OPINION:
In his address to Israel’s Knesset after Hamas’ release of 20 living hostages, President Trump said several things that reflect wishful thinking. Among them: “The forces of chaos that have plagued the region are totally defeated.” “The enemies of all civilization are in retreat.” The “long and painful nightmare is finally over.”
Although the president and his team of negotiators are rightly given full credit for achieving this moment (even by many Democrats), there is no evidence that Israel’s enemies see it his way. This battle may be over, but Israel’s enemies don’t share the same view.
Palestinian Media Watch keeps tabs on what terrorist groups and others are saying about a post-Gaza future. It has compiled 20 examples showing the Palestinian Authority’s real intentions. In the Palestinian Authority’s Oct. 2 publication, there was this: “It may be necessary to find a way to persuade Hamas to completely leave the area for a year or two. Later, when things become clearer, we can look for ways to bring Hamas back to operation.”
After Mr. Trump won reelection last November, Palestinian Media Watch President Itamar Marcus told The Washington Free Beacon: “[Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas and his people hate Trump. They think he’s not up to their level of humanity. They mock the way he looks. They mock the way he talks. Now that Trump will be the president again, they think they can play him, but he should recognize exactly who they are. They see themselves as in a camp with Russia and China and the Islamic world, and they are diametrically opposed to American policy around the world.”
In a Sept. 29 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Abbas claimed that the Palestinian Authority had “rejected violence and terrorism” and “adopted a culture of peace.” Yet the day before, the Palestinian Authority’s official daily continued to glorify the terrorists who killed six in an attack in Jerusalem three weeks earlier as Palestinian and Islamic heroes. This is another example of the duplicity in which Israel’s enemies have engaged at least since 1948, when the modern state was restored in its ancient Jewish homeland.
Need more examples for why this latest “peace” is not what the West has been hoping for?
Palestinian schools aren’t teaching children to lay down their rhetorical arms against Israel, but rather to ratchet them up. Palestinian Media Watch found a girl in a Hebron school who said that the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and hostage taking by Hamas was a “beautiful dream. … We woke up to the sounds of laughter. … It was impossible to express the emotions in our hearts, and we never imagined such pride in our people on our faces. The sense of honor that we felt is indescribable.”
Don’t count on “journalists” who have been pressured and threatened by Hamas to carry only their storylines to tell the truth. As Mr. Marcus wrote for Palestinian Media Watch on Sept. 1: “Journalists in Gaza, whether working for Palestinian media or foreign newspapers, know that deviating from Hamas’ version of events places their freedom and even their lives in danger. Survival comes first; truth comes second.”
Celebrating the release of hostages and mourning the dead are legitimate responses to the end of the conflict in the Gaza Strip. Israel, the U.S. and the rest of the civilized world should not engage in self-delusion, especially since Israel’s enemies have not repealed their charters calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, nor have they heard from Allah that he has changed his mind and told Muslims to live in peace with Israel.
Given that indisputable truth, based on history and common sense, this is not the time for Israel to beat its swords into plowshares.
• Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (Humanix Books).
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