"Mr. Trump’s genius was to find a framework within which these different powers with their different priorities could work together toward their common goal. It is a real accomplishment and deserves the world’s gratitude and respect."
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trumps-triumphal-march-5bb61e77?mod=opinion_lead_pos8
Trump’s Triumphal March
But the core cause of the conflict hasn’t been and perhaps can’t be resolved.
ET
Even by the standards of Donald Trump’s larger-than-life second term, Oct. 13 looms large. The release of the last living hostages from their inhuman and indefensible captivity, President Trump’s speech to the Knesset, and his presence shortly afterward in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, at a global summit that only he could convene were extraordinary.
It is much too soon to tell what it all means. Events are still moving quickly, and it will be months or years before the results can be fully assessed. But as joyful videos of hostages reuniting with their families flooded the internet, we know five things about what just happened.
The first is that the hostages are home. The dark cloud hanging over Israel and the Jewish people worldwide since the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, has lifted. There is mourning for the dead, horror at the survivors’ suffering, and gratitude for the heroism of those who gave their lives in Israel’s defense after the attacks. The nightmare is over and the healing can begin.
The second is that only Mr. Trump could have made this happen. No other living politician could have reassured Israel, threatened Hamas and patched together a broad Arab coalition the way he has done. Mr. Trump has his shortcomings, and even he wonders if he will get into heaven, but he is a leader who bestrides the world scene like no other.
Third, Benjamin Netanyahu has cemented his place in the history of the Jewish people. He has his flaws and has made his share of costly mistakes, but the same can be said of ancient leaders like Samson and David as well as modern heroes like David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan. Mr. Netanyahu imposed his leadership on a country that yearned to reject him, brought order to an unruly coalition, and combined flexibility of means with steadfastness of purpose to bring Israel’s greatest and most harrowing war to a triumphant conclusion.
Fourth, despite Mr. Trump’s optimism, the Middle East hasn’t yet entered an era of peace. At the summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, communiqués will be signed, but the core cause of the conflict hasn’t been and perhaps can’t be resolved. The existence of a Jewish state in the predominantly Muslim Middle East presents an unendurable civilizational and religious affront to so much of the region’s population that Israel has had to become an armed camp to survive. And the Israel-Palestinian conflict is far from the only one in the Middle East. Ethnic and religious tensions have ripped Syria and Lebanon apart. Jihadist ideology is resurgent in much of the region. Even so-called moderate Islamism, as in Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, refuses to repudiate groups like Hamas.
Fifth, while the Gaza accords are President Trump’s most spectacular triumph to date, his biggest international challenges lie ahead. Hamas (like its backers in Iran) was and is a nihilistic force. It was the enemy of every Arab government in the Middle East. It had no positive program for the people it ruled, and its political goals were utterly impractical. Its tactics were as revolting as its methods were brutal. That a movement so deranged and misguided could command such wide support among the world’s restless youth reflects in part the careless sentimentalism of people whose genuine concern for the Palestinians blinded them to the cynical and bloodthirsty duplicity of Hamas. And of course the virus of antisemitism, to which half-educated minds seem peculiarly vulnerable, had its part to play. But the capacity to incite Greta Thunberg to join a flotilla isn’t real international power.
Mr. Trump’s triumph over Hamas came from his ability to organize a coalition of realists against the pretensions of fantasists. The Gulf Arabs want stability in the region so they can develop their economies and attract international investment without the perpetual upheaval and chaos on which Hamas thrives. They also want Hamas to suffer the kind of crushing defeat that would reduce its ideological appeal among their own citizens. Israel wants security for its people. The Europeans want an end to a war that agitated their immigrant populations and increased the risk of domestic terror.
Mr. Trump’s genius was to find a framework within which these different powers with their different priorities could work together toward their common goal. It is a real accomplishment and deserves the world’s gratitude and respect.
But the next steps will be harder. The Russian and Chinese governments, even when misguided, have a rationality and consistency that Hamas never did. Hamas dug tunnels. Russia and China build nuclear weapons.
The skill, flexibility and courage that Mr. Trump demonstrated in his campaign against Hamas will stand him in good stead in the competition with Russia and China. But it remains to be seen whether this president and the country he leads are ready for the sterner tests to come.
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