And alarming, as well.
If ever a posting of mine merited wide sharing, it is this one!
~~~~~~~~~
Let us begin with the duo of Steve Witkoff and his new sidekick, Jared Kushner, and the positions that they are promoting.
The two gave an interview Sunday evening with 60 Minutes on CBS.
Said Kushner, “The biggest message that we’ve tried to convey to the Israeli leadership now is that, now that the war is over, if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better.” (Emphasis added)
As to how to help them “thrive,” Kushner says the US is “focused on creating a situation for joint security and economic opportunity for Israelis and Palestinians so that they can live side by side in a durable way.”
Living side by side with joint security and economic opportunity? Has Kushner been consulting with that colossal fool, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who consistently utilized such terms. Kushner is referring to a Palestinian state, while he carefully avoids using that precise term.
He thinks Israel has an obligation to make things better for the people living in the Palestinian Authority areas of Judea & Samaria? He is talking about the people some 75% of whom applauded October 7 and said it made them proud. The people living under rule of the PA, which to this day instigates terrorism, pays terrorists who kill Jews and teaches the children to hate Jews.
What Kushner is doing is playing to the Arab states. And so, the onus is placed on Israel. This is almost always the case. He doesn’t say it is time for the PA to genuinely change its policies and educate its people for peace so that they can then integrate with other nations of the Middle East.
Clearly Kushner’s statement represents Trump administration policy. This is most regrettable. I might have expected better, but the president is looking to expand the Abraham Accords and apparently wants to appease potential new members such as the Saudis. For a reliable source of information on the policies of the PA, see Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) at https://palwatch.org/ and learn whose lives Jared wants us to make better.
~~~~~~~~~~
PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa has unveiled a three-stage plan for rebuilding the Gaza Strip at an investment of $67 billion over five years.
“Mustafa said that talks are underway between Ramallah and international partners regarding the reconstruction process, while it also aims to regain control of the Strip.” (Emphasis added)
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-871006
There you have it!
~~~~~~~~~~
“US President Donald Trump will host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on November 18, an Arab diplomat tells The Times of Israel.
“The de facto Saudi ruler will use the meeting to secure US security guarantees from Washington, while Trump aims to use the sit-down to advance an Israel-Saudi normalization agreement, the diplomat says.
“Riyadh has long insisted that it will only normalize ties with Israel if Jerusalem agrees to establish a time-bound, irreversible pathway to a future Palestinian state — something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vehemently opposes.”
~~~~~~~~~~
And let’s talk about the Qataris, who have supported Hamas in Gaza and sheltered their leaders in luxury in their capital. They are a major supporter of radical Islamist values, promoting these values extensively via Al Jazeera media and when they do major funding in US universities.
“[Substantial Qatari funding] reduces the need for schools to engage with their alumni networks. That becomes an acute problem regarding campus antisemitism insofar as school administrators will likely be responsive to Qatar — a country that held Israel solely responsible for the war in Gaza, failed to hold Hamas accountable, and has consistently backed Islamists against the West.”
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/04/02/qatars-footprint-in-the-american-higher-education-system/
~~~~~~~~~~
Kushner and Witkoff – who, it must be noted, both have financial ties to Qatar – have now cast the Qataris as the good guys in the current situation. That is because they are depending on Qatar, which has leverage with Hamas, to bring it along on Trump’s peace plan.
In the course of the CBS interview, Witkoff described what he called a sense of “betrayal” by Israel that Trump felt when Israel attacked Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital of Doha (unfortunately not successfully eliminating those leaders). Said Kushner, “I think he [Trump] felt like the Israelis– were getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing, and that it was time to– it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”
The condescension and patronizing attitude reflected in that statement are both infuriating and revealing. Israel and only Israel can decide what is in Israel’s best interest. The goals of that attack included sending a message to the Hamas leaders that they were no longer safe anywhere, and to the Qataris that it is not prudent to continue to protect Hamas as they had been doing. There were analysts who, citing a perceived difference in the Qatari position after the attack, believed that the message had been delivered. But then the Americans intervened. Oooh, bad Israel ruining Qatari willingness to help get Hamas to agree to cooperate on the ceasefire.
Leslie Stahl, the 60 Minutes interviewer, was with the Kushner-Witkoff agenda all the way. When Witkoff spoke about the attack on Hamas in Doha, she commented, “People should understand that Netanyahu, the Israelis bombed the peacemakers, the negotiating team.” We bombed peacemakers?? How powerful the effect of just one word can be. How many watching the show believed her? These were terrorists. Terrorists who might temporarily agree to curb their behavior because they had been pummeled by the IDF and liked the idea of securing the release of fellow-terrorists from Israeli prisons, NOT because they sought “peace”. (Emphasis added)
This was a set-up.
During the interview, Witkoff described how he had handled direct contact, approved by Trump, with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya. Al-Hayya had lost a son in the Doha attack. Witkoff expressed condolences and told him that, “I had lost a son [from an overdose], and that we were both members of a really bad club, parents who have buried children.”
Kushner observed: “When Steve and him (sic) spoke about their sons, it turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings kind of showing a vulnerability with each other.”
I wondered, as I read about this barf-inducing moment, whether either Witkoff or Kushner had kept in mind the fact that there were many fathers mourning their sons who were dead as the result of attacks in which Al-Hayya was instrumental. But never mind, a subhuman terrorist had been humanized.
~~~~~~~~~~
What it is imperative to keep in mind as we consider this complex situation – with much hidden from public view – is the extensive US coercion on Netanyahu. Americans involved may deny this, but it is clearly the case.
Reports regularly emerge about pressure that has been applied by the Trump administration. What may be debated is the precise nature of the pressure at any given point, not the fact of its existence.
Some three weeks after Israel had bombed in Doha, Netanyahu, sitting in the White House with Trump, was told he had to apologize to the Qataris for that bombing. He was handed a phone connected to his Qatari counterpart – Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani, and a script. Witkoff insists that the apology Netanyahu then made was voluntary. It was not: he had precious little choice.
~~~~~~~~~~
Journalist Ben-Dror Yemini, wrote on October 19 (emphasis added):
“Nothing that has happened here in recent weeks—especially the release of the hostages and the ceasefire—would have occurred without American pressure. Not exactly pressure. A dictate. Coercion. Two people, White House envoys Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, attended the cabinet meeting to ensure there would be no surprises. The fact that this is exactly what most Israelis wanted does not change the reality that these decisions were not made in Jerusalem. They were made in Washington.”
https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/hkx3thzrxg
~~~~~~~~~~
Bibi has been under incredible pressure – both domestic and international – for a long time. I have often pondered how he has managed to keep going with strength under these circumstances. Now he is being criticized for not standing stronger against American demands.
Easier said… I have chosen not to castigate him— not yet — because I am mindful of how much is unknown: What Trump promised, what he threatened. There are factors of a need for armaments; for defense during an additional Iranian attack, which may be coming soon; for diplomatic defense in the UN and elsewhere. I don’t know what the calculus is here or what he must take into consideration. Very likely he is waiting for the last of the hostages (or as many as possible) to be brought home. This does not mean that Netanyahu’s concessions always sit comfortably on me.
Ultimately, of course, he will have to take a stand definitively and firmly: a stand that involves returning to war to defeat Hamas. We are approaching that time. At present, the pressure, perhaps precisely because that time is close, continues without letup. The Witkoff-Kushner team was here on Monday, Vice President JD Vance came yesterday, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due here tomorrow.
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
The Trump peace plan with its 20 points made it possible for us to secure all of our live hostages and many of those deceased (as I write 13 are still unaccounted for). That having been achieved – and it was magnificent – in the first phase of the plan, we must look at the remaining phases, which were presented as a package.
The bottom line is that Hamas is not going to disarm, and Gaza is not going to be demilitarized. We know this because they have said so, quite clearly. But also because there are some exceedingly unfortunate partners in the coalition dealing with Gaza – most notably Qatar and Turkey, perhaps the most dangerous of all. They will reinforce the Hamas position.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trump is hailed as the greatest friend Israel has ever had. In some respects this is certainly true, but it actually makes it more difficult to cross him (“After what I’ve done for you?”) And the bottom line is that Trump is interested in burnishing his image as a peacemaker and a promoter of deals that bring that peace.
For his purposes, he needs peace now – and for the duration of his term in office. He talks about bringing peace to the Middle East forever, but that is nonsense. His first concern is not for the long-term security of Israel, not if acting with that concern in mind means there will not be peace in Gaza at this time.
~~~~~~~~~~
I wrote recently about an offer by Hamas to have a three-to-five-year ceasefire, which is exceedingly dangerous. The current ceasefire is not a danger as it is considered only interim. What Hamas is proposing is something else – in Arabic terms it is a hudna, not a true or ceasefire, even though the Western media use these more benign terms.
Honest Reporting dealt with this issue of a hudna, over 20 years ago, and their analysis still stands and merits a close look now:
“Would a hudna with Hamas really mark ‘the success of peacemaking,’ a ‘major breakthrough’ toward a nonviolent future?
“The answer lies in the historical meaning of the Muslim expression, Hamas’ track record…
“Hudna has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history: The prophet Mohammad struck a legendary, ten-year hudna with the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca in the seventh century. Over the following two years, Mohammad rearmed and took advantage of a minor Quraysh infraction to break the hudna and launch the full conquest of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.
“When Yassir Arafat infamously invoked Mohammad’s hudna in 1994 to describe his own Oslo commitments…the implication was clear. As Mideast expert Daniel Pipes explained, Arafat was asserting to his Islamic brethren that he will, ‘when his circumstances change for the better, take advantage of some technicality to tear up existing accords and launch a military assault on Israel.’ Indeed, this is precisely what occurred in Sept. 2000 when Arafat & Co. launched a terror assault upon Israeli citizens.
“As for Hamas, they have proven time and again their commitment to a tactical hudna — replenishing their strength during the quiet periods, then returning with increased deadliness. As recently documented by The Washington Institute, Hamas agreed to no less than ten ceasefires in the past ten years, and after every single one returned freshly armed for terror. Hundreds of Israeli citizens have paid for these hudnas with their lives.”
https://honestreporting.com/hudna-with-hamas/
~~~~~~~~~~
We did not lose the lives of 918 of our soldiers who fought against Hamas so that we might come to this now! But a hudna (presented by Hamas as a truce) might appeal to Trump, who would be able to point to a deal that allegedly brought peace.
What he fails to perceive, or chooses not to perceive, is that when dealing with forces of consummate evil, as we are now, it is necessary to take them down. Deals will not suffice or secure Israel’s future.
~~~~~~~~~~
Right now the Trump administration is exceedingly nervous that Israel may return to fighting and is scrambling to prevent this.
On Sunday, Hamas terrorists fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF vehicle, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding three others. A cell of terror operatives had emerged from a tunnel in the area and began firing. The IDF retaliated with force –a major Hamas tunnel was struck, and an elite Hamas Nukhba commander was among those killed. It was also announced that aid would not be allowed into Gaza.
In a short period of time, however, Israel declared that it was still adhering to the ceasefire and would allow the resumption of aid. This was undoubtedly done under US pressure.
Trump played down the incident, saying that it was a “rebellion” by rogue Hamas elements. “Some Hamas fighters got very rambunctious.” The choice of words here as well is astounding. Five-year-old boys get “very rambunctious” not Hamas fighters.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trump did concede that Israel would have a right to respond militarily if Hamas violence continued. He would be a true hero for the ages if he stepped back and let Israel do what was necessary. This, unfortunately, is exceedingly unlikely. He is an individual who seeks immediate gratification.
~~~~~~~~~~
Just four days ago, Netanyahu said in a statement to Channel 14:
“The war in Gaza ‘will end for good when the terms of the agreement that were accepted are implemented.
“’That includes, first of all, stage one, the return of all of our hostages. We are working on that right now.
“’We are standing firm on the agreement being implemented in its entirety.’
“…if Hamas doesn’t agree to disarm, it will be done ‘the hard way.’
“Only after Hamas is disarmed and Gaza demilitarized, ‘then the war will end.’”
There is no choice for Israel other than taking out Hamas.
~~~~~~~~~~
Please, pray for all of Am Yisrael, with special prayers for the rehabilitation of the returned hostages, return of all deceased hostages, and our final victory over Hamas.
©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
