Just when you think Trump has messed up bigly, he surprises you with an unexpected stroke of brilliance. As a matter of fact, he keeps doing the impossible!

That’s what he did by using tariffs as a diplomatic tool. Why did no one else ever think of this? In record time he sealed our wide-open southern border. He ended the insanity of DEI incompetence and restored our merit system, while making it national policy that there are only two genders, male and female, affirming not “transgenderism”, but that men can’t turn into women and will no longer be able to compete in women’s sports. He slashed government waste ferreted out by DOGE. With the stroke of a pen, he pulled us out of two disastrous programs: the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization (WHO). And this is just the very short list.

In other words, after four years of Biden’s destructive lunacy, Trump is restoring sanity to America! And he hopes to do something similar around the world.

It’s his second and final stint as President, and he’s likely thinking about his legacy. Not only does he intend to make America great again, but he also wants to do his best to foster peace generally. Remember what a threat North Korea was during his first term? Dems were terrified he’d cause WWIII, but he tamed the beast and practically had Kim Jong Un eating out of his hand.

Who would have thought he could end protracted wars and bring enemies to the negotiating table? And yet in a mere 250 days, he’s done the following:

• Ended the Armenia-Azerbaijan 35-year war

• Fostered peace between Cambodia and Thailand

• Brought Rwanda and Congo to the negotiating table

• Got India and Pakistan into a dialogue

• Prompted a Serbia-Kosovo breakthrough

• Negotiated a ceasefire and the return of all remaining Israeli hostages through a 20-point peace plan

• Working on forging peace between Ukraine and Russia

This is a man who truly values human life and has a great heart for people.

And he wants his legacy to be that of a peacemaker.

After reading a new article by brilliant writer Joan Swirsky in American Thinker, I’m entertaining the possibility that Trump just trumped Hamas.

The question is, did Trump betray Israel with a Bidenesque peace plan meant to lead to a Palestinian state? Or did he outsmart Hamas by forcing them to the table due to his assembling a broad Muslim coalition in order to secure the release of the last of the hostages? If this peace plan as written is his ultimate goal, it’s bad for Israel. But if it was a chess move to finally get Hamas to release the rest of the hostages, it’s brilliant.

Nevertheless, there are a number of issues with his 20-Point Plan for peace between Israel and Hamas that need to be addressed, as well as the concept itself. Why, for example, can’t we let Israel handle the dismantling of Hamas’ terror network, including all the tunnels? Who better to finish this difficult and dangerous work than the IDF that has done so much of it already? Why keep tying their hands?

TRUMP’S GAZA PEACE PLAN

While it was indeed a great accomplishment for the President’s Administration to negotiate Hamas’ return of the twenty remaining living hostages to their families in Israel, that does not equate to “the dawn of a new Middle East” as Trump has announced. More like wishful thinking.

I don’t fault Trump for wanting to bring about peace between the Palestinians and Israel—only for pretending it’s possible, given the reality of Hamas’ charter to “cleanse” the land of all Jews “from the river to the sea.” Nor does Trump seem to grasp the reality that many Arab Muslims have a built-in animosity toward both Israel and Jews in general, which they are taught in the Koran.

As Prime Minister Golda Meir put it: “If the Arabs put down their guns, there would be no more fighting. If the Israelis put down theirs, there would be no more Israel.”

A NEW ERA OF PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, OR RINSE & REPEAT?

While our President may declare he’s just created peace in the Middle East, I call it Trumpian hyperbole. Though it’s admirable to want an end to bloodshed, it’s foolish not to acknowledge reality.

According to Trump:

This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East. It is an incredible triumph for Israel and the world to have all these nations working together as partners in peace. Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change.

Are the Muslim nation partners: Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, etc., suddenly befriending Israel?

Of course not. But Trump did succeed in bringing them all onboard for his diplomatic victory in bringing the hostages home.

And from the Washington Times: Mr. Trump expressed hope that the ceasefire in Gaza would spread peace throughout the broader Middle East, including to Iran, which he said “has inflicted so much death.”

“The hand of friendship and cooperation is always open,” he said.

But that friendship is almost surely to be rewarded by plunging the U.S. into yet another Middle Eastern quagmire. Investigative journalist Daniel Greenfield has referred to Trump’s plan as “nation building”—and we’ve seen where that has led. Says Greenfield:

If the Trump administration backs the deal, it will be forced to act as a ‘guarantor’ which will not only mean protecting Hamas, but an extended terrorist nation-building program bigger even than Iraq or Afghanistan. Phase 3 of the deal reportedly calls for a 3–5-year rebuilding program.

That timetable would have President Trump spend his whole second term rebuilding Gaza.

Except for the packaging and the fact this ceasefire involves the return of the last of the hostages, how is this deal appreciably different from the Biden/Blinken deals?

It’s still the US dictating the terms and still leaves Israel vulnerable—arguably the loser after the release of 2,000 Palestinian terrorists—which could be why the Gazans were celebrating in the street.

And take note of Number 16 in Trump’s 20-Point Plan: Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza. As Yogi Berra once said, it’s déjà vu all over again.

Israel forced its own citizens to uproot their communities in Gaza in 2005, to leave the strip to the Palestinians in toto. They left their greenhouses full of fruit and flowers that could be sold to Europeans as they had done. What did the Palestinians do? They demolished them and used the financial aid pouring in to construct a vast network of terror tunnels to smuggle weaponry underground from Egypt to use for attacks on their Jewish neighbors. Israel essentially gave the Palestinians their state and they turned it into a terrorists’ munitions factory. And by the way, Gaza is part of Israel. How do I know? It’s in the Bible.

Here's Number 18: An interfaith dialogue process will be established based on the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence to try and change mindsets and narratives of Palestinians and Israelis by emphasizing the benefits that can be derived from peace.

This one is as supremely insulting as it is bound to fail. Does anyone think the Israelis need to be lectured on the benefits of peace? And does anyone think a little talk-therapy will change the “mindset and narrative” of the generationally indoctrinated Palestinians who take pride in killing Jews?

It gets worse.

Number 19: While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.

Plus ça change… But at least the language is reassuringly vague, and it’s highly unlikely the PA reform program will be faithfully carried out.

TRUMP THE SHOWMAN

Trump is not only a uniquely brilliant politician and negotiator, he’s also a consummate showman, having cut his teeth on reality TV through fifteen successful seasons of The Apprentice. He knows how to set the stage for important events, as he did to a T regarding ending the Hamas/Israel war. He flew to Israel, gave an inspiring speech, honored Netanyahu, and spoke movingly about the released hostages to cheers from members of the Knesset and amid public fanfare expressing the gratitude of Israeli citizens.

And he did, in fact, make the long-desired release of all the hostages a reality. That’s a wow! And he deserves praise for that. But at what price?

Two thousand Hamas prisoners released in exchange for the last 20 living kidnapped Israelis. That means 100 Hamas terrorists released for each of those freed hostages. Does anyone think that’s a good bargain?

TRUMP’S BROMANCE WITH QATAR

It’s not great optics that Trump’s good friend Steve Witkoff, who had a key role in this negotiation, was bailed out of difficulties over a Manhattan hotel deal by the Qatar Investment Authority. And closer to home, there’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who also worked on the peace plan, and whose financial dealings through his investment firm, Affinity Partners, resulted in a hefty billion-and-a-half from Qatari investors. Bloomberg shows the date for that $1.5 billion as December 20, 2024, shortly after his father-in-law won the election. But even if the transaction happened prior to the election, as Kushner claims, Trump was already the odds-on favorite. And by the way, Trump’s sons Don Jr. and Eric are building a golf course and luxury villas in Qatar as well.

Does this remind anyone else of Ukraine, when Biden’s son Hunter made out like a bandit while the “Big Guy” was in office? Taking that analogy a step further, has Qatar become the Ukraine of the Middle East? Great for business, good for quid pro quo even if the ultimate prize is peace? And is it really “peace” we’re seeing, or merely a lull in a decades-long battle as Israel struggles for survival in a sea of jihadists?

Massad Boulos, the Arab-American father-in-law of President Trump’s daughter Tiffany, whom he made his Senior Advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs, hailed Trump’s 20-point Plan as an:

…absolute final peace agreement. It is not only about Gaza, but it's the future of the Middle East and [Trump] is looking forward to lasting and comprehensive peace all over the Middle East.

There’s just one itty bitty problem amidst all these grandiose proclamations and kumbaya visions of permanent peace: None of the fundamentals have changed.

BEWARE OF QATARIS BEARING GIFTS

Qatar may have found a way to Trump’s heart in the form of a luxury Boeing 747 to be used as Air Force One and which the President graciously accepted. Question: How is this not subject to the Foreign Emoluments Clause? One may also wonder whether Trump ever heard of the Trojan Horse—the spectacular gift the Greeks gave to the Trojans, shortly before annihilating them.

While Israel is paying an exorbitant price for Trump’s peace plan in the form of 2,000 Hamas terrorists released from their prisons, in an article for Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield argues that the U.S. is also paying a high price. He points to the new training center and hangars for F-15QA planes being installed at the Mountain Home Air Force base in Idaho to train Qatari troops. Hmmm…Qatari troops training on American soil. Does that sound like a good idea to you? Sound like America First?

And why has Trump just placed Qatar on a par with our NATO allies with Article V protection? Greenfield sees that as another payoff to Qatar for its help brokering Trump’s peace deal.

The larger question is why are we suddenly so chummy with the country that funded the terrorist organization Hamas prior to October 7th, 2023? I thought our top ally in the Middle East was Israel—the only Democratic country in the region. Seems like we’ve gone through the looking glass.

THE CONUNDRUM OF THE MIDDLE EAST

The Middle East is both complex and simple. Complex because of layers of propaganda and obfuscation contrived by the Communists who coached Yassir Arafat in the late 60s and 70s, teaching him to cast the Palestinians as victims. (See my article Israel in the Crosshairs, Part 1, A Soviet Psyop Second to None). Actually, they were never “Palestinians” in the first place, as “Palestine” was a term used synonymously with “Zion” and “Israel.”

Here’s what Zuheir Mohsen, a leader in the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), said in a 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper 'Trouw':

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity.

The Arabs in Gaza prior to 1948 were not “Palestinians,” but Arab Muslims from nearby countries such as Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who were living in Israeli territory prior to the 1948 war. They fled their homes, at the behest of their leaders, who promised they would return as victors in that war, and would not only get their homes back, but could then pillage and claim Jewish property as well. So in the meantime, their leaders evacuated them to refugee camps. Their Arab leaders, not the Jews.

Ever since, from 1948 to 2025—that’s 77 years—they’ve been crying about their stolen land, which is a lie wrapped in a fiction that is still being promulgated by the Arab press and Hamas leaders. You’ve got to hand it to the Arab Muslim PR campaign against Israel. Topnotch. By the way, the only people starving in Gaza in the last two years were the Israeli hostages.

So much for the complex part.

The simple part? Most of Israel’s Arab neighbors are committed to Israel’s destruction. What else explains the attacks by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, and by Iran, that took place during and after the brutal massacre by Hamas and Gazan civilians on the Jewish holy day of Simchat Torah on October 7th, 2023?

A TRUMPIAN SOLUTION THAT MISSES THE POINT

Here’s Trump with more Pollyanna-style reasoning:

It should be clear to everyone throughout this region that decades of fomenting terrorism and extremism, jihadism and antisemitism have not worked — they have backfired completely and totally. From Gaza to Iran, those bitter hatreds have delivered nothing but misery, suffering and failure.

Yes, Mr. President. Correct.

But that’s what jihadist Arab Muslims actually want. In fact, that’s their lifelong goal! That’s their mission. That’s what they believe Allah wants them to dedicate their lives to, in addition to imposing Sharia law over all the infidels of the West they don’t manage to kill first. That’s why they were dancing in the streets of Gaza on October 7th. And that’s why they’ve been celebrating this current peace deal that will enable Hamas to gear up for their next attack on their Jewish neighbor.

Apparently, Trump didn’t get their chief memo: First the Saturday people. Then the Sunday people.

Translation: First, we’ll kill the Jews. Then the Christians.

A FEW WORDS OF ADVICE

During his campaign in 2016, Trump was fond of reading a poem called The Snake. Here’s how it ends:

“I saved you,” cried the woman

“And you’ve bitten me, but why?

And you know your bite is poisonous and now I’m gonna die”

“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin

“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.”

Maybe Donald should read that poem again. And while he can orchestrate a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, he may be the only person on the planet who believes this will turn into lasting peace in the Middle East.

But since Hamas has already violated the peace agreement—much sooner than I’d anticipated—and Trump has already threatened them with military might, whether ours or Israel’s or both is not yet clear, things are looking up.

Here's my prediction: Since Hamas, being true to form, has already violated the Peace Plan, Trump will give Israel the green light to temporarily evacuate civilians and wipe out Hamas, lock, stock and tunnel. Then, Israel will rebuild and resettle Gaza, which they never should have left as they did in 2005. Finally, those Palestinians who want to return to a demilitarized Gaza strip can return, living peacefully side by side with Israelis as many Arabs do in Israel. And the others can emigrate to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc. End of story.

And one last word of advice for our President: Return the 747.