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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.”
The UN Security Council’s adoption of Trump’s 20-Point Gaza Plan is being sold as a diplomatic win. But behind the headlines lies the same fatal pattern that has undermined U.S. strategy in the Middle East for decades: Western leaders keep treating jihadist movements as if they can be appeased, incentivized, or negotiated into normal statehood.
The result is predictable.Jihadist groups expand, moderates collapse, American allies lose confidence, and U.S. deterrence erodes in the region, because the jihadist Muslims have patience. They can take temporary losses that leave them standing with time and resources to rearm, as they are implementing a 1,400+ year Muslim ideology.
President Trump wants stability in the Middle East and a secure foundation for its strategic economic corridor linking the U.S. to India through the region to counter China. To do that, he must stop pretending that the Arab-Israeli conflict is a technical problem that can be solved by better engineering. It is an ideological conflict driven by actors who see concessions as opportunities rather than compromises.
That is why the most important, and most overlooked, dimension of this moment is simple:
The U.S. cannot afford another round of appeasing jihadist movements. And America’s interests are best served by fully supporting Israel’s right to do whatever is necessary to eliminate them.
Trump’s plan lays out strict prerequisites for hypothetical Palestinian statehood:
- Hamas must disarm;
- Gaza must be demilitarized;
- A new government must replace Hamas;
- International monitors must enforce compliance;
- The Palestinian Authority must “reform” into something functional.
These conditions will never be met, not because they are unreasonable, but because they contradict the underlying ideological realities of the jihadi Muslim goal to destroy Israel.
For decades, Jihadi Muslim organizations and international institutions have built up the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA into a political culture around martyrdom, glorification of violence, and rejection of Israel. That is in addition to the Iranian and Qatari support of Hamas. Polls of Arab Muslims in Gaza, Judea and Samaria after October 7 showed overwhelming support for the Oct. 7th massacre. These aren’t fringe sentiments; they are the majority of the populace.
The U.S. cannot base regional policy on a population or leadership class that sees mass murder as legitimate resistance.
Israeli journalist Tzvi Yechezkeli tells a story in his recent book that explains America’s failures in the Middle East better than any think-tank report. After toppling Saddam Hussein, General David Petraeus held a celebratory meal for local tribal leaders inside Saddam’s palace. The food was local, but the guests refused to eat. Confused, an American officer asked why. One leader replied, “We are confused. Did you win or lose?”
The officer insisted America had won. After all, they were dining in Saddam’s palace.
The tribal leader answered with brutal clarity: “In our culture, if you win, you rape the women and expel the population from the liberated land. Since you did neither, we don’t understand who actually won.”
Years later, after the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq had empowered Iran and plunged Iraq into chaos, the American officer met the same Iraqi leader again. The leader asked the same question: “So now — who won?”
And this time, the officer admitted the truth: the tribal leader had understood the regional power dynamic far better than the U.S.
This is not about endorsing such norms; it is about recognizing that misunderstanding them leads to catastrophic American policy. And this is a tricky concept for Western-educated people to internalize.
Trump’s core regional goals are clear:
- Secure stable trade and energy routes
- Consolidate alliances with moderate Arab partners
- Block Iranian expansion and influence
- Prevent the rise of transnational jihadist movements
Every one of these goals collapses when the West signals that jihadi terrorism is politically rewarding and not punished in the language of the Arab Muslim world.
The message sent by entertaining Palestinian statehood in Trump’s 20-point peace proposal, approved by the United Nations, is precisely the wrong one: jihadi violence pays.
American attempts to stabilize the region have been undermined by treating jihadist groups, or governments that enable them many times in the past. We only need to learn from history.
The U.S. tried it with the Taliban. It tried it with the Qatari-supported Muslim Brotherhood.
Every time, the result was a strategic setback.
Repeating that pattern around Gaza would be catastrophic for everyone, especially US interests across the Middle East. There is only one country in the region that has consistently fought and defeated jihadist organizations without blinking: Israel.
When the U.S. needs intelligence, deterrence, missile defense testing, counter-terror doctrines, or regional stability, Israel supplies it. When the U.S. needs boots on the ground to eliminate jihadist forces, Israel does the fighting.
When the U.S. needs to reassure Arab partners that Iran will not dominate the region, Israel’s strength is the only credible guarantee. Saudi Arabia failed in taking care of the Houthis and could not take care of Iran, so Israel instead was relied upon to do both.
A weakened Israel means a strengthened Iran, emboldened jihadists, and destabilized Arab allies.
After the IDF eliminates Hamas and demilitarized Gaza, as no international force will even attempt to do, the real question is not diplomatic but strategic: Will Gaza be rebuilt for the same jihadi population of Gazans that overwhelmingly supported the massacre of October 7?
If the answer is yes, then Gaza will produce the following October 7, as the jihadis will just patiently wait to rearm for the post-Trump era or until the world is focused on other problems.
And America will face the next Hezbollah, the next ISIS, or the next Iran-proxy state controlling a strategic coastline that endangers its economic strategy. Allowing that outcome is not only suicidal for Israel, it is also reckless for U.S. interests.
For the U.S. to secure its strategic goals, and for the region to stabilize, the path forward is clear:
- Hamas must be eliminated entirely, not managed, contained, or negotiated with.
- Gaza must remain permanently demilitarized under Israeli control.
- A jihadi supporting population that openly supports mass atrocities cannot remain in Gaza and remain a threat against Israelis in the future.
- Israel must resettle Gaza with Jewish communities, as a civilian presence is what ensures military success.
This is not ideology. It is a strategic reality. Appeasing jihadist movements has failed every time the U.S. has tried it. Empowering Israel has succeeded every time.
If the U.S. wants to project strength, secure its alliances, and anchor a new regional economic order, it must stop indulging diplomatic illusions that reward terror.
A strong Israel with a free hand against jihadist actors in the region is not just good for Israelis. It is essential for America.
Avi Abelow is the host of The Pulse of Israel daily video podcast and the CEO of the 12Tribe Films Foundation, which produce media content highlighting Israel’s biblical, historical, and strategic importance to the Jewish people and the world. He is the 2025 recipient of the Ari Fuld Project’s “Lion of Zion Award”.
I still would like to know why those creatin’s hide their faces all the Time Who are they?
Most of the EU countries have already enthusiastically capitulated to the creation of a “Palestine” terrorist state, and Trump seems on his way to accepting one in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria, given his stern, abrasive warning against Israel annexing the latter two Jewish territories.
Those who make up Hamas will not respond to reason or logic. They do , at times fake that they can be reasoned with , but it would inky be a ploy of Islamic deception ,Taqiyya, as an insidious method to the jihad against Israel, and the West.
For Western leaders base their methods on a false premise , which is a already explained , that Muslim terrorists are rational enough that they be honestly be reasoned with.
The only lanuage that they really are able to understand is that of being on the receiving end of a very strong power of military might. As the third US President , Thomas Jefferson , had , so rightly written ‘With every barbarous people…force is law.”
Trump’s core regional goals sound reasonable. The President must
always walk a balancing wire to keep Americans out of endless
regional conflicts in the Middle East. BUT clamping down on jihadists
in the region is indeed not only essential for Israel – it is essential for
America.
Because of the deadly totalitarian threat of Islam.
Right after the pre-Thanksgiving murder and wounding of National Guard
troops by a Muslim in the United States – about 400 pro-Hamas protestors
rampaged through city center in Philadelphia and burned piles of
American flags while waving Palestinian flags and shouting condemnations
of Independence Day. A day later -only two days ago – the same type group
gathered in Times Square in NYC – only this time there was a loud protestor
in the center wearing a keffiyah and a mock suicide vest on which he played
with the wires. I’ll bet there were many such hideous demonstrations in other
parts of the country.
Islam only has a toehold in America thus far – though it is gaining a foothold
politically. And look what is already happening. Jihad murder at Thanksgiving.
Jihad murder in New Orleans 2025 on New Year’s Day. To save America from
the savagery of Islam, the President must also allow Israel to save itself – by
eliminating jihadists like Hamas.
Brilliant article. Trump should be told to support Jews living in Judea and Samaria too, for the same reasons. Trump wants not only peace in the region, but a safe trade route with India. So the more peaceful Israel expands, the better for the trade route he wants.
Trump and his advisors, which now include Hamas-supporters Qatar and Turkey, are returning to the old playbook: support for a “reformed” PA, a foreign-trained police force, massive ongoing aid, reconstruction, and a “path to statehood”, irrespective of Israel’s interests or better judgement.
Unfortunately, the only solution to Gaza, the one that would prevent another war started by Hamas or a related group, is the one the international community will not consider: resettlement. The writer notes the majority, not a fringe, of the population supported the October 7 massacres, and remain committed to a “forever war” against Israel. And because the people of Gaza see the release of thousands of fighters, the massive flow of aid, the readiness to rebuild, the affirmed “path to statehood”, and the willingness to negotiate with Hamas, tells them that, in fact, after two years of war, they have won. That is exactly the wrong lesson they needed to absorb.
So they will never accept a peaceful relationship with neighboring Israel, their ever growing population cannot sustain itself, thus requiring ongoing international assistance, and whatever is rebuilt will turn back to rubble in the next war. Enough is enough. If one starts a war and loses, territory is often lost. They need to lose it all. Let them find and build homes somewhere else, among their Arab and Muslim brethren.
Arrogance and pride undermine men and Trump is more than intelligent enough to read the Quran and understand what it says. Yet, it seems he has never done so or acquainted himself with the Arab-Farsi populations in the Middle East and the deeply engrained tribalism of both their individual and collective cultures. This bespeaks arrogance, since who in their right mind goes to war without knowing the enemy being fought!
The whole western mindset has been infected with a criminal aversion to facing those who are evil psychopaths without any conscience. Their governing “religious” books all are founded upon the unmitigated hatred of the other and the other is defined as all who are not Muslims.
Yet, the west fails to study their Ottoman Empire which ruled huge swaths of land with the conquered countries under Islamic dictates and the jizya tax for 600 years.
Quite frankly, whatever achievements this President or any others have had with their strategic plans for our country, there is no country more aware of the middle-eastern mindset than Israel.
Our war college, soldiers and high-ranking officials–both military and civilian, including President Trump would gain immeasurably from such a thorough education. In his ignorance, President Trump has already made egregious missteps that have very negatively affected Israel and his dealings with the Saudis, Qataris and Al Shaara of Syria are bad-omens further facilitating their entry via business deals into the fabric of our country.
Trump’s blustering has also taught Hamas that he talks trash but doesn’t always follow through in what he’s said and they are using it advantageously in rearming for their future conflicts.
It is unconscionable for Trump and his administration to continue any further lunacy. Israel is our only steadfast ally in the Middle East and what he is doing will not be without consequences for all Jewish people and the Nation of Israel.
Mamdami: His administration may inspire renewed belief in public service.