Checkmate
Events are moving so fast, no one knows for sure how this will play out. But as Walter Russel Mead (WSJ) notes, as joyful reunion videos of hostages reuniting with their families overwhelm the internet, there are five things we do know.
Hostages Home
1. Since 7 October 2023, a dark cloud has hung over Israel and the Jewish people worldwide since the atrocities. … The nightmare is over and the healing can begin.
2. Regardless of how badly this might sit with anti-Trumpers, only President Donald Trump could have made this happen, writes Mead.
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 (Trump) is a leader who bestrides the world scene like no other.
3. Benjamin Netanyahu, another controversial figure, is a major player in the history of the Jewish people.
In the WSJ, Meade compares Netanyahu, flawed, with ancient leaders (Samson and David) and modern heroes (David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan).
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.
4. Peace in the Middle East, despite Trump’s optimism, is elusive.
Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
At the summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, communiqués will be signed. However, writes Meade, 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.”
5. The Gaza accords – despite being a spectacular achievement for Donald Trump – challenges lie ahead. Mr. Meade explains.
The nihilistic Hamas 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.
Trump’s triumph over Hamas was his ability to “organize a coalition of realists against the pretensions of fantasists.” The Gulf Arabs need stability rather than the chaos in which Hamas has thrived. To realize their ambitions, the Gulf Arabs must develop the region so they can become the magnet for international money. By crushing Hamas, the Gulf Arabs would reduce the ideological appeal of Hamas, writes Meade.
“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.”
Walter Meade lauds Trump’s genius for building a stable framework among countries with different priorities and goals. The Europeans wanted to end a war that “agitated their immigrant populations and increased the risk of domestic terror.” Trump achieved a real accomplishment, for which he deserves the world’s gratitude and respect.
Although Meade emphatically praises Donald Trump’s achievements, he also warns of the difficulties in taking the next steps.
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.
