The twenty Israeli hostages you brought home are a triumph of courage and conviction. But peace cannot be declared while our enemies still dream of our destruction.
As a proud Jewish American, I want to begin with gratitude once and again.
President
Trump, thank you. Twenty Israeli hostages are home because of your
direct intervention — because you refused to accept “impossible” as an
answer. For that, families in Israel are lighting candles not of
mourning, but of joy. You have done something few world leaders even
attempted. The Jewish people will not forget it.
But gratitude does not blind us. And it must not blind you.
Mr.
President, I say this with the deepest respect: your declaration that
“the Arab-Israeli war is over” is dangerously premature.
The
Middle East does not operate by the logic of Western diplomacy. It is
not a problem to be negotiated — it is a century-long religious and
civilizational struggle. The conflict is not about land; it is about
existence. The Jewish state’s very being is the offense. Until that
changes, there is no peace.
Yes, Arab leaders are weary. Many are
pragmatic. They want trade, technology, and quiet skies. But beneath
the suits and smiles, the sermons and the schoolbooks still preach the
same message: Israel is a temporary evil. The Jews are tolerated, not
accepted. The dream remains — to erase the Jewish return from the map of
history.
You, Mr. President, above all should recognize that
reality. You’ve seen how flattery in the Middle East can melt overnight
into fury. Today’s allies can turn tomorrow when the winds shift in the
mosques and the media. You’ve been in the deal business long enough to
know: never mistake a handshake for a settlement.
Hamas did not
kidnap those hostages to negotiate peace. Iran did not fund them to
build coexistence. They acted to humiliate Israel, to remind the Jewish
people that they are still prey in a hostile neighborhood. The
“ceasefires” that follow each massacre are not peace — they are
intermissions in a very old play.
History is uncomfortably clear
on this point. The 1949 armistice wasn’t peace. Neither were Oslo’s
White House handshakes. Every “new dawn” in the Middle East has been
followed by rockets in the night. When Arab regimes have recognized
Israel, it has been for survival — not reconciliation.
You have
done more for Israel than any American president. You recognized
Jerusalem. You stood firm on Israel’s right to self-defense. You saw
through the polite hypocrisy of the “international community.” For that,
you’ve earned Israel’s trust and admiration.
But even your
closest friends must tell you the truth: the Arab-Israeli war is not
over because the ideology that fuels it is not gone. That ideology
cannot be appeased or reasoned with. It must be defeated — militarily,
morally, and theologically.
The Prophet Jeremiah warned long ago:
“They have healed the wound of My people lightly, saying ‘Peace,
peace,’ when there is no peace.” Those words should hang in every
foreign ministry and every Oval Office. False optimism can kill. It
lulls the innocent into lowering their guard.
So yes, Mr.
President — celebrate the hostages’ freedom. But do not announce the end
of a war that has not yet been won. Do not ask Israel to relax when her
enemies have not repented. This is not 1979 Egypt or 1994 Jordan. This
is a region still haunted by 1400 years of theological resentment. The
weapons may modernize, but the hatred remains ancient.
The Jewish
people have survived Babylon, Rome, the Inquisition, and Auschwitz —
not because we believed the world had changed, but because we prepared
for the day it would not. Israel cannot afford illusions.
Your
instincts — strength, clarity, loyalty — are right. Don’t let the
diplomats and the dreamers around you turn a victory for twenty hostages
into a delusion for ten million Israelis.
Peace will come one
day. Jews pray for it daily. But it will come not from a press
conference or a peace plan. It will come when the Arab world finally
accepts that the Jewish nation is home, permanently and providentially,
in the Land of Israel.
Until that day, let America’s friendship with Israel be not only warm — but wise.
REPUBLISHED:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/thank-you-president-trump-but-the-arab-israeli-war-is-not-over/
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Cc; President Donald J. Trump
| The White House |