The Trump Light is Green – Go!

by Emanuel Shilo, editor of Besheva weekly , translated by Hillel Fendel.

1. Why oh why, many are asking, did we agree to enter into negotiations with Hamas and consent to give them almost everything they wanted at such an early stage of the deal?

In general, it is hard to avoid the impression that the push to reach a deal right there and then, and the cave-in to the pressure of the media and the "Bring Them Home!" groups, caused our negotiators to wage the negotiations in a rushed and most unprofessional manner. Perhaps we would have done a lot better had we sent to Qatar and Egypt not the senior figures in our security establishment – Gen. Nitzan Alon, Shabak chief Ronen Bar, and Mossad head Dedi Barnea – but seasoned and savvy businessmen or lawyers.

The price is unfathomable. What could have justified the exponential jump from the fairly reasonable price we paid for the release of some of our hostages at the end of 2023 and the outrageous price we are now paying? The gap is huge, in terms of the number – and quality – of terrorists we are releasing for each hostage, the number of ceasefire days that the enemy will use to rearm and rebuild itself, and of course the dangerous precedent of our concession of strategic assets that we won with the blood of our soldiers.

2.  But beyond that: Is it not obvious that when and if one has to deal with a cheat and liar, one must ensure that he leaves sufficient assets in his hands to ensure that the other side carries out its part of the deal? Why did we agree to pay in full even before receiving the promised goods? How could we have allowed the Gazan population to return to northern Gaza, and agreed to withdraw our forces from the Netzarim axis, at such an early stage of the deal? We could have agreed, in the first stages, to call a ceasefire, to release terrorists, and to allow even more humanitarian aid – while retaining the cards that were so important to Hamas, such as the return of the population to northern Gaza and the IDF's withdrawal from Netzarim, until after the all our living hostages were freed.

Another elementary rule is that our enemy is not to receive live terrorists in exchange for dead bodies; only dead terrorists are to be given over in exchange for our corpses. This principle - one of the conclusions of the Shamgar Committee that was established in 2008 after the Gilad Shalit deal to set guidelines for future hostage exchanges - is both just and smart, for it motivates the abductors to preserve the lives of those they have kidnapped. For some inexplicable reason, in exchange for several corpses in the coming days, Israel will release all the women and minors who were arrested in Gaza ever since Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the massacre.

Certainly bringing deceased Jews to proper Jewish burial is a great Torah commandment and value. But it cannot justify the future danger to lives inherent in the release of murderous terrorists. We have in our hands many "valuable" terrorist corpses, such as that of Yichye Sinwar. If the negotiations had been handled correctly, all of our dead hostages could have been attained in exchange for Sinwar's cadaver, with perhaps a few more thrown in for good measure. It's true that ultimate justice requires that his remains be lost forever in the sea, as we did with the ashes of Eichmann and the Americans did with Bin-Laden. However, for the sake of Jewish burials for our dead hostages, we could have compromised on that point. 

Of course, it's not only the negotiators' fault, but also that of our Prime Minister and other government minister who approved the deal. We can be happy at least that from now on, Minister Ron Dermer will replace the failed negotiators and head our negotiating team.

3. Another missed opportunity – so far – was the threat last week by Israel's friend U.S. President Donald Trump that "all hell is going to break out" if Hamas did not release at least the three hostages it promised to free this past Saturday. Given that the "excuse" for the current agreement was pressure by the incoming Trump Administration, there is no reason that Trump's support for a strong Israeli reaction should not be utilized now to extricate ourselves from this terrible deal.

That is, now that this past Saturday noon did not see a full release of all the hostages, we have a green light from Trump to attack Hamas again with abandon. With full American backing, a new Defense Minister who thinks differently than his predecessor, and a new Chief of Staff, this is the time to wage the ultimate offensive that will achieve the war aims of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages – as well as the new goal of transferring the Gazan population to other countries, in the spirit of the Trump vision.

[Ed. note: We now know that Hamas has agreed to release six living hostages this coming Saturday, in addition to four corpses beforehand and another four afterwards. It is therefore far from certain that the writer would call for an immediate Israeli attack under these circumstances.]

4. The war objective of dismantling the Hamas regime should be done in three stages. First, Israel must take over all of Gaza and establish a military administration that will control, among other things, the distribution of food and humanitarian aid to the populace. When the Gazans are no longer dependent on Hamas for food, and are no longer threatened by Hamas, they are more likely to cooperate with Israel and provide information for the release of the hostages and the capture of the Hamas leaders.

Secondly, any Gazan who wants to leave should be helped to do so. Pres. Trump has laid his prestige on this initiative, and will be of great assistance to this end.

And thirdly, the IDF must wage war on all fronts in Gaza simultaneously. The only agreement that can ever be made with Hamas is its surrender, in which all the hostages, dead or alive, are returned safely. If we allow Hamas to end this war with a victory of any type, the chance that it will return all our hostages is microscopic, for they serve to guarantee that Israel will not continue to attack and destroy Hamas.

If we muster up the strength, courage and resourcefulness to resume the military effort with a new spirit, there is a very good chance that Hamas will reach its moral breaking point very quickly and will agree, from lack of choice, to hand over all the hostages to us as part of its surrender.

Hypocritical Alternatives to the Trump Gaza Plan

by Dr. Ron Breiman, former Chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade are appalled by President Trump’s proposal to empty Gaza of its Arabs. “Trumpsfer,” they mockingly call it. They view it as impossible to implement, but continue to champion their favorite lie – the “two-state solution” – which is even less implementable.

They conceal the fact that Trump has no intention of forcibly expelling anyone. He rather intends to offer incentives to the Gazans to encourage them to emigrate. The freedom to live anywhere one likes is one of the most basic and important human rights - but the hypocrites who want to prevent this plan are seeking to deny it to the Gazans. 

These two-faced critics repeat over and over their mantra regarding "The Day After" – which is really their codename for their dangerous dream of a Palestinian state in the heart of western Eretz Yisrael. And they wish to pave the way for it by having our IDF soldiers put their lives on the line to destroy Hamas just so that the Fatah-run, terrorist-supporting Palestinian Authority can take its place. And all this comes precisely as they reject outright the Trump initiative for "The Day After," which is geared to encourage the terrorist-supporting, and worse, population of Gaza to begin new lives elsewhere.

What is their problem with the Trump plan? They say it's too coercive and racist, and immorally uproots people from their land. They forget, of course, that they themselves were very much in favor of a similar program to forcibly evict a myriad of Jews from their homes in Gaza and northern Shomron just 20 years ago. Many of them also favor the transfer of another few hundred thousand Jews so as to make room for their beloved two-state solution. They would be well advised to wake up to their hypocrisy and keep quiet.

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade, by comparing modern-day Israel to Nazi-era Germany, are guilty of belittling the Holocaust. The racist, Messianic left-wing camp has no right to even begin speaking against Israel's shining democracy!

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade claim to have compassion for the Arab "refugees" living in squalid refugee camps – when in fact we are talking about the fourth generation of those who left Israel back in 1948. By no means can they still be considered refugees. Instead of being resettled, as is the case with refugees around the world within two generations [according to the official UN definition for refugees who are not Arab Palestinian], they continue to benefit, decade after decade, from the generosity of the anti-Semitic UNRWA organization. The "camps" they live in are generally full-fledged cities, and the IDF would be well advised to stop using the term "refugee camp" (R.C.) altogether.

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade would have us forget that in 1948, there were not only Arab refugees, but also Jewish refugees – those who had been forcibly expelled from Arab countries such as Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and others, beginning immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel. Some 650,000 of them arrived in Israel destitute and truly homeless, and immediately began a process of rehabilitation and acclimatization. Yet the hypocrites condemn Trump's nonviolent proposal for the Gazans.

What Type of Investigation?

Speaking of those whose hypocrisy is their trade, out of their desire to topple the Netanyahu government at any price, they demand a public commission of inquiry – something that doesn't even appear in the Law of Commissions of Inquiry – to investigate the failures, faults and mishaps that led to the current war. However, they are not coming to the public debate on this matter with clean hands. A genuine investigation must look deeply into the following:

a.     How to ensure that such a catastrophic event as Simchat Torah-October 7^th not ever be repeated – and not how to simply find those who are guilty, and especially Bibi Netanyahu. There are those whose only goal is to ensure that Netanyahu leaves public life, and as ignominiously as possible. The inquiry must therefore be carried out by professional investigators who enjoy the public trust; its members can certainly not be appointed by Judge Yitzchak Amit – who recently and controversially took on the position of Supreme Court President – who does not enjoy such public confidence.

b.    How the concept of giving gifts to the enemy evolved. These include, specifically, handing over parts of our homeland under the Oslo Accords, and giving money to Hamas. In addition, why was arch-terrorist Arafat and his successors granted the role of peace-maker, and why did we feel the need to purchase quiet from Hizbullah and Hamas?

c.     It must also investigate the plethora of new evidence that has been amassed over the years regarding the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin, thus shedding light (or darkness…) on the circumstances of the murder and the motives of the murderer.

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade have not seemed to notice, or care, that there are politicians in Israel who wear suits, and others who wear judicial robes. Most unfortunately, the latter operate most zealously and aggressively to erode the public trust in them – trust that is so very important for a judicial system. They might want to check every once in a while to see if possibly the only ones standing behind them are those who wear similar robes to them.

Best Trip Ever: Netanyahu in Washington

by Avi Greentzeig, former editor of the Kav Itonut chain and Hadrei Hadarim website, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Just over a week ago, when Prime Minister Netanyahu began an important trip to Washington as the first foreign leader to visit newly-reelected President Trump, the media here was rife with warnings: "Trump Demands that Israel Stop the War," "Trump Doesn't Like Netanyahu," and so on.

Over-zealous reporters rushed to tell us that the one-on-one meeting between the two would last "only 15 minutes," and pompous commentators in the TV studios explained that Trump would exact a high price from Israel. First and foremost, they warned us that Trump doesn't like wars and that Israel would not be permitted to continue its campaign to destroy Hamas.

And then came Trump.

In an unforgettable press conference before reporters from all over the world, Trump smashed to smithereens 100% of the prognoses, musings, nonsense and lies that had been heard here in the preceding days. The leader of the world gave Israel more or less every possible thing it could have asked for – and then added a bonus.

Not only did the president not hint in any way or form that he has any intention of restricting Israel, he actually made it clear that as far as he is concerned, Israel can renew the war and finish the job of cleaning out Gaza. He then added the words that shook up the world: “We should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and … build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza… The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip [and] we'll own it…"

This little addendum that he stuck in was one that, had it been uttered five minutes earlier by an Israeli, would have led to a police investigation for possible incitement, ordered by Attorney-General Gali Bahrav Miara. Just ask former MK Michael Ben-Ari.

Even as we debate, justifiably so, exactly what the chances are that Trump's Gaza plan will be actualized, we must remember that its very announcement grants Israel some important gains. For one thing, it means that the U.S. has reversed the extreme anti-Israel policies (in some areas) of the Biden Administration - which leads in turn to a reduction of international pressure upon us. The Biden term's point of departure was that even given that Israel had no other choice after Oct.7^th, it is still a war criminal country. From this followed the halt of U.S. armaments to Israel, as well as strong American pressure to increase "humanitarian aid" to Hamas/Gaza. This led to the bizarre scene of the installation of a pier in Gaza, under American auspices, for the benefit of "innocent" Gazans.

Trump has changed the American perspective. As of now, the Gazans – whether because they are "unlucky," as Trump said, or because they are a bloodthirsty, murderous gang – must be moved aside and sent away. From now on, every discussion starts with that point of departure. If the Saudis or the Qataris, or even Hamas itself, want to soften the decree, it will be up to them to make an acceptable offer.

And then also came Iran. I've seen that there are many in Israel's nationalist camp who were disappointed that Trump did not declare outright war on Iran, or something close to it. But the truth is that when Trump said he would rather negotiate with Iran than go to war with it, he gave Israel even more than it needs regarding the Iranian nuclear threat. To elaborate:

Israeli thinking is that when we hear about "diplomatic understandings" or a deal with Iran, what immediately comes to mind is the Obama era. But with Trump, it's different: When he presents a diplomatic option, he is not referring to a temporary freeze or dubious understandings – but rather something that will put a total and absolute end to Iran's nuclear aspirations.

For one thing, Trump has already signed an order directing his Secretaries of State and Defense to do everything necessary to drive Iran’s oil exports to zero. In addition, he said clearly: “If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them." Basically, Trump is simply telling the Iranians to destroy their own nuclear reactors, so that Israel doesn't have to. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Now that Netanyahu has returned from Washington, he can get back into the Israeli routine of petty coalition fights and wasted courtroom time about years-old articles on the Walla website. It is therefore worth remembering, briefly, the gap between what the media here originally expected and the reality - which includes "small" achievements in America such as the imposition of sanctions on The Hague, the launch of an official campaign against anti-Semitism on campuses, and another weapons package for Israel worth a billion dollars.

It seems that we can sum up very simply: This was one of the most successful, if not the most successful, trips to Washington, D.C. of an Israel prime minister. Its welcome results will accompany us for many years ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.

Trump's Golden Deal

by Dr. Meir Seidler, Senior Lecturer in the Jewish Heritage Department of Ariel University in the Shomron, translated by Hillel Fendel.

This past Tuesday evening, I set myself down in front of the TV and internet screens, and prepared myself for a long night.

The last time I remember doing something like that was when I was a boy and my parents gave me special permission to stay up to watch the legendary late-night championship fight between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier. And here it was, over 50 years later, and it was happening again.

This time, too, I watched and listened up to the end, jumping from one channel to another internet site and back again. I started with my favorite station, Reshet Bet, the news and talk station of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. It has a large selection of broadcasters who enjoy frustrating and angering me and my fellow nationalists. And since, like most Israelis, I like to get angry, I listen to Reshet Bet a lot. This particular time Reshet Bet was producing a special Trump-Netanyahu summit broadcast.

The atmosphere its broadcasters emitted was one of depression, something between extreme sourness and heavy mourning. The main topic discussed for many minutes at the beginning was Netanyahu's "betrayal" of Biden. That is, Trump had said that, in contrast with Biden, he himself supported Israel absolutely and without reservations – and Netanyahu did not come out in Biden's defense! Yes, I'm serious: The Reshet Bet journalists felt that the most important thing to talk about at this time was why Netanyahu didn't have a good word for Biden. In any event, the real news – the Trump-Netanyahu meeting and subsequent press conference – soon pushed even the critical topic of Netanyahu and Biden to the back burners, and the real show began.

And what do you know? Trump took the whole world by surprise. The plan that he came up with was something that we really hadn't thought of. He explained, perhaps three times, that the reason he wanted the U.S. to essentially border Israel is that the world can't go on making the same mistakes again and again, when all they lead to is more war and more suffering. When you think about it, what he said was totally logical. War, ceasefire, rebuilding, rearming, war, ceasefire, rebuilding, rearming, and so on, over and over. What business that wants to remain competitive would ever adopt a business model like that, one that has failed time after time?

Countries from all over the world have invested large fortunes of money in what has been called, in accordance with the best Orwellian tradition, the "peace process." These monies ended up supporting not housing and reparations, but only one thing: Arab aggression that has become increasingly more brutal and has brought upon us never-ending rounds of war. One round barely ends before the next one appears on the horizon. Just in the last 15 years we have seen Operations Cast Lead, Pillar of Cloud, and Protective Edge, then the fighting accompanying the 2021 Israeli-Arab revolt, Operation Summer Rains, and more.

And now comes along Donald Trump with a vision that no one thought of; he himself could not have imagined it up until possibly a year ago. His creative plan is to turn the Gaza Strip not into the 51^st state of the United States, but something close: a beautiful shoreline front of American-built and American-owned hotels, where "anyone who wants to" can live, presumably after having been vetted for terrorist backgrounds and the like.

And here must be said something that has not yet been said outright, but appears to me to be quite obvious: The Trump Gaza Plan will include the establishment of an American military base offshore of the Mediterranean Sea (or perhaps on the beach). This explains why Trump is pushing this plan so enthusiastically. It's not because he has become a Messianic evangelical who wishes to help Israel even more than Israel itself asked for. He's still the same businessman he always was – but now he is more creative and has the resources of a superpower in his pocket. This is a golden opportunity for the United States to improve its strategic status in our region. It's the kind of thing that happens once in a century – and it happened precisely when Trump was elected President with his Make American Great Again program atop the agenda. How wondrous are G-d's ways!

The U.S. military base will benefit from a friendly neighborhood, and of course will leave plenty of space for a tourism paradise on the beach. All this will supply the "thousands of jobs" that Trump promised – and there is no doubt that he will give priority to Israeli workers over Arabs, who are liable to turn hostile at any given moment.

This is also what stands behind the weakest link in Trump's plan: the transfer of all or most of the residents of Gaza to other countries. But even this part of the plan can become realistic. Given the tremendous interest that the U.S. has in implementing this tremendous strategic upgrade, and also the no-less tremendous aid that American provides Egypt, it is very likely that a solution will be found for the transfer. This is true especially when the countries of the region wake up to the tremendous economic potential for everyone when the dollars start pouring in. Egyptian and other workers will be glad to receive American salaries in order to build the grandiose American project that will take shape here. This is a dream that with G-d's help can and will come true!

We can only hope that in the framework of this unexpected plan – and of course given the most recent developments sparked by Hamas' threats and Trump's bellicose response – all the hostages will be freed before it's too late. Hopefully, the leaders of Hamas will be made to realize that they have no hope of remaining alive if they do not release the hostages. We can only pray that this works out, under the guiding hand of the Leader of History in Whose hands are placed the hearts of kings (see Proverbs 21,1). May it be soon!

What Will Be the Netanyahu Legacy?

abridged from an article by Besheva Editor Emmanuel Shilo, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Israel's Prime Minister can either extricate himself from the second stage of the hostage-ceasefire deal that brings defeat upon Israel – or he can be remembered in infamy as he who sought to teach the world how to defeat terrorism but ended up teaching the terrorists how to defeat Israel.

Clarification: As the English version of this article is being prepared, the world is in a tizzy following President Trump's announcement that he wants to deport most of the Gazan population, with the United States taking over, owning, and rebuilding the Gaza Strip. This article deals with Netanyahu's stark choice between defeating the terrorists and caving in to them – a choice that could become moot if Trump has his way.

1.       Israel is paying a very heavy, multi-faceted price for its agreement to release thousands of terrorists in exchange for some of our tortured captives from Hamas captivity. The first issue, not at all to be sneezed at, is that it strikes a blow at justice and morality. When cruel murderers are sent free to joyous victory celebrations instead of being executed, or at least spending the rest of their lives in jail – the injustice cries out to the heavens. It is evident in the renewed suffering of the victims' families, the celebrations in our face of the terrorists' return, the emasculation of our justice system's activities to convict them, and in the apparent wasted energies of our soldiers who endangered themselves or even lost their lives in capturing them.

2.       But even graver is the danger that the Israeli populace faces with the freeing of these bloodthirsty animals from their cages and their return to the hunt. It has been said before and must be emphasized again: The Shabak has shown that some 80% of the terrorists freed in the 2011 Shalit deal returned to their terrorist ways – and have murdered nearly a dozen Israelis since then. This doesn't include the massacre of 1,200 Israelis initiated and led by Yichye Sinwar and other terrorists released with him in the Shalit deal. Israel thus saved one soldier at the price of ten other Jewish lives, including the three kidnapped youths in Gush Etzion in June 2014, and others.

Oct. 7^th, of course, also led to the abduction of 250 Israelis, which led in turn to the current release of thousands more terrorists. Thus, the mistakes of the Shalit deal are being catastrophically felt today – and who knows when the mistakes of the current deal will be similarly felt?

In 2008, a special secret committee, headed by the late Chief Justice Meir Shamgar, sought to set clear guidelines and limitations on the release of terrorist prisoners. However, its conclusions remained secret and were not implemented, and we thus ended up paying exorbitant prices for our hostages not only in 2011 but again in 2025. The simple principle of not encouraging future abductions by refusing to give in to the abductors' demands, as manifest in the Talmudic law that "captives are not redeemed for more than they are worth," is simply overlooked time and again – with tragic results.

3. But the price is even heavier than that. While some say that additional terrorists on the streets make little difference given that those who wish to cry out Allahu Akbar and kill Jews are not in short supply – they are not taking into account that these specific terrorists who are being freed have gained many skills in organizing attacks that they would not otherwise have easily acquired. They are thus a qualitative reinforcement. The example of Sinwar proves that among them are military leaders whose potential danger to Israel is inestimably greater than that of regular terrorists recruited off the street.

And even furthermore: Our deterrence capabilities suffer greatly, of course, whenever terrorists are released in this manner. Today, any terrorist who wishes to murder Jews – for the sake of Allah and heavenly delights, or for a life-long salary, or for fame and glory, or for all of the above – knows that even if he is sentenced to many life sentences, he will one day be freed in some kind of deal. This loss of deterrence is itself something that encourages and increases terrorist attacks against Israelis.

Those who clamor to Bring Them Home! at absolutely any price, and those in the media who promote their cause – do they not realize the future dangers they are pushing us and themselves into? Do they not realize that every other possible alternative must be exhausted before we take this perilous path? Our compassionate Jewish hearts go out to our tortured brethren in Gaza, but whatever happened to our intelligent Jewish brains that are usually able to learn from the past and calculate several steps ahead?

4. As if all the above isn't bad enough, we are now paying an even higher price, if that can be imagined: If the next stage of this agreement goes through, we will actually stop a war forced upon us before our war objectives have been fully achieved.

We are actually teaching our enemies that if they want to defeat us, all they have to do, Heaven forbid, is to capture a few soldiers or civilians, hold them in torturous conditions, reveal nothing about their fate, wage a psychological war against us, and just wait for public campaigns to force us into giving in to their demands. What's to stop them from demanding that we withdraw from the security zone in Lebanon, or from other areas that they desire, or from all of Judea and Samaria, or from Jerusalem? They could even demand that we give up our nuclear capabilities. Once this precedent has been set, who's to say how far it can be taken?

5. Throughout the first 15 months of this war, Prime Minister Netanyahu showed impressive strength in standing up to the pressure of the Biden Administration. Yet he caved in to the Trump Administration even before it took office. This failure shakes our confidence in him as one who, despite his share of the responsibility for the Oct. 7^th travesty, is able to lead us to full victory.

Minister Betzalel Smotrich and his Religious Zionism party remained in the government and did not overthrow it, simply to ensure that the war would be resumed after the current first phase of the deal, for the sake of defeating and dismantling Hamas. [Again, this was written before Trump's announcement on Tuesday regarding his plans for Gaza, as explained above. – HF] But given all the pressures that will be so heavily exerted to continue the deal so as to achieve the release of the remaining hostages, alive or dead, the chances are small that the war can be resumed.

Netanyahu can either be remembered as one who learned from his errors and led us to brilliant victory, or as one who, after having sought in his youth to teach the world how to defeat terrorism, ended up in his old age teaching the terrorists how to defeat the State of Israel. In the coming days, he will have to make this choice.