Preserving American Values

Trump sees himself as an international peace maker and covets the Nobel Peace Prize.  After the current Gaza cease fire and hostage deal was announced, Trump said, “At long last, we have peace in the Middle East.”  “The war is over.”

At the time, I wrote a Letter to the Editor of The New York Times saying, “What’s the big fuss about the current hostage deal? There have been several previous hostage exchanges.  There have also been cease fire agreements before.  But they always came to naught because of the intransigent hostility between the two parties.

“The same is true now.  The Qatar negotiator said that Israel and Hamas were not ready to discuss the hard issues that would lead to peace.  Nothing has changed.  And it is highly unlikely that this momentary respite will lead to both parties making the hard decisions necessary to make peace between them.

“There is nothing for Trump to be given credit for.  There is no momentous deal or movement.  And his peace plan gives Israel all Netanyahu wants but gives the Palestinians nothing but a return to normalcy—food, shelter, no war. (Which to them is no minor matter.) The plan would almost be a return to the status quo, except that some new Palestinian group would probably be in charge of Gaza.”

Move several months forward and indeed, there is no peace.  Israel and Hamas continue to skirmish, although the scale is greatly reduced.  Some aid has flowed to the Palestinians, but it’s been minimal; the humanitarian crisis has barely been affected.

We are in a situation where no one wants to say that they’re back at war, but neither party has any desire to move things forward towards peace.  I have said in the past that there will be no peace as long as Netanyahu and his allies are in charge of Israel and as long as Hamas holds power in Gaza.  

Only the Israeli people can get rid of Netanyahu through an election.  And only the Arab states can effectively get rid of Hamas; they have already stated that Hamas should lay down its arms and relinquish control of Gaza, but actions are needed: like withholding all funds and arms from Hamas.

In the meantime, the Palestinian people will suffer, both in Gaza and in the West Bank because Netanyahu and his allies see them as the enemy and have no respect for them.  And Hamas really doesn’t care about the people; it’s on a mission to destroy Israel, not to save the Palestinian people.