presidential campaign that striking the nuclear facilities should be Israel's first priority.
Whether Israel can successfully strike at all of Iran's nuclear facilities remains a major question. Some argue that Israel will require U.S. assistance to mount such strikes, while others argue that only the United States can possibly carry them out.
1 comment:
A certain person in Europa keeps close tabs on this meeting. The man with an image of himself chomping on the bit, getting to ride on a white horse, holding a bow and waiting for those magic words; two-state solution.
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