Blessed Are the Peacemakers 

No doubt about it. This past week has been historic for the world and a personal triumph for President Donald Trump.

Hezbollah/Hamas Wrong

Karl Rove, in the WSJ, tells readers about the help the president received that bolstered his victory. It came from his enemies. Iran thought its nuclear facilities were impenetrable. “They were wrong,” notes Mr. Rove

Hezbollah believed it controlled Lebanon and that its thousands of rockets could obliterate Israel. That was wrong. Hamas believed the Oct. 7 attack would lead to Israel’s destruction. Instead, the Jewish State unleashed a ferocious, unrelenting response.

By then decapitalizing Hamas and depleting its ranks, Israel wrecked Hezbollah’s hold over Lebanon. With some aid from the U.S., Israel severely damaged or destroyed Iran’s nuclear labs.

Enter Trump 

President Trump jockeyed himself into the melee by sending in his special envoy to the Middle East to negotiate terms. (Steve Wikoff, a talented negotiator, is Trump’s NY real estate pal.)

The president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner helped move the deal to conclusion while Mr. Trump cajoled, twisted arms and, when necessary, sweet-talked friends and foes alike. This week war-weary Israel welcomed home the remaining hostages. Its enemies have been demolished. The pulverization of Gaza has ceased. And world leaders now hail a man many of them dislike.

Closer to home, practical political benefits will arise from the peace agreement, reports a partisan Mr. Rove. The president’s popularity reportedly sat at 45% approval and 52.2% disapproval the day before the deal.

In coming weeks, polls will also probably show Mideast peace is the second major issue—deporting violent criminal aliens being the other—on which Mr. Trump enjoys the support of almost all Republicans, (most) independents and a small but consequential number of Democrats.

We could have done without the shots aimed at Hillary, Obama, and Biden. The world was ready to see Donald Trump as a powerful figure.  Instead, Trump’s shots sounded sour, ranging from petty to small.

Karl Rove thinks Trump’s triumph will have less impact at next year’s ballot box than it will on ensuing historians.

(Trumps) peace-making predecessors found that voters cared more about domestic controversies and the economy than presidential success on the global stage. President Dwight Eisenhower ended hostilities in Korea with an armistice six months into office. In the following year’s midterms, the GOP lost both chambers and eight governor’s offices.

President George H.W. Bush oversaw the short and stunningly successful 1991 Gulf War. In the 1992 election, Bush still lost decisively to Bill Clinton.

Furthermore, the fecklessness of voters is not to be discounted. Peace will get its due, but #1 on the minds of voters will be the economy. Still not showing in the polls, but soon to rear its head, is the government shutdown. Grumpy voters could limit any bounce from the historic agreement.

Now, the Hard Part 

Celebrations must take into account that “Peace” includes 17 items  yet not checked off, including:

• Making Gaza a “deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat”
• Hamas’s agreeing “to not have any role” in Gaza’s governance, even indirectly, is a “process of demilitarization.”
• Rebuilding Gaza under a transitional government
• A new “International Stabilization Force” to provide “long-term security”
• A “special economic zone” and foreign investment to “create jobs, opportunity, and hope.”
• “Interfaith dialogue.”

Only if the “reform program is faithfully carried out,” notes Rove, will there be a path to “Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

If there’s any hope of achieving President Trump’s full plan, there will have to be intense involvement from Trump himself and from Messrs. Rubio, Witkoff, and Kushner.

Rove advises the West Wing to lower expectations.

Remind the world, especially American voters, that what’s been achieved, as spectacular as it is, is only the start of a long and rocky process.

Everyone around the globe can marvel at what’s been achieved, but Team Trump must now make certain it hangs together. Blessed are the peacemakers.