Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no choice but to go along with a leap of faith, believing that President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the war in the Gaza Strip can work, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin. He believes that there’s little reason to think that Hamas will free the hostages—and surrender their arms and control of the Strip—even if Trump is offering them no alternative.
Tobin is joined in this week’s episode of “Think Twice” by JNS senior contributing editor and columnist Ruthie Blum, who believes that an end to the war with the “barbarians” of Hamas on Trump’s terms remains possible. Still, we shouldn’t call that “peace” if it involves releasing more terrorists in exchange for freeing Israeli hostages and believing that the Palestinians are ready to change.
While she is skeptical that Hamas would take this opportunity to end the war, the Trump plan doesn’t involve trust since nothing will move forward if all of the hostages are not freed first. Still, she feared that any deal that mandates the release of Palestinian terrorists from prison may lead to more bloodshed in the same way that the 2011 agreement that freed kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit led to the Oct. 7 massacre.
She also agreed with Tobin that the Trump administration’s faith in the goodwill of Qatar is a mistake, as the Gulf state funds terrorism and Islamist fundamentalism. Blum believes that businessmen like Trump and his Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, simply don’t understand Muslim fanaticism; they view the world solely through the prism of business deals based on mutual interests. They fail to realize that the war between Jews and Arabs is about far more than real estate.
Blum pointed out that those who claim that Israel can’t achieve its objectives by military means are wrong and that Netanyahu is right. If there is to be any progress toward ending the war, it is only because of the military pressure that Israel has exerted on Hamas. What will be needed for Trump’s deal to do more good than harm (as was the case with previous attempts to broker peace) is for him to stick to his word and let Israel “finish the job” of defeating Hamas if the terror group doesn’t agree to the deal or violates it afterward. That’s not what happened in the past when Israel made concessions to the Palestinians as part of the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.
Blum also sympathizes with Netanyahu when he tells his supporters to pipe down about extending Israeli sovereignty to Area C of Judea and Samaria, where Jewish communities exist. His priority must be to avoid alienating Trump and to show patience on the issue—because that is in Israel’s interests.
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