Peace in the Middle East
It used to be a joke. "Well I got that [name any very challenging task] completed and for my next magic trick I'll go bring peace to the Middle East."
Finally, onto the scene came a magician who could make it happen - President Donald J. Trump.
But let's admit it, we're not all the way there. The last of the living hostages are back, the Israeli Defense Force has pulled back and humanitarian aid is moving in unrestricted. But, that's just the "first Phase."
The next part is fleshing out the remaining points of Trump's 20 point peace plan. If that is implemented even 80% there will be dramatic improvements in the lives of the Palestinian people living in Gaza, which will make future conflicts extremely unlikely.
I stand with the Palestinian people and want to see them benefit from this. For this to work, we need to recognize that the interests of Hamas and the interests of the Palestinian residents of Gaza are not the same.
For this peace deal to succeed, Hamas has to give up control of the local government. The events of October 7 and after demonstrated that for years, Hamas used their control of the Gaza government to confiscate food, money, medicine and anything else of value to fund its development of a network of tunnels, purchases of weaponry, and paying for the lavish lifestyle of certain Hamas leaders living in Qatar. All of that to the detriment of the Palestinian residents of Gaza.
For this peace deal to work, the parties involved and the transition government have to put an end to the way Hamas was running things. We can't have governments, charities and businesses trying to rebuild Gaza and having to pay ransom to Hamas or having their equipment stolen to enable Hamas to rebuild its military capabilities.
It means the transition government has to ensure that if someone opposes Hamas, those persons don't get hauled off and beaten or killed, as happened just last month when"32 members of a rival gang" were killed by Hamas.*
The other organization that needs to be reined in is the United Nations. Israel claims UN staff who were part of UNRWA were supporting Hamas and actually participated in the October 7 attack on Israel, the UN investigated confirmed 9 persons may have done so and those individuals are no longer employed by the UNRWA.** The UN had nothing to do with the brokering of this peace deal and given the anti-Israel bias they have demonstrated for decades via resolutions and other measures they have adopted, which ultimately resulted in their staff aiding Hamas, they should not be allowed to participate in implementing the remaining points.
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