As I write these words (Oct 19, ’25), Israeli army forces in Gaza are pounding terrorist sites in response to a deadly attack on an Israeli army vehicle that constituted a serious breach of the “ceasefire”. This comes in the wake of Hamas’ dogged foot-dragging in returning all the bodies of Israeli hostages who died in their hands, despite their commitment to do so in the first stage of U.S. President Donald Trump’s twenty-point “Peace Agreement”.
Quite naturally there was enormous relief and joy in Israel at the return of the few surviving hostages after their horrific two-year captivity in Gaza. Yet despite President Trump’s typically verbose fanfare trumpeting his great achievement in making the deal, few in Israel expect it to hold.
Unexplained mysteries
There are many unexplained mysteries about the October 7 Gaza war, none greater than the question as to who in Israel’s top echelon gave the order to disable the super-sophisticated surveillance system on the Israel-Gaza border that was supposed to make an incursion like that of Hamas on October 7 impossible, and why the Israeli army response to the incursion on that day was delayed for as many as eight hours at the cost of hundreds of Israeli dead and injured. Clearly some very high-up figures, who knew from prior intelligence about Hamas’ plans, wanted a war to break out, regardless of the cost, but as to their motive, we can only speculate.
Some theorize that Israel’s deep state wanted to show that Israel is ultimately unable to conquer Gaza and can never return to the “Greater Israel” dream. At the same time these same actors were not in the least unhappy to have Israeli soldiers, among the most highly-motivated and heroic of whom come from the hareidi and national religious sectors, sent into death-traps, as a result of which nearly a thousand of the flower of our youth have been killed while nearly ten thousand sustained serious injuries including loss of arms, legs, vision, hearing and general mental balance, not to speak of all those in the nation as a whole who have been traumatized for life by their experiences in the course of two years of daily rocket and missile attacks.
Many question the reason for the apparent lack of strategy and determination with which the Israel leadership conducted the war at many stages. Another question is how come, after two years of near stalemate, the sudden coalition of the leading Hamas patrons, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, that came together in Sharm-el-Sheikh with numerous other countries such UK and France etc. all eager to jump on the bandwagon, succeeded in pressuring Hamas into ostensibly agreeing to the Trump peace plan after all previous efforts had failed.
Neutral mediator?
Regretfully, I cannot view President Donald Trump as the neutral, peace-seeking mediator he likes to present himself as being. Among other favors, he himself is the recipient of the gift of a cutting-edge luxury jet airplane from Qatar, Hamas’ principle patron, while his immediate family members have enormous financial interests there.
It may be argued that it was precisely Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s business connections in Qatar that gave him the muscle to clinch the deal. On the other hand, to Jews and our allies and fellow-travelers who cherish the prophetic vision of end-times Israel, this Gaza “peace” plan is in fact entirely retrogressive. Contrary to Trump’s vision of the future Gaza as a top-end Mediterranean vacation and pleasure spa, the prophet Amos says that at the end of days, fire will devour the walls and towers of Gaza (is this what we have witnessed in the last two years?) and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish (Amos 1:7-8).
Likewise, the prophet Tzephaniah says that at the end of days Gaza will be abandoned, and the entire coastal region will become pasture for sheep (peaceful citizens?) and fall to the lot of the tribe of Judah (Tzephaniah 2:4-7).
The sycophantic flattery that was poured out to Savior President Trump in the Israeli Knesset and media at the time of his visit was far in excess of anything genuinely deserved through any actual concrete achievement. On the contrary, most of what has been accomplished has proved to be nothing but hot air, and if any of the operative clauses in the agreement are actually fulfilled, I fear that far from being genuinely messianic, Trump’s deal merely sets back the true Redemption for which we yearn.
Legions of Gog and Magog
My personal hunch is that Qatar, Turkey and Egypt and all the other pro-Hamas countries well heeded the palpable shift in recent months in Israel’s dealings with Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi in Yemen, when she took off the velvet gloves and rendered swift, deadly and decisive blows to our enemies. Hamas’ band of international supporters feared that with the new Israeli verve, she might indeed go on to destroy Hamas entirely and reoccupy Gaza in fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Rather than risk that, they all came together to pressure the Hamas leadership to release the few remaining Israeli hostages while secretly promising to rebrand the movement and install an international “peace-keeping” force in Gaza that will prove to be as useless as all previous such forces (as in pre-1967 Sinai and in Lebanon until today), thereby allowing a new incarnation of Hamas to arise against Israel in the future.
An international force of “peace-keepers” in Gaza would simply make it more difficult for Israel to operate against her enemies when they regroup and rearm, which is a near certainty. In this “peace agreement” we see how the nations of the world, the current incarnation of the forces of Gog and Magog, have united to prevent the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Taqiyya
One wonders if President Trump and his team understand that Taqiyya, intentional dissimulation and the employment of willful deception against one’s enemies, has been one of the principle foundations of Islam in dealings with non-Moslems from the time of its inception until today. Again and again, Trump has stressed that Qatar is an independent mediator, and has even granted permission for a Qatari air base on USA soil in Idaho.
Does Trump not understand that Qatar is governed by a tiny elite of Islamic fundamentalists who are served by a class of virtual slaves, aliens with no rights? That a huge share of the untold billions that accrue from Qatar’s enormous oil and gas revenues is devoted to aggressive mosque building and Islamic community expansion across the western world, while simultaneously financing entire university departments instilling the jihadi worldview in the all-too-receptive minds of new generations of alienated students? Is it not Qatar that has for years hosted Hamas’ leadership clique, Israel’s worst sworn enemies, under luxury conditions, from the safety of which they planned their war and issued directives to their minions in Gaza itself.
Pyrrhic victory
Despite Trump’s self-congratulatory bluster, all he actually delivered to Israel was little more than a Pyrrhic victory. Without question even the release of a few living hostages is huge and would not have been possible without the heroism and sacrifices of the Israeli forces who actually fought on the ground. Even so, the release of the hostages and the as-yet unfulfilled promise of the return of all our dead are little but a candy-coating for a deal that in actual fact is totally unlikely to be implemented except to Israel’s detriment, and which, without giving us complete control over Gaza, is little comfort for the loss of nearly a thousand of our soldiers and nearly ten thousand others seriously injured.
Within days of the fanfare announcement of the “peace deal”, Hamas were reasserting their authority, executing dozens of their internal enemies on the streets, while shamelessly expressing their absolute refusal to surrender their weapons or to step down from governing Gaza, and declaring their full intent to continue their war against Israel and to repeat their murderous incursion of October 7.
Misguided idealists and visionaries may wish to believe that evil people can be reformed, and in a few cases it may be possible. However, the beast of Amalek – those who murder the weak and vulnerable, young and old, who rape, plunder and destroy – cannot be overcome with smiles, smooth talk and paper peace agreements.
Restoring deterrence
There is an urgent need for President Donald Trump, and likewise for the leadership of all other countries where civilization itself is under attack by radical Jihadis, to understand that as taught by the universal Torah code for all nations, Noahide law, willful murderers, rapists, violent robbers and the like must be punished with death.
Without the systematic application of the death penalty and other severe punishments, the escalating waves of murder, rape and violence in all these countries will only increase. For the fact is that liberal judiciaries which as a matter of course deal with excessive lenience if not blind eyes towards obvious criminals, have merely undermined all deterrence.
Much could and should be said about other subjects, but it will have to wait for another time. Now that all the surviving Israeli hostages have come home from Gaza and the main mission of the campaign to bring them back has been accomplished, one wonders what Israel’s deep state, woke left wing and mainstream media will find to bring up next to promote controversy, divisions and hatred among us and distract us from our task of being holy Jews devoted to the service of the Almighty.
Global antisemitism
Outside of Israel overt and shameless hatred of Jews, Israelis, Judaism and Zionism has reached levels unimaginable since the days of the Holocaust, to the point where in countries all over the world Jews and Israelis suffer daily abuse and are in dire physical danger. While this hatred is coming from many different sectors of the surrounding population, the fires are being determinedly fanned by aggressive jihadi Moslems.
The sway of Ishmael over the entire world was foreseen long ago by the Torah sages (Pirkey d’Rabbi Eliezer, Zohar Lech Lecha etc.) If it is indeed inevitable, then instead of trying to take the horns of the bull and fight it directly, perhaps we need to ask ourselves how we can find peaceful ways to play our part in helping to bring about G-d’s intent through actively promoting Torah knowledge among all who are willing to listen to us.
Thus Rambam (Maimonides) at the conclusion of his Mishneh Torah code (Laws of Kings chapter 11), states that the spread of Christianity and Islam across the world were foreordained through G-d’s inscrutable wisdom in order to familiarize people throughout the world with teachings that are ultimately rooted in the Torah, in order to prepare the way for the eventual revelation of the Torah of Mashiach at the end of days bringing all people to knowledge of the true God.
Let Jewish people summon the courage to discuss Torah beliefs and practices openly with all Jews and gentiles who are willing to dialogue with us. Among Jews themselves and in our families and networks of friends and connectins, we need to openly address what we believe in and how this relates to what Islam and other faiths teach.
Our children at risk
Jewish children who are enrolled in public education in western countries are today likely to be exposed to Islamic beliefs and practices in the classroom from very early ages. For parents who cannot afford private schooling and are unable to homeschool, it is imperative to immunize their children against unfavorable influences by making sure they have clear understanding of what our own tradition teaches.
To believe that Israel’s sworn enemies will ever truly relent except through the hand of G-d is surely as great an illusion as to believe that a venomous serpent or a raging lion can be charmed into becoming your tender, loving friend.
We have none upon whom to depend except our Father in Heaven. What we must always remember is that we cannot leave Israel’s wars for others to fight, because our wars are military and spiritual at the same time, and even those who are non-combatants in the military sphere have the obligation to fight God’s war on the spiritual plane, namely the war in our hearts against the evil inclination, the war in the home and in the community to follow the ways of peace and overcome strife, the war in the jungle of the wider world to seek to follow the Torah.
“G-d wants the heart”. May we serve Him with all our hearts and all our might throughout this New Year 5786, and may we be worthy to see the true Redemption very soon in our times. Amen!
