The terrorist assassination of two Israeli embassy staffers this week has the potential to reverberate throughout the world and bring perspective and resolution to some of the thornier issues before us at this time. It is the almost expected result of a fever that was launched on October 7, 2023, with the terrorist attack on Israel by people with the same mentality as Elias Rodriguez.
That fever has been nurtured by a constant drumbeat from much of the media, academia and pop culture who are comfortable lining up with the modern brown-shirts who mask their antisemitism by saying they are pro-Palestine. Only time will tell if this left-wing, antisemitic terrorist attack in Washington on Wednesday will have the effect of increasing or decreasing the dangerous and disturbing manifestations of the October 7 attack.
Every death in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas, and its backers in Iran and Qatar, aided by the constant drumbeat from CNN, which uses the pictures and statistics and video from the “Gazan Health Ministry” as if they should be trusted. It’s not just CNN, but that is where I go each day to see what narratives the Left is pushing, and they rarely disappoint.
There are all sorts of mixed signals radiating about the Trump administration’s reorienting of American foreign policy. The question on many minds has been whether Israel is being sidelined as America’s key ally in the Middle East. Part of the problem is sifting through media reports and trying to determine what is real and what isn’t.
Just days before Trump left on his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, this was reported by Media Line, and carried in the Jerusalem Post on May 10, for the trip that took place from May 13-16.
A Gulf diplomatic source, who declined to be named or disclose his position, told The Media Line, “President Donald Trump will issue a declaration regarding the State of Palestine and American recognition of it, and that there will be the establishment of a Palestinian state without the presence of Hamas.”
The source also added, “If an announcement of American recognition of the State of Palestine is made, it will be the most important declaration that will change the balance of power in the Middle East, and more countries will join the Abraham Accords.”
It didn’t happen. In fact, Trump encouraged Saudi Arabia and Syria to join the Abraham Accords, which is a series of agreements between Arab nations and Israel covering economics, diplomacy and tourism. In short, an end, at least for their duration, of hostilities.
Hamas released the last American, actually an Israeli-American hostage, viewed as another sign that Trump was sidelining Israel. He made a deal with the Houthis in Yemen that they would stop firing on U.S. ships in the Gulf region, and the U.S. would stop firing on the Houthis, but the U.S. was only speaking for itself. They didn’t get that commitment for a cessation of hostilities to extend to Israel.
Then Qatar, the host country for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al Jazeera, among other mortal enemies of Israel and Western civilization appeared to become Trump’s new best friend. Trump’s son is a partner in new projects there, Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, sold his New York City hotel, the Park Lane, to a Qatari fund for over $600 million, and Trump thought it was okay to accept a jet to use as Air Force One from Qatar. We’re supposed to assume that such a favor comes with no expectations of anything in return. That became official on Wednesday.
Then there’s the Iran deal, apparently in the works, which I talked about in my last article. No deal short of the Libyan model for giving up their nuclear weapons and WMD programs should suffice. We’ve been down that road. They cannot and should not be trusted for a second. The motto should be “Verify, don’t trust, not even a little, remove the designated equipment and enriched uranium yourself and assume that they are lying to you.”
But there are other signals as well. Listen to what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on CBS’s Face the Nation last Sunday, following the trip to the Middle East. Face the Nation is the same as Meet the Press, State of the Union, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, all of them. It’s all about trying to discredit Trump and Republicans while covering for and pushing the narrative of the Democrats and their media allies on the Left.
“What the president is saying is he doesn’t want to end the war until Hamas is defeated,” said Rubio. This is a group that is a threat — if an ember survives, it will spark again into a fire. And that is the view of — there is no future. There can be no peaceful and prosperous Gaza as long as Hamas governs it by rule of arms. And that’s a fundamental truth.”
He continued: “Now that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some way that we can achieve that through a cease-fire and some peace mechanism, and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish here. Ending Hamas, ending its governance of Gaza, ending the conflict, freeing all of the hostages, including the bodies of those who have passed away and been killed and murdered by the Hamas terrorists, and then beginning the work of a future for Gaza and also of ensuring Israel’s security. That’s always been our goal.
“That remains our goal, and that’s what we continue to be focused on. But in the absence of that such agreement, we anticipate that, you know, Israel will continue forward with their operations. But that doesn’t mean we stopped working on trying to achieve a peaceful outcome that also protects Israel’s security and ends Hamas’s governance of Gaza, so that Gaza can have a free and prosperous future moving forward. That’s what the president wants to see as the end goal here. That is the end goal, and that’s what we’re working on through every means at our disposal.”
Trump also went to great lengths to make clear that he isn’t abandoning Israel in any way, or trying to distance himself and the U.S. from this long-term alliance.
“Aboard Air Force One, a flight from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, the president insisted to reporters that forging ties with Arab nations was not a slight against Israel, but rather a strategic move designed to strengthen regional stability—and by extension, bolster Israel’s position, The Jewish Voice reported.“This is good for Israel,” Trump said. “Having a relationship like I have with these countries, Middle Eastern countries, essentially all of them.”
“In his Fox News interview, Trump once again emphasized the horrors of the October 7 massacre, referencing graphic video footage released by Hamas themselves. ‘You have to remember, there was an October 7 that everyone forgets,’ he told Baier. ‘It was one of the most violent days in the history of the world,’” JV reported.
“Trump’s remarks, extensively cited in the JNS report, are part of a broader effort to counterbalance public perceptions that he may be drifting away from his historically close ties with Israel—a relationship cemented by actions such as relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and brokering the Abraham Accords,” The Jewish Voice also reported.
On Wednesday of this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the media, and, according to Jewish Insider, on the issue of strained ties between the U.S. and Israel, Netanyahu referred to a recent conversation he had with Trump, who told him, “Bibi, I want you to know I have a total commitment to you and to the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu added that the two countries both seek “together to ensure Iran doesn’t get nuclear weapons, that Hamas will be thrown out of Gaza, that Trump’s plan — which I think is a genius plan — will happen,” and “change the face of the Middle East.”
He emphasized that the relocation plan would only be for those who wish to leave Gaza.
“Referring to Trump’s recent Middle East tour, which excluded Israel, Netanyahu said, ‘I have no opposition to the U.S. deepening its ties to the Arab world … I think this can help broaden the Abraham Accords that I’m very interested in.’”
Regarding Iran, Netanyahu said, “Iran remains a serious threat to Israel. We are in full coordination with the U.S. — we talk to them all the time. We hope that it’s possible to reach an agreement that will prevent a nuclear weapon from Iran and will prevent Iran from having the ability to enrich uranium. If it is reached, of course, we will welcome it,” he said, before adding, “In any case, Israel reserves the right to defend itself against a regime that threatens to destroy us.”
So there is enough reporting to make the case for whatever side of the issue you want to take.
Bottom line. I’m optimistic about the situation. Trump has a way about him — charismatic, braggadocios, and now, living a miracle. Steve Bannon talks about the providential aspect of Trump’s second term. If he had won the court cases proving the election was stolen in 2020, he would have had the most ineffective second term of any president. Probably two more impeachments beyond the two he had, and the swamp would have buried him.
But after going through all of the weaponized, phony prosecutions and persecutions, run out of the White House by whomever was pulling Biden’s strings, and two assassination attempts, Trump has grown stronger and more relaxed. He became bulletproof, after being hit by a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania, and nearly being killed near his golf course in Florida, and having defeated all the cases against him, and having shown how to circumvent the media and destroy them at the same time, he comes to his second term relaxed and confident he can take on all comers.
As we have seen this week, the circular firing squad is consuming the leftists in the Democratic Party and their allies in the media, deciding if it was Joe Biden’s fault, Jill Biden’s fault, or the legacy media, including the New York Times, Jake Tapper and the rest of them at CNN, doing anything to get past the election with Trump not winning. How could he win, after all the times the women of The View, the airheads of Late Night TV, the round the clock beating up Trump, calling him fascist, Nazi, rapist, you name it?
What’s clear is that they have no good answer. It’s either, yes, “I knew he was incapable and incoherent, seriously dysfunctional, but I didn’t say anything about it because I still wanted him to win over Trump.” Or “no, I had no idea he wasn’t his sharpest self.” Joe Scarborough is stuck with “This Version of Biden…is the Best Biden Ever”.
The public wasn’t buying it, and love him or hate him, and there is plenty of both, we are living with the most consequential president of our lifetime, and that includes my hero, Ronald Reagan.
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
