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| www.dailyalert.org SubscribeLarger Print/Mobile Search Back Issues | Jerusalem Center for Foreign AffairsDAILY ALERT | Thursday, February 6, 2025 | |
| In-Depth Issues: Trump's Gaza Plan: What Do Americans Think and Does Biased Messaging Influence Opinion? - Irwin J. Mansdorf and Tirza Shorr (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) President Trump has recently raised the possibility of "relocating" Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries while Gaza is "cleaned up." We tested two matched random groups of 255 Americans for their opinions on the plan. We also provided each group with an introduction that either was biased for the plan or against it. Prior to being presented with the plan, both groups were queried on their sympathy toward Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinians. Results showed strong sympathy for Israel versus Hamas but more nuanced sympathy when asked about "Palestinians, but not Hamas" and sympathy for "both sides" equally. The group that received the biased pro-plan message showed a considerable uptick in agreement for the plan than did the group that received an anti-plan message. Results indicate that Trump's plan potentially has substantial support in the U.S. and that messaging promoting it can bolster that support. Dr. Irwin J. Mansdorf is a senior fellow and analyst in political psychology at the Jerusalem Center, where Tirza Shorr is a senior researcher and program coordinator. Netanyahu Presents Trump with Golden Beeper at Washington Meeting (Jerusalem Post) Prime Minister Be njamin Netanyahu presented President Donald Trump with a golden beeper during their meeting in Washington on Tuesday. Trump responded by noting that Israel's beeper sabotage attacks on Hizbullah in September was a "grand" operation. U.S. Withdraws from UN Human Rights Council, Ends Funding for UNRWA (White House) On Feb. 4, President Trump signed an Executive Order withdrawing the U.S. from the UN Human Rights Council, which has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately. It also prohibits any future funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has consistently shown itself to be anti-Semitic and anti-I srael. See also Israel Announces Withdrawal from UN Human Rights Council - Ariel Kahana (Israel Hayom) Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar declared Wednesday that Israel will withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, aligning with the U.S. stance. Saar said the council systematically undermines Israel's diplomatic standing while protecting human rights violators. The council has passed over 100 resolutions against Israel, representing more than 20% of all council resolutions - a number that surpasses the combined total of resolutions against Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela. Trump Says He Left Instructions to "Obliterate" Iran If It Assassinates Him - David E. Sanger (New York Times) President Trump said on Tuesday that he had "left instructions" for Iran to be "obliterated" if its assassins killed him. Just after he was elected, the Justice Department indicted several men who it said had been heard plotting to kill Trump in September. One of the plotters said he was assigned to carry out the plan by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Experts say a president cannot leave instructions for military action after his death. That decision would have to be made by his successor. Follow the Jerusalem Center on: Facebook YouTube Most Palestinian Families Come from Immigrants from the Past Two Centuries - Dr. Harold Rhode (JNS) Prior to 1948, practically the only people who referred to themselves as Palestinians were the Jews. Modern Palestinian identity was largely invented in 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was created. Throughout history, family and tribal ties in the Middle East have often been defined by economic and trade networks rather than geographical borders. The concept of borders, as we understand them in the West, was irrelevant. Identity in the region has historically been fluid, shaped by social and economic relationships rather than by modern political boundaries. And they still are. In the 19th century, much of what is now the West Bank and Gaza was sparsely populated and underdeveloped. The Ottoman Empire sought to repopulate and develop the region by bringing in Muslim migrants from Albania, Bosnia and the Caucasus. In the 1840s, Egyptian forces occupied the region, prompting many Egyptians to settle there. Construction of the Haifa branch of the Ottoman railway linking southern Tu rkey to Mecca attracted laborers from Jordan and Syria, many of whom remained in the area. During the British Mandate period, as Jewish immigration increased, Arab workers from across the Jordan River streamed westward, drawn by employment opportunities and improved health care provided by the Jews. They did not perceive themselves as Palestinians. The historical connections between the people of Gaza, the West Bank and British Mandate Palestine are shaped by centuries of migration. They are not one people, but a hodge-podge of peoples with no prior connection to pre-1948 Palestine, who settled there during the past two centuries. In this context, Trump's plan to resettle the people of Gaza in other parts of the Muslim world fits in perfectly with the normal patterns of migration in the region. The writer, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Forei gn Affairs, served as an adviser on the Islamic world for the U.S. Department of Defense for 28 years. See also Egyptian Emigres in the Levant of the 19th and 20th Centuries - Prof. Reuven Aharoni and Prof. Gideon M. Kressel (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) A large part of the Palestinian Arabs are not indigenous to this area but rather immigrated from surrounding countries. Gaza Is Not a Victory for Hamas - Zina Rakhamilova (Jerusalem Post) Since the beginning of the recent ceasefire, Hamas and its supporters in the West are trying to convi nce the rest of the world that Hamas has achieved a "victory." Yet anyone with common sense understands that nothing about Gaza right now resembles a victory. Gaza lies in ruins, its infrastructure shattered. Hamas's leadership is crippled, half of its fighters have been killed. They are not victors; they are the architects of their own people's misery. Video: $8 Million Super Bowl Ad to Combat Antisemitism - Daniel Edelson (Ynet News) The Robert Kraft Foundation to Combat Antisemitism will return to the Super Bowl on Feb. 9 with an $8 million ad featuring rapper Snoop Dogg and former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who agreed to participate pro bono. USAID Is Funding Groups that Praised Oct. 7 Massacre - Mark Dubowitz and Ben Cohen (New York Post) In 2024, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) boosted its financial support for projects in Gaza and the West Bank, spending more than $200 million. The beneficiaries included local partners who praised the Oct. 7 atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel, such as Al Awda, with close ties to the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, whose president described the massacres as "a glorious day for the Palestinian resistance and people." USAID's governing bureaucracy stoked false Palestinian claims that Israel was engineering a famine in Gaza and routinely parroted the talking points of terrorist organizations. Mark Dubowitz is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Ben Cohen is a senior analyst. This Time We Have an Army - Galia Miller Sprung (Los Angeles Jewish Journal) I got up at 5:30 a.m. to meet my granddaughter Barr, who had been up all night taking turns as a stretcher bearer, carrying one of her soldier buddies on the traditional 30 km. "Stretcher March" the soldiers must complete before they are awarded the Homefront Command's Search and Rescue brigade's beret. While we waited in the rain and cold for Barr's company, my phone reminded me that it was also International Holocaust Day. It's difficult not to compare. But this time we have an army. Finally, I saw Barr. Another soldier took over her stretcher-bearer duties when she spotted us. It's difficult to hug a soldier dressed in full battle gear: tactical vest both front and back, helmet, M-16 rifle. How can you kiss a face with black, white and green camouflage paint? I say a little prayer of thanks and appreciation for all our soldiers and gratitude that I am here to see it. Search the Recent History of Israel and the Middle East Explore all back issues of Dail y Alert - since May 2002.Send the Daily Alert to a Friend If you are viewing the email version of the Daily Alert and want to share it with friends, please click Forward in your email program and enter their address.Support Daily Alert RSS Feed Key Links Archives Portal Fair Use/Privacy | News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:Trump Proposes U.S. Takeover of Gaza - Alexander Ward President Trump called for the U.S. to take long-term control of Gaza and for nearly two million Palestinian residents to leave for neighboring countries, a policy that left the idea of a Palestinian state in tatters. Trump said Tuesday alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, "I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East." (Wall Street Journal) See also Trump's Mideast Envoy Explains Trump's Gaza Proposal - Ashley Carnahan U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday in an interview that Gaza will be "uninhabitable" for at least 10 to 15 years. "Peace in the region means a better life for the Palestinians. A better life is not necessarily tied to the physical space that you'r e in today. A better life is about better opportunity, better financial conditions, better aspirations for you and your family. That doesn't occur because you get to pitch a tent in the Gaza Strip and you're surrounded by 30,000 munitions that could go off at any moment. It's a dangerous place to live today." Witkoff said, "I think [Trump] is telling the Middle East that the last 50 years of doing things was not a correct way of doing things, and that he's going to change it, because all of those iterations have not worked." (Fox News) See also below Observations: Transcript - President Trump Proposes an Alternative Future for Gazans (Roll Call)Trump and Ne tanyahu Leave Little Daylight between Them - Peter Baker Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got most everything he came to Washington for. President Trump made clear that he had no intention of pressing Netanyahu as President Joe Biden did. During their meetings, Trump indicated he would not try to stop Israel from continuing to wage war against Hamas. Trump recommitted to brokering a diplomatic rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, while dropping any support for a Palestinian state. He also released weapons held up by the former president. "If there ever was a demonstration of no daylight between Israel and the U.S., this was it," said Aaron David Miller, a longtime Middle East peace negotiator. (New York Times)President Trump Restores Maximum Pressure on Iran On Feb. 4, President Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) restoring maximum pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The NSPM directs the Secretary of the Treasury to impose maximum economic pressure on the Government of Iran, including by sanctioning or imposing enforcement mechanisms on those acting in violation of existing sanctions. The Secretary of State will also modify or rescind existing sanctions waivers in a campaign aimed at driving Iran's oil exports to zero. The U.S. will work with key allies to complete the snapback of international sanctions and restrictions on Iran. (White House)News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:2 IDF Soldiers Killed, 8 Wounded in Gaza in Weather-Related Accident - Emanuel Fabian Two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in Gaza Wednesday night when a military crane collapsed on their tent due to strong winds. (Times of Israel)Five Released Female IDF Soldiers Ask to Return to Duty Within two weeks after their release from captivity, the five female IDF soldiers who were held hostage by Hamas have asked to resume their IDF service, Israeli media reported on Tuesday. However, the IDF said it was still too early and that they need to rest and recuperate. (Jerusalem Post)Hundreds of Palestinian Terrorists Released by Israel Receive Monthly Salaries from PA - Itamar Marcus All 734 terrorists being released by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages have been receiving monthly salaries from the Palestinian Authority since their arrests. In total, they have received at least $141,837,087. This article includes a list of all 734 terrorists and the amounts each one has received in dollars. (Palestinian Media Watch)Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis: President Trump's Gaza Plan Trump's Gaza Plan: Negotiation 101 - Alex Winston President Trump has once again thrown a diplomatic grenade into the Middle East conversation. The proposal that envisions the U.S. developing Gaza immediately triggered widespread backlash. On the face of it, the plan is not remotely feasible. But Trump probably knows that, too. He's making an opening bid in a negotiation. This is "Negotiation 101," lifted straight from his 1987 book The Art of the Deal. In his world, you start with an extreme demand - one that shifts the boundaries of what was previously considered possible. Then, when the inevitable pushback comes, you negotiate down to something that, while far less extreme than your initial position, is still a big win. You aim for 100, knowing that landing at 50 is still a success. Trump' s record suggests that his goal isn't to occupy Gaza - it's to force neighboring Arab nations to take a more active role in solving the crisis. His assumption? That the shock of such a radical proposal will jolt Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf states into stepping up in ways they have so far refused to do. Trump may be forcing these countries to react - if only to reject his idea and propose an alternative. (Jerusalem Post)Trump Wants Regional Actors to Be Stakeholders in Peace in Gaza - Seth J. Frantzman President Donald Trump is pushing for a radical approach to the challenges in Gaza, rather than tinker away at old solutions that haven't worked. Trump may assume that 1.7 million Gazans probably won't want to leave Gaza. But if you propose such a radical policy, it's possible some countr ies in the region may realize the U.S. is serious and decide to approach the Gaza challenge with more candor. Many countries in the region have viewed Gaza as a hot potato, and they want nothing to do with it. This is one reason that Hamas has been allowed to rule Gaza since 2007. In retrospect, it's obvious that Hamas should never have been allowed to rule Gaza, but many countries didn't care enough to stop it. Hamas took control and for almost 20 years has waged endless wars that have destroyed Gaza. In retrospect, the whole region should have stopped this hell from materializing. Hamas infiltrated every aspect of life in Gaza to exploit it for war. In addition, Hamas secured partnerships with UN organizations, media organizations, medical NGOs, and other entities in its takeover of Gaza. Trump is proposing that all this will end now. It might be that Trump can secure a win here by shocking everyone into finally stepping forward w ith a solution. Trump's goal by floating his ideas may be to get countries to agree to be stakeholders in peace in Gaza - rather than just rebuild it again and let Hamas run it and destroy it again. (Jerusalem Post)Take Trump's Plan to Relocate Gazans Seriously, Not Literally - David Christopher Kaufman A truly novel solution - the proposed relocation of Gazans to other parts of the Middle East, as now suggested by Donald Trump - was immediately dismissed as offensive and unworkable. But nothing even close to a forced "transfer" is on the table here. As with so much in Trump-world, the trick is to take the president seriously, not literally. Focus on the essence of his messaging: that it's time for the Arab world to take responsibility for looking after people they profess to care about. The point here isn't that Trump necessarily wants to force Gazans from Gaza. Instead, mechanisms must be devised to allow Gazans who want to leave to at least be given the option of doing so. No one should be forced to live under the rule of craven Islamist fundamentalists who starve their own citizens of basic resources and use them as human shields. We certainly would not expect this from people in the West - so why do we demand it of Gazans? (Telegraph-UK)Critics Deride Trump's Idea, But What Are They Offering Palestinians? - Editorial President Trump's idea that the U.S. might relocate two million Palest inians from Gaza and then rebuild the strip isn't going to happen soon, if ever. But the idea does have the virtue of forcing the world to confront its hypocrisy over the fate of the Palestinian people. Note that Mr. Trump expressed admirable sympathy for the Palestinians and their plight. Gaza "has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it," he said Tuesday. Who could disagree with that? He went on to say, "we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this." Is his idea so much worse than the status quo that the rest of the world is offering? The famous "two-state solution," with a Palestinian state next to Israel, won't happen as long as Hamas still runs Gaza and could run the West Bank. The best the world can come up with is to let Gaza remain a hell-hole where Hamas will revive its reign of terror, and Palestinians who want something different will be tossed off buildings. (Wall Street Journal)Trump's Plan to Free Palestinians from Gaza - Elliot Kaufman President Trump shocked the world with his proposal to resettle Gazans in nearby countries. The real disturbance is to think seriously about what it would mean to put Palestinian lives first rather than sacrificing them to the lost cause of Palestine as their leaders always do. Each major Palestinian leader has preferred his own generation to suffer rather than consent to live alongside a Jewish state on any part of the Jewish homeland. This is the worst kind of nationalism, an eliminationist one that brings its people only misery. But Arab states hav e long indulged it. It relieved them of the burdens first of resettling Palestinians and then of starting and losing wars to annihilate Israel. The world plays along. UNRWA was founded in 1949 to resettle the displaced from the defeated Arab invasion of Israel. The Arab and Soviet blocs made UNRWA into a permanent international commitment to the lost cause. Palestinians are radicalized in UNRWA schools and kept on the international dole rather than encouraged to build institutions of their own. That's the purpose of the Gaza. Trump now proposes to do the job UNRWA never would. The scandal isn't that displaced Palestinians now could be "transferred" voluntarily out of Gaza; it's that they have been forced to stay there. When Palestinians tried to flee the war, as is their human right, Egypt forcibly closed the border - with the support of the international community. Their incarceration by UNRWA and Egypt is the brutal status quo, strangely unchallen ged until now. (Wall Street Journal)The Audacity of Trump's Gaza Plan - Jonathan Sacerdoti The Trump press conference was a disruption of long-entrenched, failed orthodoxies and the unveiling of a vision that dares to reimagine the Middle East in starkly different terms. For decades, world leaders have clung to exhausted formulas - peace processes built on illusion, agreements predicated on fantasy, and a willful refusal to acknowledge the fundamental realities of Palestinian rejectionism and terror. That era is now over. Trump unequivocally stated that the goal is not to reform Gaza, not to manage it, but to remove its population entirely. No more illusions of Palestinian self-rule, no more diplomatic contortions to accommodate an irredeemable sta tus quo. Trump's plan is not another failed experiment in Palestinian self-rule - but a move to dismantle the population that carried out the most brutal attack on Jews since the Holocaust and to relocate them elsewhere. This was an act of political theater designed to break the bubble of denial and intransigence. The old paradigm of a Palestinian state, a fixture of failed diplomatic orthodoxy, is now irrelevant. Yes to permanently ending Hamas and ensuring Gaza can never again pose a threat. It is a vision of finality - an approach that seeks to bring the conflict to a decisive and irreversible conclusion. It acknowledges the truth that Gaza, under its current governance and population, is a failed experiment that cannot be salvaged. (Spectator-UK)Trump Is Changing the Rule s of the Mideast Game - Amb. Michael Oren President Trump's plan for Gaza suggests a fundamental shift in U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The previous administration lacked a serious plan for demilitarizing Gaza. With a single dramatic move, Trump is rewriting the playbook. He recognizes that Gaza will remain a breeding ground for violence and war unless it is demilitarized. He understands that this cannot be achieved as long as Hamas remains in control. Perhaps most significantly, Trump is challenging what he sees as a long-standing Palestinian dependency on victimhood. Palestinians can stand amid Gaza's ruins and declare victory to the Muslim world while portraying their suffering to the West, but Trump isn't buying either narrative. Instead, he is offering them a chance to break free from this cycle. Tragically, the Palestinians - and much of the Arab world - will likely reject Trump's proposal outright. Bu t even if Trump's vision never materializes, he has fundamentally and irreversibly changed the conversation. By upending long-held assumptions and introducing radical new ideas, he has opened the door to creative diplomacy. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and Deputy Minister for Diplomacy. (Ynet News)Trump's Plan to Make Gaza Great Again - Jake Wallis Simons This morning I awoke to a WhatsApp message from my long-time friend in Gaza, whom I met during my time as a foreign correspondent: "Habibi, make Gaza great again :) Gaza is uninhabitable, so this is a great idea," referring to President Trump's plan. When we spoke by phone, he told me from Gaza City, "We survived the war but we will die from the rubble. This is the best solution for the people. Would you want to wait two-to-five years just for the rubble to be removed so your house can be rebuilt?" "Everybody I know, the people around me, feel the same as me. At least half-a-million will accept to leave, be happy to leave. We suffered for one-year-and-a-half. Also another ten years? Hamas has no support any more. Not like before. They destroyed us for nothing." Trump spoke of creating a "Riviera of the Middle East" and the tragedy is that the Palestinians could have done that for themselves. Gaza lies just 40 miles from Tel Aviv, the most liberal, innovative and wealthiest city in the region. If its citizens had not elected Hamas in 2006, and had chosen instead a path to peace, Gaza would be thriving today, with its extensive beaches and easy access to Israeli technology and support. But they selected the path of jihad and this is where it has left them. At long last, the Middle East has been presented with a bold plan and a bold vision that speaks to the needs of ordinary people rather than the corrupt ideologues who so shamefully lead them and their cheerleaders in the democracies. The writer is editor of the Jewish Chronicle-UK. (Telegraph-UK)Trump's Proposal for Gaza Dismantles "the Palestinian Struggle" - Ariel Kahana Even if not a single resident ultimately leaves Gaza, Trump's proposal to evacuate Gaza and rebuild it represents a historic achievement for the Zionist enterprise. It dismantles the concept known as "the Palestinian struggle ." One of the strongest leaders the world has seen made it clear that all these mind games, which have been driving humanity crazy for decades, are worthless. In his straightforward view, Trump stated something profoundly true: for almost 80 years, Gaza has produced only death and destruction. The time has come to dismantle and rebuild. All the narratives about "Palestinian land," and the "morality" in whose name one cannot speak ill of "Palestinians," do not interest him. Trump not only crushes the distorted morality in whose name hundreds of thousands in the West and on American campuses rallied to support Hamas's horrific massacre, but also establishes a different moral standard. He is essentially telling Gazans: "You celebrated in the streets on Oct. 7? You rejoiced over the murder of elderly people, rape of women, kidnapping of children, dismemberment, and burning families alive? Now you'll pay. Justice will be served." (Israel Hayom)Trump Is Right - Gaza's Future Depends on Breaking the Cycle of Destruction - Einat Wilf At the heart of President Trump's proposal lies an oft-overlooked fact: Gaza is not inherently doomed to fail. Its problems are not geographical, economic, or even logistical in nature - they are entirely political. The Gazans, and their sympathizers, have couched Gaza in terms of a hapless victim of circumstance for decades. Reality starkly differs. Gaza is a prime piece of real estate - a coastal strip abutting the Mediterranean, with fertile sands from the Egyptian Delta, proximal to ancient trade routes. The only problem Gaza has is the politics of destruction. Since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the leadership there used international aid to turn G aza into a military fortress embedded with terror tunnels and missile launch sites against Israel. Billions of dollars cascaded into Gaza from the U.S., EU, and Qatar. Much of it was diverted to armaments and terror infrastructure. If Gaza is to have a future, it has to start with a change of mind. The Palestinian notion of "return" - the idea that generations of Palestinians, including those born in Gaza, are refugees awaiting their rightful home in Israel - needs to be brought to a close. That ideological obsession underpinned the Oct. 7 attacks. The writer is a former IDF intelligence officer and Knesset member for the Independence and the Labor Party. (Jerusalem Post)Donald Trump Solves the Gaza Crisis - John Podhoretz To all those who've been screaming for 16 months about the "day after" in Gaza, here's the plan, says Donald Trump. Trump asserted the will of the U.S. as the world's most dominant nation in saying something must be done about Gaza. What must be done is it needs to be cleared and rebuilt. Who's going to pay for it are the fellow Arabs who have been "supporting" the Palestinians in order to keep the Palestinians far away from them. Are any of the other ideas being floated for the future of the area any less fantastical? There will be no Palestinian state if the residents of Gaza who mobbed the Jewish hostages with bloodlust in their eyes are the people who will form the political nucleus of such a state. And blubber not to me about the displacement of Gazans from their home. We've been told not that Gaza is their home but that it is a prison. Trump is offering Gazans a way out of prison; do t hey really want to stay in prison? Or does this mean it never really was a prison in the first place? (Commentary)Trump's Call to Resettle Gazans Could End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Alex Traiman President Donald Trump caused a geopolitical earthquake on Tuesday, doubling down on calls to resettle "1.7 or 1.8 million" Palestinians outside of Gaza. Trump has stated what should have been patently obvious to a normal observer: Gaza is completely uninhabitable, and its residents will need to be resettled elsewhere. If his suggestions come to pass, it will not only represent a "total victory" beyond even Netanyahu's wildest imagination but represent the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The reason Gaza is in this situation is because of Hamas's strategy to use its entire civilian infrastructure as its base of operations. Nearly every residential building, mosque, school and hospital was turned into a weapons storage depot or a tunnel entrance. The IDF destroyed every building used by Hamas for military purposes. The IDF accomplished this feat while moving nearly all of Gaza's civilian population out of harm's way. (JNS) Israeli Security The Path to Genuine Peace Requires a Decisive Outcome - Amb. Yechiel Leiter To achieve President Trump's goal of ending wars, in the Middle East we must end the current conflict differently than its predecessors. History teaches us that half-me asures and international monitoring mechanisms against terror organizations simply don't work. For Israel, a nation smaller than New Jersey, maintaining security buffers along its borders is not a luxury, but a necessity for survival. When Israel left Gaza in 2005, we hoped for peace. Instead, we got a terrorist state on our border. When we left Lebanon in 2000, we got an Iranian proxy army armed with 150,000 rockets aimed at our civilians. The lesson is clear: Our enemies, led by the Mullahs of Iran, interpret anything short of decisive Israeli victory as an invitation to prepare for the next round of violence. The path to genuine peace - the kind that prevents future wars rather than merely postponing them - requires decisive outcomes. Israel cannot leave Hamas standing any more than the U.S. could have left Tojo standing after his attack on Pearl Harbor, or al-Qaeda after 9/11. Netanyahu shares with Trump a vision of how principled strength can t ransform regional dynamics. Together, we can demonstrate that democratic nations can defend themselves while upholding their values. This is not just about Israel's security; it's about proving that civilization can triumph over barbarism. The writer is Israel's new ambassador to the U.S. (The Hill)Israel and the Emerging Trends in Syria - Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen The constant search by Middle East actors for new fighting opportunities lies in their fundamental perception of all situations of calm, even prolonged periods of apparent peace, as temporary. The parties view such phases not as peace but as truce periods during which they refrain from fighting. The Westerner, trying t o bring his own outlook to Middle Eastern dynamics, clings to the belief that even if a truce starts out as temporary, the parties involved will lose their desire to return to the fighting once stability has been established. The Westerner simply does not understand, or chooses to ignore, that these are people of faith. One does not negotiate over one's religious dreams, and one does not forget them. In the Middle East, nothing outweighs religious and national dreams. Those dreams never fade; they rather await the right opportunity. The rebel offensive in Syria teaches an important tactical lesson. As on Oct. 7, we saw the outbreak of rapid battle movement involving civilian vehicles, including motorcycles, SUVs and vans, in mobile and agile groups. No one who promises a demilitarized Palestinian state will be able to stop the Palestinians from purchasing motorcycles and SUVs. Israelis should give thought to the image of a raiding party on motorcycl es and jeeps breaking into Israel. Even the best intelligence experts had difficulty predicting the tsunami of the rebel assault that so swiftly toppled the Syrian government and its army. There is a great lesson here in recognizing the limitations of human knowledge. We cannot pretend to know or be able to control events that occur suddenly and unpredictably. Prime Minister Netanyahu wisely emphasized that Israel will try not to interfere in the new order being organized in Syria. However, Israel has an interest in influencing developments in southern Syria in the Yarmouk Basin, where, until recently, Shiite militias took part in efforts to smuggle weapons to the Palestinian Authority and towards the Kingdom of Jordan. By defensively penetrating the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, Israel's strategic purpose is to maintain Israeli control of the Syrian space in front of the border: to project Israeli military power onto the tr ends developing in Syria in order to create a position of influence and bargaining to secure Israeli security interests in the emerging system there. The writer served in the IDF for 42 years, commanding troops in battles with Egypt and Syria. (Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University)Observations: Transcript - President Trump Proposes an Alternative Future for Gazans (Roll Call) President Donald Trump and Israeli Pri me Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a press conference after talks at the White House on Feb. 4, 2025:Trump: "The bonds of friendship and affection between the American and Israeli people have endured for generations and they are absolutely unbreakable....Over the past 16 months, Israel has endured a sustained aggressive and murderous assault on every front, but they fought back bravely....What we have witnessed is an all-out attack on the very existence of a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland. The Israelis have stood strong and united in the face of an enemy that has kidnaped, tortured, raped and slaughtered innocent men, women, children and even little babies.""In our meetings today, the prime minister and I focused on the future, discussing how we can work together to ensure Hamas is eliminated.... Gaza...has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many deca des....We should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this, and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction and frankly bad luck.""This can be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, twelve. It could be numerous sites, or it could be one large site....The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative....They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony instead of having to go back and do it again.""If you go back, it's going to end up the same way it has for 100 years. I'm hopeful that this ceasefire could be the beginning of a larger and more enduring peace that will end the bloodshed and killing once and for all....And I have to stress, this is not for Israel, this is for everybody in the Middle East - Arabs, Muslims - this is for everybody....You can't keep doing the same mistake over and over again....They've tried it for decades and decades. It's not going to work. It didn't work. It will never work. And you have to learn from history. You just can't let it keep repeating itself."Netanyahu: "In Gaza, Israel has three goals: destroy Hamas's military and governing capabilities, secure the release of all of our hostages, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel. I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking - thinking that has failed time and time again - your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals.""Israel will end the war by winning the war. Israel's victory will be America's victory....Working together, we will win the peace....We can't leave Hamas there because Hamas will continue the battle to destroy Israel....You can't talk about peace...if this toxic murderous organization is left standing any more that you could make peace in Europe after World War II, if the Nazi regime was left standing and the Nazi army was left standing. If you want a different future, you've got to knock out the people who want to destroy you."Support Daily AlertDaily Alert is the work of a team of expert analysts who find the most important and timely articles from around the world on Israel, the Middle East and U.S. policy. No wonder it is read by heads of government, leading journalists, and thousands of people who want to stay on top of the news. To continue to provide this service, Daily Alert requires your support. Please take a moment to click here and make your contribution through the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.Daily Alert is published on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Unsubscribe from Daily Alert. | ||
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