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[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
Donald Trump recently said he’s “making a decision” about whether to support the release of Marwan Barghouti. That phrase should freeze the blood of anyone who believes in justice, accountability, or truth.
“We’re going to be talking about that. We’ll be making a decision.”
Donald Trump on Barghouti, October 2025 press Q&A
Here’s the truth:
The decision doesn’t matter. The fact that this is even up for discussion does.
This isn’t some 3D-chess, dealmaker‑of‑the‑century scenario. This is where red lines are crossed and desperation is shown. Some topics should be an absolute no. This is one of them.
Meet Marwan Barghouti: The “Peace Partner” with a Kill Count
In 2004, Marwan Barghouti was found guilty by an Israeli civilian court of five counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder. He isn’t some distant figure issuing vague political statements. He is an operational commander of the Tanzim militia, the armed wing of Fatah. The court ruled that Barghouti directly authorized, financed, and coordinated multiple terror attacks during the Second Intifada.
Among the victims:
- Greek Orthodox monk Eleftherios Georgopoulos, ambushed and shot dead in Ma’ale Adumim while driving his car in 2001. His only “crime”? Wearing his priestly robes in a country Barghouti’s faction considered illegitimate.
- Yehudit Levy, a 45-year-old mother of seven, murdered by gunfire in Jerusalem in 2002 during a drive-by attack Barghouti’s operatives carried out in his name.
- Gadi Shemesh, a security guard, and Eli Dahan, a father of six, were killed in a terrorist shooting at a Tel Aviv seafood restaurant in March 2002. Witnesses described how the gunman opened fire indiscriminately on diners before calmly walking away. That gunman was sent by a Tanzim cell under Barghouti’s direction.
- Another attack claimed by Barghouti’s network left a security guard named Yosef Habi dead, shot in the head at close range at a gas station outside Giv’at Ze’ev. The killer fled to Ramallah, where he was celebrated by locals as a resistance hero.
And that’s just the beginning. The prosecution tied Barghouti to dozens of other attempted attacks, including failed car bombings, firebomb ambushes, and sniper operations, all directed at Israeli civilians. Phone records, intercepted communications, and captured operatives all pointed to the same coordinator: Marwan Barghouti.
“He is not a political prisoner. He is a murderer who sent others to murder.”
Israeli Prosecutor’s closing statement, Tel Aviv District Court, May 2004
This man wasn’t in the room planning theoretical resistance. He ran payroll for terror cells. He chose targets. He recruited teenage attackers. He made calls when it was time to pull the trigger.
Barghouti is Palestine and Hamas’s hero for a reason. He is a committed Jihadist with blood all over his hands.
This is the man some call “Palestine’s Mandela.”
No, this is Palestine’s Charles Manson. And Trump is “making a decision” on whether to help secure his release.
When the Price of Peace Is Justice
Let’s be clear: Trump isn’t alone. For years, Arab leaders and Western diplomats have floated Barghouti’s name as the “only leader” who could unite Fatah and Hamas. That logic is as old as it is sickening: reward the man with the most influence over violence, because he’s the one they’ll listen to.
“Releasing Barghouti is the only way to stabilize the Palestinian leadership and create a legitimate negotiating partner.”
European diplomat, leaked notes from Cairo 2023 summit
That’s not peace. That’s mafia logic. That’s “let’s give the capo a seat at the table, maybe then the shootings stop.”
What about the families of the victims? What about the laws that demand justice? What about the precedent it sets?
When convicted terrorists become your bargaining chips, you are no longer negotiating peace; you’re bidding on silence with blood-soaked currency.
Israel Has Said No. Why Won’t We Respect That?
Israel’s position has remained firm: no release. And they have every reason for it:
- The murders were proven in court with testimony and forensics.
- The victims’ families were promised life imprisonment.
- The release would empower terror factions.
And yet the pressure continues from Europe, from Qatar, from the Biden State Department, and now from Trump.
When an American leader publicly suggests he’s weighing the release of a mass killer to smooth political optics, he isn’t leading. He’s capitulating. He’s signaling that American diplomacy has a price, and the cost is always paid by the dead.
The Last Time They Traded Terrorists, We Got a Massacre
In the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one IDF soldier.
It was hailed globally as a “humanitarian triumph.”
But buried in the details was one name that would change history:
Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas butcher who would later orchestrate the October 7, 2023, massacre.
He had been imprisoned since 1988 for abducting and murdering Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel. He was a founder of Hamas’s internal security unit, responsible for torture, executions, and purges. That’s who Israel let go.
“The Shalit deal was not just a release. It was a strategic rearmament of Hamas.”
IDF Intelligence Brief, 2012 (declassified in part, 2024)
After his release, Sinwar quickly rose through the ranks, became Hamas’s political chief in Gaza by 2017, and masterminded the deadliest terror attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Yes, he is dead now, eliminated by the IDF in 2024, but only after October 7th happened. After women were raped, after babies were burned, after civilians were hunted and dragged into Gaza.
And yes, the United States backed that 2011 deal.
With full diplomatic support, White House praise, and pressure behind the scenes for “goodwill gestures” during a fragile negotiation.
Freeing Barghouti would repeat the same mistake.
Hamas has made its demands clear: they want Barghouti, and they want him alive. Why? Because he’s not just a symbol. He’s a future candidate.
Even from his prison cell, polls among Palestinians show Barghouti as the most popular political figure in the territories, consistently outperforming both Hamas and Fatah leadership. His approval ratings hover near 60%, far higher than Mahmoud Abbas’s, and his image has been carefully cultivated as a “martyr in waiting.” In the eyes of many, he isn’t just a politician.
They see a second Arafat. And if he walks free, they’ll see victory.
Trump Should Know Better, So Why Is He Entertaining It?
Trump wants to be “the Peace President.” He said it before he even had a deal. He declared victory in the Middle East while the bodies were still being buried. And now, he’s so obsessed with chasing the legacy and maybe even a Nobel Peace Prize, that he’ll do whatever it takes to keep the illusion alive.
Even if it means risking more lives.
Even if it means entertaining the release of a mass murderer.
But this isn’t 2017 Trump, the man who moved the embassy, cut off UNRWA, and walked away from every bad deal.
This is a new Trump: one so desperate to deliver something branded as “peace,” he’s willing to flirt with full-scale betrayal.
Because once you start negotiating with jihad, it becomes harder to say no to the next “small” ask.
But once you even consider freeing a convicted terrorist, whose victims can’t speak for themselves, you have lost your footing. You are no longer a defender of peace. You are a broker of betrayal.
There Are No Shortcuts to Real Peace
Real peace isn’t built on the backs of the murdered. It isn’t bought with the blood of the innocent. And it doesn’t come from deals that reward the very playbook Hamas has mastered: commit atrocities, take hostages, make demands, repeat.
Trump must say no. Not maybe. Not later. Not “we’re making a decision.”
Just NO.
If he doesn’t, it’s not a lapse or a diplomatic misstep; it’s a conscious surrender.
It will be a decision that chooses optics over bodies, rewards terror with legitimacy, shreds our alliances, and buries the pleas of victims under a pile of press releases.
If “America First” now means cutting deals that free killers for the sake of a legacy photo, then the republic’s soul is for sale, and we will not stand silent.
How about the Electric Cahir a final solution for violent Felons or the Firing Squad Lethal Injection or the Gas Chamber(Thats how they tool care of Airline Bomber John Gilbert Graham who killed 44 innocents on a United Airlines DC-6 back in 1956)Cold Blooded Killer don’t need and breaks
Yes, his execution, after conviction, would have eliminated the question.
All you say here is true and then some, What is the then some? October 7th would never have happened if Israel had not given work permits to the Gazan Muslims to spy on them and kill them.
Stop the deadly ALTRUISM towards Muslims. America and the West are committing suicidal altruism for the Muslims.
And the cry of altruism is heard though out the land again. Kilt Lifters for all. Hey T. I don’t think the suicidal Dems are going to stop being altruistic. Perhaps you should mount a campaign beyond chiding conservatives to fix your city and defeat MammiDammi before it’s too late, you astonishing bag-o-wind. It’s the Dems with the altruism issue.
It is very distressing that so many supporters of Trump refuse to see his capitulation to these countries in the Middle East supposedly committed to peace.
As a Jewish woman, I am completely horrified at the tactical betrayals by Trump regarding the safety and security of Israel.
It seems as if Trump is no longer acting as our President but instead as a business CEO attending to his already-negotiated deals with these multiple Middle Eastern countries. He leveraged the return of the hostages as a means of both controlling and mitigating any further military responses from Israel while Hamas has already read the tea leaves. They returned the living hostages but they are deliberately delaying the return of the dead in order to coalesce their power in Gaza.
This entire orchestration is an off-key symphony playing at the cost of Israeli lives both now and in the future. And how is Trump in any position of authority to dictate to Israel the release of this madman and mass-murdering architect of violence.
While chutzpah can offer benefits, it appears that Trump’s form of diplomacy is rapidly sliding into desperation and an authoritarian dictate to another sovereign nation. He is hellbent to achieve his goals regardless of both the immediate and longterm safety, security and stability of Israel.
Trump has facilitated a future in Israel with the very same terror-based violence. People simply do not want to admit his betrayal of the Jewish nation and people in order to receive approval from nations dedicated to our complete annihilation.
His is not a peace deal, it is a living abomination to G-d’s eternal covenant with our people and our indigenous homeland. Everyone can try to deny it on the altar of a brokered peace but it is yet another tragedy waiting to happen.
Here is an example of the best way to deal with Marwan Barghouti and Ham-ass, ……… “And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.
– KJV Bible, 1st Kings 18:40
Rewarding islamic terrorism in any shape or form only encourages more terrorism.
Excellent and truthful observations Ms. Cyrus. This is the telling narcissistic side of President Trump whose foreign policy, in some respects, lacks informed actions. His domestic policies are good, perhaps better than just good, but in terms of Israel’s situation, and his knowledge of Islam, he is sadly and dangerously lacking. In the long run, he will not pay the consequences of his ignorance, and his mandates to Israel, Israelis will pay the price. Muslims do not negotiate; they pretend to negotiate. They lie, manipulate and murder. They are irrational thanks to their history and to their political philosophy that masquerades as a religion: Islam. They cannot be argued, negotiated, or talked out of their faith and what it mandates: the subjugation of all of us everywhere who are not Muslim. (Something like communism which is just gangsterism dressed up as a benevolent idea until push comes to shove. At that point it becomes kill, kill, kill anyone in disagreement.) The record of both of these poisonous ideologies speaks for itself. If only Trump could see Islam for what it is.
Amazing what a free 747 will do to influence a politician. If Israel capitulates and releases this killer, then Netanyahu will not only be remembered for being the PM on whose watch October 7th happened, but will be remembered and villified for making the ‘deal’ with Hamas and doubly villified for releasing Barghouti. He won’t let it happen. Trump may say, “Bibi, bend over,’ but on this request Bibi must stand tall as the PM of Israel and say, “Hell no, Mr. President. That we will never do.”