The cessation of the Gaza war and Hamas returning the 48 Israeli hostages (alive or their remains) along with the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons will be celebrated today, but a huge question is whether Hamas will comply with all the terms of President Trump’s 20-point peace plan. If the terrorists don’t, there will be no peace.
Trump will speak today to the Knesset in Jerusalem and then he will convene a peace summit in Sharm El Sheikh in the Sinai, where the negotiations were held.
The hostages will be welcomed home to Israel with hugs or with funerals and thousands of displaced Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip will try to pick up their lives after two years of war brought on the Hamas Oct. 7 sneak attack of murder, rape and kidnapping.
The next steps in the 20-point Trump plan — with guarantors Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey — require the Hamas terrorists to surrender all their weapons and relinquish any role in the governing of post-war Gaza. The terrorists have lost the war and they must be gone, permanently.
Restoring the pre-pogrom Oct. 6 scenario, of a quiet Israeli border with an armed Hamas ruling Gaza, is not only unacceptable to Israel, it is equally unacceptable to the Arab and Muslim states and to the broader international community, led by the U.S.
The joint U.S.-Egypt Sharm El Sheikh summit will see the leaders of major allies Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada joining with regional Arab powers. They are united in support of the Trump plan, as is Israel. Only missing is Hamas, and their sponsor, Iran, the world’s chief supporter of terrorism.
After the hostages are released back to Israel and the global leaders depart Sharm El Sheikh, public attention will fade, but Hamas must be held to account. Until now, only Israel dealt with Hamas, this time, they are the world’s problem.
Reports of armed Hamas men reappearing on the streets of Gaza following the IDF withdrawal under the Trump plan perhaps are just a show of bravado before they turn in their guns and choose either to leave political life in order to stay in Gaza or voluntarily accept exile.
Hamas was the past of Gaza since the terrorists seized control of the territory in 2007. They brought death and destruction to the Palestinians of the Strip, culminating in the war they started on Oct. 7. Hamas must have no part of the future of Gaza or the future of the Palestinians.
What will happen if Hamas refuses the next part of the Trump plan? How will the international community enforce the agreed upon framework? It won’t be up to Israel alone.
We hope that the spirit of peace will spread even to these hardened killers who have to realize that the world has joined together against them. After the tears and the smiles of the homecomings of the hostages and the elaborate Sharm El Sheikh ceremony, the actions of the Hamas outlaws will determine if peace is truly to come, a peace without them.
Trump says he wants a Nobel Peace Prize. If his Gaza plan comes to full fruition and Hamas does indeed vanish from the scene, Trump will have earned much more than a medal.
