![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.reunion68.com\/Biuletyn\/img\/jns-1.png\")
<\/a>Hamas, not Israel, is bound to blow up Trump\u2019s plan<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\nJonathan S. Tobin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Two things can be true at the same time. U.S. President Donald Trump and his foreign-policy team deserve enormous credit for brokering a ceasefire that achieved the release of the final 20 living hostages held by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s also the case that much of what the administration is saying about implementing and maintaining the ceasefire is not merely unrealistic. It may actually be giving the Hamas terrorists the impression that they can get away without disarming or giving up control of Gaza and validating their claims that they have won the war they started two years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n The Trump administration has been sending mixed messages about the situation in Gaza since the first stage of the ceasefire deal it brokered was put into effect. On one hand, the president, as well as his advisers, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have been taking some well-deserved victory laps since the hostages were released. On the other, there is a strong contrast between the threats being issued by Trump about what will happen if Hamas doesn\u2019t disarm and a lot of what Witkoff, Kushner and Vice President JD Vance have said about the agreement to end the war.<\/span><\/p>\n The upshot of all this is the growing perception that there is a rift between the United States and Israel about next steps in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n The two countries may be allies and have interests that are closely related. But, as is always the case with any pair of sovereign nations, they are not identical.<\/span><\/p>\n As we sort out the various controversies that have arisen in the last weeks, the questions we need to be asking right now are not about the undoubtedly good intentions of the Trump team, or the resolve of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay as close to the Americans as possible while also defending his country\u2019s national security. Rather, they surround gaps between Washington and Jerusalem.<\/span><\/p>\n It is neither criticism of Trump nor an attempt to diminish the praise he has justly received for the hostage release to point out that now that the live captives and more than half of the dead bodies have been returned to Israel, the gap between the other goals the deal seeks to accomplish, and what is likely to follow in the coming weeks, months and years in Gaza, may be enormous.<\/span><\/p>\n It is just as important to point out that the unwillingness of the Trump team to honestly address that chasm between the expectations they have encouraged and reality may be a source of real conflict between the United States and Israel. It\u2019s also possible that the situation in Gaza that the U.S. now more or less owns will not only be a disaster, but will aid that element of Trump\u2019s coalition that is both isolationist and hostile to the Jewish state.<\/span><\/p>\n So, while the alliance is still rock-solid and Israel\u2019s strategic position may be more secure than it has ever been, the extent of what could prove to be a looming post-war fiasco in Gaza should not be underestimated. Far from being merely a complication in what is otherwise a brilliant piece of U.S. diplomacy, this situation could wind up bolstering the still marginal anti-Israel and antisemitic elements on the American right.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the dissension between the allies is, as JNS\u2019s Ruthie Blum has\u00a0pointed out<\/a>, doubtless the result of an effort by liberal media sources like\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0that are inveterately hostile to Israel. With its stories based on leaks from the White House, it is doing its best to foment tensions between the two governments at a time when they have actually been engaging in close and productive cooperation.<\/span><\/p>\n Still, as much as the anti-Israel media\u2019s motives are more than suspect, they wouldn\u2019t be able to publish such stories without the help of some of those in the Trump camp who dislike the president\u2019s pro-Israel policies. It\u2019s also accurate to note that some of the talk about the relationship from top U.S. figures like Witkoff and Vance has shown disturbing symptoms of moral equivalence between the \u201ctwo sides.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As much as friends of Israel have reason to be grateful to Witkoff and Kushner for their work in freeing the hostages, it\u2019s no good pretending that the framework they have created isn\u2019t rooted in mistaken notions about the nature of the conflict and fantasies about things that are highly unlikely ever to occur.<\/span><\/p>\n All decent people may hope that Trump\u2019s vision of a Gaza free of Hamas and ruled by entities\u2014whether Palestinian Arabs or well-intentioned foreigners dedicated to peace and rebuilding the Strip in a manner that will allow its inhabitants a better life\u2014is realized. But it\u2019s not too soon to point out that the chances of this happening are, to understate the matter, highly unlikely.<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/em>and other newspapers have covered the aftermath of the release of the hostages as if the main problem facing the United States in ensuring that the ceasefire holds is Netanyahu. The notion that Witkoff, Kushner and then Vance have been engaged in \u201cBibisitting\u201d to prevent the prime minister from wrecking their hard-won accomplishment is part of the conventional wisdom in Washington and among the foreign-policy establishment.<\/span><\/p>\n That narrative was strengthened by the passage in the Knesset of a first reading of a bill to extend Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria (aka \u201cthe West Bank\u201d). Vance bristled at the chutzpah of some right-wing Knesset members voting for something they\u2019ve long supported while he was in Israel, treating it as an\u00a0insult,<\/a>\u00a0in spite of the fact that Netanyahu opposed it and the measure isn\u2019t actually going to be legislated for a very long time, if at all.<\/span><\/p>\n Vance\u2019s response was reminiscent of then-Vice President Joe Biden\u2019s claim that he was insulted by the Israelis when a measure approving housing units in Jerusalem was allowed to proceed while he was visiting the capital in 2010. That spat was used by the Obama administration as an excuse for a round of Israel-bashing that did nothing to advance the cause of peace and much to encourage the Jewish state\u2019s enemies\u2019 belief that it was being abandoned by its sole superpower ally.<\/span><\/p>\n Trump even echoed Vance,\u00a0railing<\/a>\u00a0against the idea of annexation as violating the promises that he has given the Arab states.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet the notion that Israel is the obstacle to implementing the peace deal isn\u2019t just wrong; it\u2019s completely disconnected from reality. It is, after all, Hamas, the party that is supposed to disarm and give up control of Gaza, which has been openly carrying out mass killings of Palestinians it sees as political foes or dissidents. These actions make it crystal clear that the Islamist terrorists have no intention of relinquishing control of Gaza and that they are using the current period\u00a0 to rebuild, rearm and reestablish the terrorist state they ruled from 2007 to 2023. This is notwithstanding the fact that they are far weaker and in control of less territory than they were before they launched the orgy of mass murder, rape, torture, kidnapping and wanton destruction on Oct. 7 that began the war.<\/span><\/p>\n Nevertheless, the messages coming from the U.S. remain mixed. Trump may keep saying the right things about \u201cobliterating\u201d the terrorists if they don\u2019t do as he says. But his envoys continue to make noises about the ceasefire holding nicely and that they believe their \u201cpartners\u201d in Qatar and Turkey will help solve the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n Even Trump seems to have\u00a0swallowed<\/a>\u00a0the Kool-Aid about Qatar\u2019s being a good friend of the United States and a tireless worker for peace. That\u2019s in spite of the fact that the Gulf emirate is largely responsible for enabling Hamas to start the war and also spreading Islamist propaganda via its\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/em>\u00a0media outlet and by sponsoring and funding the Muslim Brotherhood.<\/span><\/p>\n The above is troubling in and of itself. But even more disturbing is the way the U.S. team, and most particularly Vance, continues to\u00a0speak<\/a>\u00a0of Hamas\u2019s disarmament being accomplished via an international security force made up of contingents from various Muslim and Arab countries, but not Americans, and even to claim that the pro-Hamas United Nations might also be involved in some way.<\/span><\/p>\n One doesn\u2019t need to be a pessimist to observe that such a force being able or willing to take on Hamas is nothing more than a fantasy. Arab governments may dislike Hamas and wish to be rid of it, but the chances that any of them would actually take on that job themselves are about as close to zero as one can get.<\/span><\/p>\n The same is true of any belief that a renewed flow of billions in foreign aid into Gaza will not be misused,<\/span><\/p>\n The only ones who can deal with Hamas are the Israel Defense Forces. Yet if, as he has seemed to suggest at times, Trump gives the green light to Israel to finish off Hamas, that will not only end the ceasefire. It will also effectively blow up the entire process that Witkoff and Kushner and the rest of the U.S. team have labored so hard to create.<\/span><\/p>\n Israelis understandably dread the prospect of the war restarting and the casualties that the IDF would suffer in any campaign to eliminate the Hamas cadres that have benefitted from the respite the ceasefire afforded them. But most understand that it may be necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet it would, despite Trump\u2019s tough talk, be a terrible blow to his administration\u2019s foreign-policy objectives. And even with the best of wills on both sides of the U.S.-Israel relationship, that is going to cause problems. It is why Hamas is betting that Washington will opt to let it stay where it is rather than blow up Trump\u2019s signal achievement.<\/span><\/p>\n Either way, the tension over a renewed war or a failure to enforce the Trump plan\u2019s points about disarming Hamas and replacing it in Gaza with what is likely to be an equally mythical government of apolitical Palestinian technocrats is going to create problems for the U.S.-Israel alliance that won\u2019t be easily papered over. Among other things, it will be fodder for those heretofore marginal elements on the right that are already growing louder with their resentments about Israel and Netanyahu.<\/span><\/p>\n Those in both countries who value the alliance are going to have to place their faith in two factors.<\/span><\/p>\n One is Netanyahu\u2019s good judgement in knowing how and when to say \u201cno\u201d to the Americans when it is necessary\u2014an exercise in which he has been forced repeatedly to engage with friendly and unfriendly American governments over the last three decades.<\/span><\/p>\n The other is Trump\u2019s good faith.<\/span><\/p>\n There is every reason to believe that he means what he says about eliminating Hamas and being willing to support the use of force to do it. Though his political opponents have continually predicted that he would betray the Jewish state, he\u2019s done the opposite over and over again during the course of his times in office, building a record as the most pro-Israel president ever to sit in the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet too many of those who work for the president seem invested in fantasies about Hamas, the Palestinians, Qatar and Turkey, rooted in naive beliefs about genocidal Islamists having the same hopes and dreams as Americans, Israelis and the people of the West. They don\u2019t. And, sooner or later, that dismal fact is going to blow up the peace plan that Trump is so proud of. When this happens, we need to hope that he and his foreign-policy team are able to divest themselves of the same sort of foolish arrogance that characterized the beliefs of their predecessors in the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations about the Palestinians wanting peace and being willing to give up their century-old war on the Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n As much as the hostage release should be celebrated, history didn\u2019t end when they were liberated. And even an indomitable force like Donald Trump can\u2019t wish away the Palestinian desire to destroy Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em> Hamas, not Israel, is bound to blow up Trump\u2019s plan Jonathan S. Tobin Dubious comments expressing moral equivalence and trust in an international force to demilitarize Gaza are at odds with the president\u2019s tough talk about the terrorists. A Hamas terrorist in Gaza City after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, Oct. 11, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[33,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125306"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125322,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125306\/revisions\/125322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDubious comments expressing moral equivalence and trust in an international force to demilitarize Gaza are at odds with the president\u2019s tough talk about the terrorists.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
![](\"https:\/\/me.jnsi.org\/uploads\/2025\/10\/F251011ALH011-1320x880.jpg\")
A Hamas terrorist in Gaza City after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, Oct. 11, 2025. Credit: Ali Hassan\/Flash90.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThe expectations gap<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Myths and insults<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Hamas intentions<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Fantasy security force<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Faith in Trump<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/me.jnsi.org\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Jonathan-S.-Tobin-480x480.png\")
Jonathan S. Tobin<\/strong> is editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, a senior contributor for The Federalist, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS \u201cThink Twice\u201d podcast, both the weekly video program and the \u201cJonathan Tobin Daily\u201d program, which are available on all major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won more than 60 awards for commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"