Book of Jeremiah, chapter 6, verses 10 - 14:
“To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; behold the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord. I am weary of holding it in: ...for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. From the least of them to the greatest of them everyone is greedy for gain; and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people, superficially saying Peace, peace when there is no peace.”
Have we been so beaten up by the antagonism of most of the world, including, rather importantly, media, education, and young people, that we are getting confused about the line between peace and war? Has Israel ever known real peace? Are the appeasers working for War or Peace?
We try to be optimistic about the situation in Israel even as Hamas is already breaching the agreement; we know that the raison d'etre for Hamas is murdering Jews. We put our trust in President Trump despite his ties to Qatar because, who else can we trust other than ourselves? Both Israel and America have sizable powerful Left Wings and politicians prioritizing their fights with political enemies despite the inevitable damage to their nations. When the judicial systems have become just another forum for politics, we worry that our enemies will perceive that these fights have resulted in an increasing weakness. It can be fatal to project weakness in the Islamist neighborhood.
This so-called “peace.” was negotiated through Qatar, the same regime that funds Hamas, sheltered Taliban leaders, and aided 9/11 attackers.
Should we worry that Hamas, under one name or another, is likely to continue to be the ruling power in Gaza? It has a charter pledging to kill Jews. Peace implies that the people of Gaza will open their hearts to peace. Of course releasing thousands of Palestinian Arab terrorists as part of the deal is a victory for War not Peace as I doubt many of them have reformed their views about Israel.
The polls show that most Gazans support Hamas and we are uncertain whether that will change. Sharia law seems to be a big problem. For example, it is stated:
"The Hour will not be established until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Jews will hide behind stones and trees, and the stones or trees will say: O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him…”- Sahih Muslim, Book 54, Hadith 105
For the short term, Jihadist ideology is likely to continue to be taught in their schools, to be explicit and implicit in their prayers and mosques, and celebrated in their streets.
Forensic testing in Israel has revealed that a body returned by Hamas which it claimed to belong to an Israeli hostage was actually that of a deceased Gazan - marking a major violation of the ceasefire and hostage deal between the terror group and the Jewish state.
Anni Cyrus, a Muslim who converted to Christianity and writes for Frontpage Magazine says:
The "concept of Hudna, (is) the Islamic doctrine of temporary truce. It means you pretend peace only until you’re strong enough to finish the war. It’s not cooperation. It’s tactical deceit. And it’s exactly what this “deal” just rewarded."
How does the Palestinian Authority's "pay-for-slay" program of giving payments to terrorists, or their families, amount to aiding Peace?
Israel National News reports Minister Itamar Ben Gvir delivered remarks on Wednesday evening at a memorial service for Uriel Baruch, a deceased hostage whose body was returned to Israel.
“I want us to continue this war until Hamas is completely dismantled. We must dismantle Hamas,” Ben Gvir declared.
He went on to say, “We need a death penalty law for terrorists. It’s just, it’s moral, it aligns with Jewish law. Those who have harmed, those who have slaughtered - should not be allowed to live. By doing so, we will also remove the motivation for future kidnappings and atrocities.”
Itamar Marcus in Palestinian Media Watch points out that the Palestinian Arabs simply portray their actions to be lawful and Israeli actions to be unlawful. The use of the term "unlawfully" is consistent with PA ideology that Palestinian Arabs have the right to murder Israelis and thus all terrorist prisoners are POWs-lawful fighters who were captured during lawful combat and therefore must be freed.
The PA's "lawful" fighters include bomb builder Abdullah Barghouti, who was responsible for the murder of 67 Israelis, and Ibraham Hamid, who is serving 54 life sentences. They are responsible for the murder of these people.
So Macron can be told by the Palestinian Authority that its actions are lawful and peaceful. It is just that they define the words differently. Arab Palestinian War is peace and Israeli peace is War.
How can we talk of peace when one side worships life and one side worships death. As much as we appreciate the efforts of President Trump, he really hasn't any experience in dealing with a death cult. Dealing with Qatar is very different than dealing with Canada. Moreover, how can we draw equivalence between the innocent hostages (many of whom were tortured and murdered by Hamas) and Israel releasing two thousand murderers and rapists (who will go on to continue their criminality cheered on by Palestinian Arabs but also by American college students).
Cyrus writes that Israel and America -"even though Hamas didn’t honor the first phase of this deal, will go ahead and pretend all 20 points in the deal were honored. We’ll check off boxes, wave at cameras, and ignore the hostages still missing and the bombs still being made."
"Meanwhile, we’ll be (subject to) another generation of “freedom fighters,” a.k.a. future jihadists, who’ve just learned that mass murder gets you prisoner swaps, Qatari jets, and political legitimacy.
Cyrus continues: "Because the West, in its infinite delusion, keeps giving killers, rapists, and Islamic jihadists what they want, calling it peace, and expecting the region they broke to magically heal itself."
What about the prospective international force? France is no friend of Israel, recently promoting a Palestinian Arab state, and is now home to a large number of Jihadists.
Israeli historian Benny Morris in writing about Peace with the Palestinian Arabs has his writing in Quillette summarized as follows: "Trump’s peace plan brings the hostages home and halts fighting in Gaza, but Hamas’s refusal to disarm and Israeli concerns about Palestinian statehood threaten the deal’s long-term survival."
There is always a short term and a long term. As long as politicians in democracies have to keep one eye on their re-election prospects, it is hard to plan long term.
What about the prospective international force? France is no friend of Israel, recently promoting a Palestinian state, and is now home to a large number of Jihadists.
Israel National News reports that a senior French official has stressed that Trump’s plan requires Hamas to release all hostages, return the bodies of deceased hostages, and disarm. In coordination with an international force led by the United States, with French participation. Israel would work to dismantle all terror tunnels and infrastructure in Gaza, ensuring the area is fully demilitarized and no longer poses a threat to the State of Israel.
Has Hamas already breached that part of the agreement dealing with the numbers of dead bodies to be returned by Hamas and also the parts in Trump's declaration dealing with a climate of peace?
Defense Minister Katz has said that “If Hamas refuses to honor the agreement, Israel, in cooperation with the United States, will resume combat operations, pursue the complete defeat of Hamas, and work toward a fundamental transformation of the situation in Gaza and the achievement of all war objectives."
Accordingly, Israel shows its commitment to resuming the war if Hamas does not live up to the terms of the Trump agreement. It shows its acceptance of Jeremiah's admonishment against false notions of peace. Even an unfriendly country like France therefore acknowledges that peace without security is no peace at all. The French Foreign Ministry spokesman has said that there is broad international consensus against Hamas remaining in power in the Gaza Strip or holding any political or security role in a post-war arrangement.
But the French and others hold that the administration of the Gaza Strip should be under the Palestinian Authority, which for decades has been a major enabler of terrorism. Can Abbas work for Peace any more than Arafat did? But there seems to be an agreement that the continued possession of weapons by Hamas constitutes a major obstacle to building a stable and democratic Palestinian state.
Hamas must be disarmed and disenpowered without delay, as the weapons held by the terror group put the entire "Palestinian population" at risk of continued suffering.
The Islamic injunction against being allies with Jews and Christians then may be fading into the background. One of many problematic Islamic texts is:
"Do you who believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you - then indeed, he is [one] of them.-" Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:51
There are a lot of problems with Trump's plan, but if Arab states and leaders use this plan to pave the way for an enlarged Abraham Accords, we can probably agree there is some good coming. It is hard to understand however why Trump respects Qatar, unless there are base financial motives.
I have spent years studying how ideologies, values and culture are manipulated against Peace. For example, my book Tolerism: The Ideology Revealed, shows how excessive tolerance of evil is ill-advised; moreover tolerance is not a Jewish value. My book, The Ideological Path to Submission ... and what we can do about it studies the Islamists' goal of making the West submit to Islamist values - a project that cannot be appeased and must inevitably result in War not Peace.
Howard Rotberg is the author of five books and over one hundred published essays.