Wednesday, February 05, 2025
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Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
Could Trump have been misled about Witkoff and his ceasefire
deal? It is certainly not a good look for the president. Trump threatens Hamas,
then caves to its demands and compels Israel to capitulate to Hamas.
We all heard the president threaten Hamas that those hostages better be released before he takes office. We heard Trump say that all hell would break loose and that it would frankly not be good for Hamas.
Does it not seem strange then, that Trump would make Israel pay
Hamas a ransom of 1700 terrorists for 33 hostages? Perhaps the president didn’t
understand the full implications, didn’t realize it would be a capitulation of
both Israel and America to terrorist demands. It would be interesting to know
what conversations are going on behind closed doors. Is Trump really happy with
what was done here by his envoy, Witkoff?
Gatestone Fellow Khaled Abu Toameh hints at a Trump unhappy with the ceasefire deal after
the fact:
Witkoff, who regrettably took a terrible, ready-to-wear deal from the Biden administration -- a deal ensuring that Hamas will remain in power in the Gaza Strip -- is proving an unfortunate embarrassment to Trump.
From the beginning, the deal should have been, as then-President-elect Trump put it, that all the hostages must be released before his inauguration or "all hell will break out." Such a warning presupposes that all the hostages, dead and alive, are placed at the border, on a certain date at a certain time. No negotiations, no release of hundreds of terrorists, nothing -- just like the release of American hostages from Iran under President Ronald Reagan in 1981. It would be interesting to know how Trump's strong, original vision got so badly derailed.
Does it seem logical that President Trump would force Israel
to capitulate rather than rain down hell on Hamas? Now Biden, sure. Biden set
the scene back in May. In the Biden scenario, Israel always capitulates.
Always. No wonder Biden wants to take credit for Witkoff’s "perfect" deal, as one Fox talk show personality gushed--why do all the Fox people think the ceasefire is so great?
This is not how it should have gone down. We should have got our hostages for free and kept our people safe.
Witkoff’s deal was Biden’s deal of capitulation. What Witkoff did was take an existing framework, Biden’s framework, and ram it home. Because Donald Trump wanted it done before he took office. But did Witkoff jump the gun, perhaps forcing this deal down Israel’s throat without Trump’s full knowledge or understanding? Is it Donald Trump’s style to put Israel in this position, particularly when Israel had the upper hand with Hamas.
The kindest way to view this ceasefire deal is to see it as a mistake. Everyone
makes them. Even Trump. That makes the implications no less grave.
Many terrorists were released to Judea and Samaria, where numerous American
Israelis live, including this writer. We are, by large, Trump voters and our communities
have been disproportionately targeted by terror. Countless of our family
members, Americans, have been killed by terrorists that are now in the process
of being released from Israeli prisons into the Arab villages that border our
towns.
We are affected on every level. We thrill to the release of every hostage and drink
in every story of every released captive, and yet, we find the ceasefire deal
absolutely appalling. In fact, none of the people I know are in favor of this
ceasefire deal. We are absolutely sickened that murderers—many with the blood
of local American citizens on their hands—now roam nearby.
It would be nice to think that perhaps in this one area President Trump erred by relying on the wrong person, namely Witkoff. Well, to err is human. Everyone makes mistakes. Even Donald Trump.
Nonetheless, it is a serious failing. What is the moral justification for letting murderers out of prison into the civilian populace? And what of those terrorists slated to be deported to other countries with whom Israel has fraught relations? Who will keep track of them and their murderous agendas? It is madness to release even one terrorist, let alone 1700 of them into the wild. Is this really what President Trump supports?
In every other way, Trump has been just in regard to Israel and the Jews, and we appreciate that, but putting us in this position of capitulating to Hamas is unconscionable. I, for one, hope that during his meeting with President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu will apprise the president of the 82% recidivism rate for terrorists released from Israeli prisons in past exchanges, among their number, Sinwar.
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