Israel With Trump's Vision of Peace in Middle East

 Nadene Goldfoot

                                             

Kiryat Gat (Hebrew: קריית גת, lit. 'City of Gat') It lies 56 km (35 miles) south of Tel Aviv, 43 km (27 mi) north of Beersheba, and 68 km (42 mi) west southwest of Jerusalem. In 2023 it had a population of 69,762. The city hosts one of the most advanced semiconductor fabrication plants in the world, Intel's Fab 28 plant producing 7 nm process chips. Portlanders might be interested that this comes close to cities in Oregon of Medford that has a population of about 85,000, while Albany has around 56,000. The population of other cities like Corvallis and Eugene are significantly higher.                         

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the U.S.-led command center in Kiryat Gat, which is responsible for monitoring the ongoing ceasefire, facilitating humanitarian aid and laying groundwork for a future stabilization force in Gaza. 

He reiterated that no state will allow the involvement of Hamas in managing Gaza’s future security. 

Rubio said that an international security force created to stabilize Gaza will only include troops from countries that Israel is comfortable with. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for sanctions and an arms embargo to be imposed on Israel, accusing it of violating the ceasefire in Gaza. [which is why Israel isn't "comfortable" with Turkish troops joining the international force.]

All but one of the hostages were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.

Israel is awaiting the return of the bodies of 2 more hostages this weekend.  All the living hostages have been returned. 

Hamas has been severely degraded and the IDF still controls around half of Gaza, which serves as a security buffer along the Israeli border.

Hamas terrorists still seem to be in firm control of their part of Gaza, which includes the overwhelming majority of the Strip's population, and Hamas isn't disarming, as they are meant to do per the ceasefire agreement.

 The fact that they lost thousands of fighters and caused the deaths of thousands of civilians and the destruction of most of Gaza doesn't trouble them.

 Remember, they are a Jihadist organization whose mission is to destroy Israel at all costs. 

          Sinwar holding toddler 

Sinwar and the Hamas leadership knew very well the death and destruction that would occur as a result of their barbaric Oct. 7 attack -- the IDF captured the files and documents that prove that -- and yet they felt that it was well worth it if it could fulfill their Jihad.

 The late Egyptian President Ansar Sadat reportedly said, before the Yom Kippur War of 1973, that he was willing to sacrifice one million lives to destroy Israel. 

  

Hamas was more than willing to sacrifice 30 or 40 thousand. 

The Arab countries  won. Israel removed their biggest threat, Iran, and they are now closer than ever to the U.S. and will undoubtedly getting lots of great gifts in exchange for their support of Trump's peace deal, in addition to their growing influence in Washington.  

    Turkey and Qatar: Each finds Israel as their enemy having Qatar supporting Qaradawi for ages and Turkey with grandeur ideas of the Ottoman Empire as one of their rulers.  

For the time being, it doesn't look like Hamas is exiting the plot of our story, and it seems to still have the support of Turkey and Qatar. 

Even some Jewish groups have swallowed the line told against Israel without any checking.  

The tens of millions of university students and liberal revolutionaries demonstrating their support for Hamas  have been growing and nurturing for decades.  

The Muslim countries in the Middle East include Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. A map showing the Middle East will display these nations, often alongside non-Muslim majority countries like Israel. Trump has helped leading the Arab States to join the Abraham Accords, of which The countries that belong to the Abraham Accords are Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. Sudan also signed the general declaration, but its full bilateral agreement has been delayed due to political instability. 

• Israel: The primary country normalizing relations with Arab nations.
• United Arab Emirates (UAE): Signed the agreement in 2020.
• Bahrain: Signed the agreement in 2020.
• Morocco: Joined the Accords in December 2020.
• Sudan: Signed the general declaration in January 2021, but has not yet completed its bilateral agreement.

As of late 2025, five Muslim-majority nations have formal peace treaties or normalization agreements with Israel. The first two agreements were comprehensive peace treaties, while the three most recent ones are normalization agreements signed under the Abraham Accords.                           

 

• Egypt (1979): The Egypt-Israel peace treaty was a landmark agreement following the Camp David Accords. In exchange for peace, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. While the peace has been described as "cold," full diplomatic relations were established and have held.                               
  
  
  
• Jordan (1994): The treaty between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan officially ended the state of war that had existed since 1948. The agreement settled border and water disputes, established diplomatic relations, and included cooperation on trade and tourism. 

At the end of the day, Israel is still surrounded by countries and populations who would rather it not exist, and the moment they can make that a reality, they will.

 Hezbollah is still around in the north and Hamas is looking like it'll be sticking around in the south. Israel killed at least a dozen senior Hamas military and political officials during the first year of the Gaza war.  Its most daring operations killed Haniyeh in Tehran and Mohammed Deif, the chief Hamas military commander, in Gaza, both in July 2024. In January, Mossad chief David Barnea vowed that Israel was “committed to settling accounts” with everyone involved—“directly or indirectly,” including “planners and envoys”—in the Hamas invasion of Gaza. “It’ll take time, as it took time after the Munich massacre, but we will put our hands on them wherever they are,” he said, referring to the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

Iran might be defanged for the moment, but they'll bide their time and wait for a more "favorable" U.S. administration, and then pick up where they left off. 

 Israel is still at war with its neighbors that produce terrorists  and much of the world. Maybe Trump can pull off his vision of peace in the Middle East? We can hope and pray. But what happens when he isn't president anymore? Is peace only PIE IN THE SKY?? More prayer...]

Resource:

israelAM

We Argued With G-d

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

                    Abraham and Lot, his nephew
      Remember the story of Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt?  The story of Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt is found in the Old Testament book of Genesis, specifically in Genesis 19. To understand why this happened, we need to explore the context of the events leading up to this incident, the significance of salt in biblical symbolism, and the lessons that can be drawn from this narrative.  

• The victorious coalition of four kings from the East captured Lot and looted the city of Sodom, where Lot lived. The four kings were Amraphel of Shinar, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim.

Abraham (b: c.1948 BCE)  had a brother, Haran and Lot was his son.  He went with Abraham from Aram-Naharaim to Canaan.  While on the trek, their shepherds argued with each other over pasture land, and they all separated.  Lot settled in Sodom (you know, Sodom and Gemmora?) He was captured by 5 kings but was rescued by Abraham. The defeated coalition of five kings included the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, who had previously rebelled against Chedorlaomer. 

Lot had his escape from Sodom, and was warned not to look back.  Lot's wife did, anyway, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.  

• Abraham arguing for Sodom: In the Book of Genesis, Abraham directly challenges God's plan to destroy the city of Sodom. He bargains with God, asking if he would spare the city for the sake of 50, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, and finally 10 righteous people.

The bargaining between God and Abraham for Sodom is found in Genesis 18:16-33. It was Abraham, not Lot, who pleaded with God, arguing that the city should not be destroyed if there were righteous people within it. The dialogue starts with Abraham asking if God will spare the city for 50 righteous people and, through his bargaining, reduces the number to 10, which is the final number mentioned in the negotiation.  . 

• The conduct of the people of Sodom was terrible and more than justified the Divine judgment of its corruption.  Lot had showed that his years with Abraham had ennobled him so much that although Sodom had made a mark on him, he had remained righteous, even heroically so.  Despite the mortal danger of being hospitable to visitors in the cruel environment of Sodom, Lot took the "men" into his home.  There they said they wanted to KNOW them, meaning they wanted to sodomize them.  (Rashi, Ibn Ezra)
  
      Where tribes turned into kingdoms; Ammon and Moab

Lot also had something terrible happen to him.  Evidently he and his daughters , then grown-up were in an isolated place for a long stretch and the girls gave up hope of ever meeting a man and having children.  They decided their father would have to father their possible children, so they got him drunk and the inevitable happened.  Two sons were the result;  Ammon and Moab.  This happened a good 4,000 +years ago. They became our distant cousins; now no longer in existence. 

This shows me that if Lot could argue with G-d, then so can we under certain circumstances;  like standing up for  the Jewish people who lived in Skogie, Illinois when the Nazis came and berated them with their presence. However, I'm sure that many Holocaust victims did this as well, asking G-d for their lives or the lives of their family, and G-d didn't reply.  One must remember that Abraham asked;  not Lot. Even G-d knows when to bend his own rules once in a while.  We are not robots only able to follow what directions are fed into us.  We had minds.   

Now, since the Holocaust, we are asking again to save our people.  Let us hope we will be and are worthy enough as a human to be heard.      

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

The Bible (Tanach)-the Stone Edition, ArtScroll Series by Me'sorah Publications, Ltd.  

 

Hamas Terrorists Stalling And What It Might Lead To

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August 2, 1984) 41 years old,  is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who is the 50th vice president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 2023 to 2025. During his tenure as vice president, Vance has also served as the finance chair of the Republican National Committee.  President Donald Trump is 38 years older than Vance.  

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Israel yesterday to advance the launch of an international task force, led by the U.S., focused on recovering the remains of hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. 

While Hamas has returned the remains of several hostages, most of the remains of the 28 hostages who were killed either on October 7th or in captivity, are still in Gaza. Hamas claims that they don't know where all of the bodies are or are unable to locate them in the rubble. U.S. officials have emphasized the importance of recovering all hostages, both living and deceased, as a prerequisite for moving forward with the next phases of the ceasefire deal.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said yesterday, during his visit to Israel, that the Trump peace plan was moving forward in a positive way despite violations of the ceasefire by Hamas.  (We remember that if this occurred, action would be then taken.) 

Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981)age 44,  is an American businessman and investor. He is the son-in-law of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, through his marriage to Ivanka Trump and served as a senior advisor in his father-in-law's first administration from 2017 to 2021. He was also director of the Office of American Innovation, the new operation being run by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. Announced with much fanfare by the president in March, the office was set up to bring “new thinking and real change” to the country’s toughest problems, according to Trump, in part by drawing on the lessons of the private sector. (a huge undertaking!)

Jared Kushner stated that no financial aid or investment would flow into the part of Gaza that was still under Hamas control, until the terror group was disarmed and removed from rule.

Leaders of Fatah, Hamas who could not get along or agree

Meanwhile, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 59% of Americans, including 80% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans, think the US should recognize Palestinian statehood. (My question is WHY ?) They are the world's worst enemy of the Jewish people.  They only want to drive out all Jews from their homes, as they proved on October 7, 2023.  They never belonged to "Palestine" (Judea and Samaria) in the first place; but in nations around it.  They are terrorists who couldn't even manage Gaza without Israel's help.  Here is the public who is undereducated about Israel and Hamas and then again, don't even care about the lives of Jews at stake once again.  What they see on TV is what they believe or care about like they are watching a football game.  

So, their "chosen ones" Hamas said it would stop public executions (of their own people) after Trump warned in a TruthSocial post:

"Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and “straighten our Hamas” if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us. 

The love and spirit for the Middle East has not been seen like this in a thousand years! It is a beautiful thing to behold! I told these countries, and Israel, “NOT YET!” There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right. If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL! I would like to thank all of those countries that called to help. Also, I would like to thank the great and powerful country of Indonesia, and its wonderful leader, for all of the help they have shown and given to the Middle East, and to the U.S.A. TO EVERYONE, thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP"

Unfortunately, while the public executions might have been halted, the off-camera executions are continue at scale, according to sources in Gaza. It's also unclear what Arab countries would be willing to send in troops to forcefully stop Hamas, as none have publicly agreed to do so. Will Israel have to do the job?

Resource:

israelAM

https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/07/01/jared-kushner-office-american-innovation-000470/

Nazis Entering The Picture In Washington

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

  Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem before 1948, was also friends with Nazis; and now we have Americans falling for their line again. The Anti-Defamation League reports on its in-depth investigation into the membership of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) in America, which resulted in the complete or partial identification of just over 300 of the group's approximately 500 members and close associates nationwide.

There have been several recent news reports about Trump's associations with individuals accused of expressing antisemitic, white nationalist, or pro-Nazi views, many of whom are younger Republicans. These include:                             

Paul Joseph Ingrassia (born May 13, 1995) age 30,  is an American attorney and political commentator who has served as the White House liaison to the United States Department of Homeland Security since 2025. "Special Counsel of the United States" can refer to two distinct roles: the head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which protects federal employees from retaliation, or a special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice to investigate specific cases, such as the one investigating the president, like Jack Smith. The OSC Special Counsel focuses on a range of prohibited personnel practices against government employees, including whistleblowing, and is appointed for a five-year term. A DOJ special counsel is a temporary, independent prosecutor appointed to investigate sensitive matters where there is a conflict of interest for the usual prosecuting authority. 

Ingrassia's tenure in the administration has been marked by controversy, including public reports about Ingrassia's racist text messages that led several Republican senators to oppose his nomination as Special Counsel of the United States. His appointment was postponed following public backlash over his lack of legal experience, rumored association with neo-Nazis, and prior comments denigrating federal workers.

Paul Ingrassia

• In October 2025, Politico reported on leaked text messages from 2017 in which Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, 30-year-old Paul Ingrassia, expressed racist and antisemitic views.
• In one text, Ingrassia wrote that he had a "Nazi streak," while in another, he suggested that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be "tossed into the seventh circle of hell".
• The New York Times reported that Republicans were raising opposition to his nomination as a result.  What's the Democrats waiting for?  
• At least four Republican senators, including the Senate majority leader, signaled their opposition to Paul Ingrassia, the president’s pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel.

• Ingrassia has worked at Joseph D. McBride's law firm, The McBride Law Firm, representing clients accused of having participated in the January 6 Capitol attack. As noted in The Daily Dot, Ingrassia varied the way he represented his title and position at The McBride Law Firm, referring to himself as an "Associate Attorney," an "Associate," and a "Law Clerk" at various times on his personal Substack blog and social media channels in the period before he was admitted to the bar in New York. Despite not being a member of the bar, Ingrassia purported to represent Andrew Tate in his legal affairs. A press release from The McBride Law Firm issued July 19, 2023 called Ingrassia an Associate Attorney and member of Andrew Tate's "Legal Team."

  Ingrassia was admitted to the New York bar as an attorney on July 30, 2024.                                 

  

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli of New Jersey

• In September 2024, NPR reported that Trump's Bedminster golf club twice hosted convicted January 6 rioter Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, whom federal prosecutors have described as a "Nazi sympathizer" and a "white supremacist".
• He was an army reservist who had stormed the capitol and sentenced to 4 years from January 6th now making the news.  He claimed to the judge that he didn't know that Congress met at the Capitol, and the judge wouldn't buy it.  

•   At the time of the Capitol breach, Hale-Cusanelli was enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves. Hale-Cusanelli worked as a contractor at a naval weapons station, where he had a “secret” security clearance, and has since been barred from the facility.

              Hale-Cusanelli was arrested on Jan. 15, 2021. He was found guilty by a jury on May 27, 2022, of a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, and four related misdemeanors: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol Building. At sentencing today, the Court found that Hale-Cusanelli obstructed justice during the trial, when he made certain statements under oath, and applied an enhancement to the sentence. Following his prison term, Hale-Cusanelli will be placed on three years of supervised release. He also must pay $2,000 in restitution.

  
  By the end of World War II, the association with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler made it unfashionable, leading to it being colloquially termed the "Hitler moustache".It is arguably illegal in Germany if you are doing it specifically to glorify or emulate Adolf Hitler. Being a neo-nazi is  illegal there.  Hale-Cusanelli has a history of making antisemitic comments and was pictured sporting a "Hitler mustache".Nazi sympathizer and Army reservist who stormed the Capitol sentenced to 4 years in Jan. 6 case. Federal prosecutors sought 6½ years in prison for Timothy Hale-Cusanelli of New Jersey. A judge called his claim he didn’t know Congress met at the Capitol a "risible lie."
• Following the reports, Jewish groups raised concerns about Hale-Cusanelli being given a prominent platform at the event.
• Even as he has made inroads with non-white voters, Trump has consistently drawn support from white nationalist and extremist groups while using racially divisive rhetoric. He promoted the false claim that Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, was not born in the U.S. In his 2024 campaign, he suggested immigrants commit violent crimes because “it’s in their genes,” a remark condemned by many as racist.
  Stout said his group opposes violence. Yet the Aryan Freedom Network openly advocates preparing for a “Racial Holy War.” It promotes white superiority ideology, seeks to unify elements of the broader white nationalist movement and actively recruits former members of other extremist groups.
  The Trump administration has scaled back efforts to counter domestic 
• extremism, redirecting resources toward immigration enforcement and
•  citing the southern border as the top security threat. The Federal 
• Bureau of Investigation has reduced staffing in its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section. The Department of Homeland Security has cut personnel in its violence prevention office.
• Around the country today, a more true form of democratic socialism is not only taking form but growing in the form of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Following last year's election and the rise of self-proclaimed democratic socialist and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), the group has reportedly seen its membership grow to about 25,000 people, according to The Guardian.
• Resource:  
• https://www.newsweek.com/nazis-democrats-socialists-alt-right-650572
•