That’s What Friends Are For
The last couple of weeks have been emotionally taxing, if nothing else. The realization of a major goal of this instalment of Israel’s war of independence — the return of 20 living hostages — is monumental. We of course had help.
And there’s the rub.
None of this happens without US intervention. President Donald Trump put the significant weight of the Oval Office behind forcing Hamas to concede its only — pardon the pun — trump card. He did what no other US president has ever done: he allowed Israel to set the conditions for peace. It is an extraordinary about-face in US Middle East policy.
That weight did not come cheaply. The release of 2,000 prisoners is higher than a lot of people here are willing to pay. It encourages the enemy to continue to kidnap, and it makes us more vulnerable to attack.
But there was no way that we could not make that deal. Because that is what friends do. Trump has other things going on in this region. He also has a limited period of time. In order to keep others in the area on board with anything Trump has in mind – business, regional peace, whatever – he will have to placate them as well, and that means pressure on Israel. One example was the idea that civilians in Gaza would be temporarily evacuated to places like Jordan. It was very quickly no longer discussed.
The problem with this is that Jewish lives are at stake. That is a hard argument to refute. The best I got is that this U.S. administration is committed to ending this war, and to Israel winning it. Every other president would push to end the fighting by pressuring Israel to stop, and satisfy demands of the enemy. An unconditional surrender is what I and many others would want to see now. I was not very happy when the deal went through. But I did understand why we agreed, and let us not forget – there is no denying how sweet it is to have the hostages home.
On a speculative note, that unconditional surrender situation is not out of reach. When Israel finally decides to act against Hamas’ violations of the agreement, neither Trump nor the hostages are in the way. It is entirely possible that buddies Bibi and The Donald considered this same possibility.
The phrase “peace process” was used for a long time to describe negotiations that basically demanded that Israel capitulate to terms dictated to it, by both friend and foe. This version of that process is just beginning. We will have to wait to see where it takes us.
