Middle East and Terrorism: 2025

Thursday, February 6, 2025

How Hamas Plans To Foil Trump's Gaza Plan - Khaled Abu Toameh

by Khaled Abu Toameh

Hamas does not want any US intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The terrorist group, together with Iran's terror proxies, fear that this would disrupt their Jihad (holy war) against Israel.

Hamas is basically saying that if the Trump administration dares to implement the relocation and reconstruction plan, the terrorist organization will unleash a wave of terrorism against Americans and Palestinians.
Hamas does not want any US intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The terrorist group, together with Iran's terror proxies, fear that this would disrupt their Jihad (holy war) against Israel.
For the Trump plan to succeed, the US must insist on the removal of Hamas from power and the disarming of all the terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
It will take several years to rebuild the Gaza Strip and make it habitable once again. The Trump administration will be gone by then. The biggest fear is that a future US administration will fail to block the return of terrorists to the rebuilt Gaza Strip.
If that happens, it will be a matter of time before the Gaza Strip once again becomes a large base for jihadists not only from Hamas, but other Islamist terror groups for whom Israel and the US are the Number 1 target.

Hamas is basically saying that if the Trump administration dares to implement the relocation and reconstruction plan, the terrorist organization will unleash a wave of terrorism against Americans and Palestinians. For the Trump plan to succeed, the US must insist on the removal of Hamas from power and the disarming of all the terror groups in the Gaza Strip. Pictured: Hamas terrorists n Khan Yunis, Gaza, on February 1, 2025. (Photo by Moiz Salhi/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

The Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has responded to US President Donald Trump's plan to relocate the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip by threatening to resort to violence against Americans.

In a statement, Hamas said that the Palestinians will "confront the plan with resistance and necessary force."

This threat is directed not only against the US, but also against Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, many of whom would be happy to move to another place where they could live in security and peace. Hamas is basically saying that if the Trump administration dares to implement the relocation and reconstruction plan, the terrorist organization will unleash a wave of terrorism against Americans and Palestinians.

The Trump administration should not underestimate such threats by Hamas, which started the war in the Gaza Strip 15 months ago when its members, together with thousands of "ordinary" Palestinians, attacked Israel, murdered more than 1,200 people and wounded thousands others. Another 250 Israelis, including children, women, and the elderly, were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 79 are still held in captivity.

Hamas already bears full responsibility for the death of thousands of Palestinians and the destruction of the Gaza Strip.

Since the announcement of the US-brokered ceasefire-hostage deal in mid-January, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have discovered that during the war, their homes were destroyed. Large parts of the Gaza Strip, especially the northern part, have become uninhabitable because of the absence of water, electricity and medical facilities, and the presence of unexploded bombs.

"There is no life in the northern Gaza Strip," said a Gaza resident.

"The documentation on social media reflects only 20% of the destruction. The situation is indescribable. People don't understand the situation. The brain collapses. People have started talking to themselves."

Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid pointed out that many Palestinians living under Hamas wanted to leave the Gaza Strip long before the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023.

"When I asked my Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza what their top priorities were before the war, their answers were clear: a job to support their families, access to quality education, and reliable healthcare. Now, many are left jobless, homeless, and desperate for a future that seems impossible. With Gaza in ruins and Hamas holding its grip on the people, the situation is dire.

"President Trump's proposal to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza offers a lifeline. It provides the opportunity to escape the suffocating control of Hamas and to find a place where they can rebuild their lives — where their children can have access to education, where they can work with dignity, and where their families can be safe and healthy. It's not just a chance for relocation, but a real opportunity for liberation from terror, for a future they deserve.

"This isn't about abandoning Gaza; it's about giving its people a way out of oppression. The hope is that one day they can return to a Gaza that is free from Hamas, where peace and prosperity can truly take root."

Hamas does not want any US intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The terrorist group, together with Iran's terror proxies, fear that this would disrupt their Jihad (holy war) against Israel. Hamas does not want Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip: it wants to continue using them as human shields in its fight against Israel.

Hamas leaders have proven over the years that they do not really care about the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Most of the group's political leaders left the Gaza Strip together with their families several years ago. They have since been living comfortably in Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon and other countries. The New York Post reported on November 7, 2023:

"While their people languish in poverty and are treated as human shields, the leaders of Hamas live billionaire lifestyles.

"The terror group's three top leaders alone are worth a staggering total of $11 billion and enjoy a life of luxury in the sanctuary of the emirate of Qatar."

Hamas wants the US and other countries to invest billions of dollars in rebuilding the Gaza Strip. The group, however, is not prepared to cede control of the coastal enclave. It plans to maintain its rule over the Gaza Strip so that it can pursue its Jihad against Israel.

As senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad vowed shortly after the October 7 massacre:

"We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas gave to the attack on Israel] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight."

Should the Trump administration proceed with its Gaza plan, the same Hamas that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 is also capable of targeting US interests and personnel in the Middle East and beyond. Hamas is likely to be joined by Iran's other proxies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.

For the Trump plan to succeed, the US must insist on the removal of Hamas from power and the disarming of all the terror groups in the Gaza Strip.

It will take several years to rebuild the Gaza Strip and make it habitable once again. The Trump administration will be gone by then. The biggest fear is that a future US administration will fail to block the return of terrorists to the rebuilt Gaza Strip.

If that happens, it will be a matter of time before the Gaza Strip once again becomes a large base for jihadists not only from Hamas, but other Islamist terror groups for whom Israel and the US are the Number 1 target.

Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21377/hamas-plans-trump-gaza-plan

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Trump’s call to resettle Gazans could end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all - Alex Traiman

by Alex Traiman

Migrating nearly 2 million people out of the Gaza Strip will permanently alter the demographic reality between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.

Palestinians return to their homes in the northern Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement on Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Khalil Kahlout/Flash90.

U.S. President Donald Trump, sitting alongside Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a geopolitical earthquake on Tuesday, doubling down on calls to resettle “1.7 or 1.8 million” Palestinians outside of the Gaza Strip.

The calls go beyond any concept of “total victory” that Netanyahu has verbalized and possibly even considered at any point during the current war with Hamas in Gaza. A little more than a week ago, the questions on the table were whether Israel could ever return all of its hostages and who would rule Palestinians living in Gaza on the “day after” the war.

Trump—in the way only he could do—has stated what should have been patently obvious to a normal observer but unspeakable for any world leader: Gaza is completely uninhabitable, and its residents will need to be resettled elsewhere.

If Trump’s suggestions come to pass, it will not only represent a “total victory” beyond even Netanyahu’s wildest imagination but represent the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Migrating nearly 2 million people out of the Gaza Strip will permanently alter the demographic reality between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, removing any parity of numbers between Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

If successful, calls for Israel to permanently cede land for the creation of a Palestinian state within the Jewish biblical homeland will end, and Israel will finally win the conflict. Jews would then be the overwhelming majority and Palestinians a smaller ethnic minority, removing once and for all the phony claims that Israel is an apartheid state.

Trump even hinted that America may support full Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (commonly known in the international community as the “West Bank”). “We’re discussing that … and people do like the idea. We haven’t taken a position on it yet, but we’ll be making one probably on that very specific topic over the next four weeks.”

If America recognizes Israeli sovereignty in the provinces of Judea and Samaria, then it will permanently slam the door on the failed Oslo Accords and the two-state paradigm that the Palestinians never wanted in the first place.

The president, who worked extremely well with Israel’s prime minister during the 45th administration, has previously succeeded in breaking paradigms in the region with the brokering of the historic Abraham Accords agreements in the fall of 2020.

In his remarks in the Oval Office, Trump stated tersely that he will “never win a Nobel Prize” for his groundbreaking role in brokering the unthinkable agreements.

He is now bringing his unconventional thinking back to the region just days into a new term and looking for an end to the conflict that began when Hamas penetrated Israel’s border on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering 1,200 men, women and children in the south, and kidnapping to Gaza more than 250 others in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Trump acknowledged that many “want to deny that Oct. 7 took place, just as many want to deny the Holocaust took place.”

Netanyahu Trump — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, on Feb. 4, 2025. Credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO.

‘Israel fought back bravely’

In the press briefing after the meeting between the two leaders, Trump called the Oct. 7 assault “an all-out attack on the very existence of a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland.” Then he went on to praise Israel’s response to Oct. 7.

“Israel fought back bravely,” he said. The Israelis stood strong and united in the face of an enemy that kidnapped, tortured and slaughtered innocent women and children. I salute the Israeli people for meeting this trial with courage and determination and unflinching resolve.

That did not sound anything like the “balanced” statements of the outgoing Biden administration, who repeated the mantra that “how Israel conducts its war matters.”

Trump stated that the “prime minister and I focused on the future, discussing how we can work together to ensure Hamas is eliminated and ultimately restore peace to a very troubled region.”

His out-of-the-box and simultaneously rational thinking was only made possible by Israel’s stunning military victory against Hamas in Gaza.

While those left of the remaining terrorist operatives continue to steal humanitarian aid and put on phony displays of survival at hostage-release ceremonies, the truth is that Hamas has been decimated.

For that matter, all of Gaza has been decimated. Trump said that “right now, Gaza is a demolition site. Virtually every building is down. They’re living on their fallen concrete that’s very dangerous and very precarious.”

The reason Gaza is in this situation is because of Hamas’s strategy to use the entirety of civilian infrastructure in the coastal enclave as its base of operations. Nearly every residential building, mosque, school and hospital was turned into a weapons storage depot or a tunnel entrance.

To win the war, Israel had no choice but to destroy civilian infrastructure. The IDF methodically moved up and down Gaza, destroying every building being used by Hamas for military purposes.

The IDF accomplished this feat with hands tied behind their backs, being forced to move nearly the entirety of Gaza’s civilian population out of harm’s way and to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid. It has been an incredible military accomplishment that will be studied by militaries around the world for decades to come.

‘The boundless courage of our soldiers’

Netanyahu listed off many of the war’s accomplishments, including the assassinations of senior terror leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah. “We devastated Hamas, we decimated Hezbollah. We destroyed [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s remaining armaments, and we crippled Iran’s air defenses,” he said.

Hamas and Iran chose war. They didn’t count on Israel winning it.

Netanyahu credited the Israelis who took to the battlefield, saying the war’s accomplishments were met “with the indomitable spirit of our people and the boundless courage of our soldiers.”

While at times throughout the war, Israel appeared to be vulnerable and unsure of its ability to win, that victory is now becoming clearer. “Israel has never been stronger and Iranian terrorists have never been weaker,” Netanyahu said.

With the adversarial Biden administration now in the rearview mirror and with the prime minister standing next to Trump, it’s clear that Israel under Netanyahu’s war leadership has won an irreversible victory in Gaza.

Trump is preparing to take that victory to the next level. He floated “the idea of the United States owning that piece of land” after Palestinians are resettled out of Gaza.

The statement of American ownership is confusing, particularly for Israel, which controlled Gaza before its failed withdrawal from the Strip in 2005. Yet such statements may make the concept of resettlement more palatable to Israel’s Arab neighbors.

Now, it will be up to Trump to back up his words and figure out exactly how to incentivize moving the civilian population of Gaza into Egypt, Jordan or elsewhere.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II is scheduled to visit Trump next week in the White House. If that takes place, it can provide some indication of how likely neighboring Arab states will be to cooperate with such a plan.

If they refuse to, things may get more complicated before they get simpler. But Netanyahu has proven that he can navigate the most difficult of circumstances. And he has faith in Trump’s ability to do what he says, knowing that faith can deliver remarkable results.

“I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking that his failed time and time again, and today, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas. … You cut to the chase; you see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say. And then after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads, and they say, ‘He said what?’ And this is the kind of thinking that enabled us to bring the Abraham Accords.”

Netanyahu believes that “this is the kind of thinking that will reshape the Middle East and bring peace.”

For Netanyahu and Trump, peace comes through strength.

“Israel will end the war by winning,” Netanyahu said. “And Israel’s victory will be America’s victory. We’ll not only win the war working together, we’ll win the peace with your leadership, Mr. President, and our partnership. I believe that we will forge a brilliant future for our region and bring our great alliance to even greater heights.”

Of course, the U.S.-Israel alliance can only shine if both Israel and America take the moral position to support one another and work together to defeat common enemies.

Trump is working to “Make America Great Again.” Netanyahu has a similar mission for the Jewish state.

“The Bible says that the people of Israel shall rise like lions,” Netanyahu said. “And boy, did we rise. Today, the roar of the lion of Judah is heard loudly throughout the Middle East.”

Alex Traiman is the CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of the Jewish News Syndicate and host of Jerusalem Minute. A seasoned Israeli journalist, documentary filmmaker, and startup consultant, he is an expert on Israeli politics and U.S.-Israel relations. He has interviewed top political figures, including Israeli leaders, U.S. senators, and national security officials, with insights featured on major networks like BBC, Bloomberg, CBS, NBC, Fox, and Newsmax. A former NCAA champion fencer and Yeshiva University Sports Hall of Fame member, he made aliyah in 2004 and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and five children.

Source: https://www.jns.org/trumps-call-to-resettle-gazans-could-end-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/

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Knesset bill offers cash to Gazans willing to relocate - JNS Staff

by JNS Staff

Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit Party submitted the proposed legislation amid a push by U.S. President Donald Trump to relocate the enclave's population.

Gazans walk alongside an Israeli army post in northern Gaza, Jan. 28, 2025. Photo by Ali Hassan/Flash90.

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s push in favor of relocating Gaza residents, Israel’s Otzma Yehudit Party on Tuesday said it had introduced a bill that would financially compensate those choosing to leave the enclave.

According to a statement by the party, those choosing to leave the Strip would receive a “financial assistance package” determined by the Finance Ministry under the proposed legislation, which is scheduled for a review next week by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.

Anyone who accepts the package and later attempts to return to Gaza would, under the bill, be required to repay it plus a 100% penalty adjusted for inflation and interest. Failure to pay will result in a ban from entering Gaza or any other Israeli-controlled area.

Convicted terrorists are excluded by the bill, according to the statement.

“Israel continues to allow Hamas to grow and raise more terrorists. This law is meant to provide a practical solution—encouraging the voluntary departure of Gaza residents to countries willing to accept them. We expect security to be the top priority, and we call on lawmakers to support this initiative,” said Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir of the bill.

Soon after taking office last month, Trump began discussing a mass relocation of Gaza’s population, which he said was necessary for humanitarian reasons.

The U.S. president said he had discussed the issue with Jordan and Egypt, both of which, along with other Arab countries have publicly rejected Trump’s proposal. However, he has dismissed their opposition, insisting at a Q&A with journalists at the White House on Tuesday that the plan will happen.

“I think Jordan and Egypt will—I know they’ve spoken about it with you, and they say they’re not going to accept. I say they will. But I think other countries will accept, also. I think that Gaza maybe is a demolition site right now. If you look at Gaza, it’s all—I mean, there’s hardly a building standing,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, Trump said during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States would “take over” and rebuild the Gaza Strip. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings,” he said.

JNS Staff

Source: https://www.jns.org/knesset-bill-offers-cash-to-gazans-willing-to-relocate/

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US ‘100% committed’ to Israeli security, Hegseth tells Netanyahu - JNS

by JNS

Hegseth told Netanyahu that "I hope you've noticed here at the Defense Department under President Trump, we are laser focused on reviving the warrior ethos."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2025. Credit: U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Madelyn Keech/U.S. Department of Defense.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, both with staff members present and privately, at the Pentagon on Wednesday, according to Netanyahu’s office.

The Israeli prime minister was the first foreign dignitary that Hegesth has hosted as part of the Trump administration, per a U.S. readout of the meeting.

Hegesth “emphasized the unbreakable bond that exists between the United States and Israel and praised Israel as a model ally in the Middle East,” and “stressed that the United States remains 100% committed to Israel’s security,” according to John Ullyot, the Pentagon spokesman.

Netanyahu and Hegseth talked about Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack and the U.S. secretary praised the Israeli prime minister “for his courage and leadership over the past 15 months, culminating in a ceasefire agreement that secured the release of Israeli, American and other hostages,” per the extensive U.S. readout.

Hegseth also told Netanyahu that the Trump administration “will support Israel’s right to defend itself” and lauded the Israeli prime minister “for Israel’s military operations that have significantly degraded Iran and its proxies.”

“Both leaders agreed that Iran remains a threat to regional security and agreed to work together on this challenge,” according to Ullyot, and the two “agreed that regional integration is critical to stability in the Middle East.”

“We are honored to stand alongside you, stare down many of the same threats that you do, and under President Trump’s leadership, just like you, we are totally committed to achieving peace through strength through standing with Israel on our side, putting America first and never backing down from anything,” Hegseth said, per a Pentagon transcript. “That it has been and will continue to be an unbreakable bond between our countries.”

Hegseth said that he has visited the Jewish state eight or nine times and spent time at the Kotel with Netanyahu, “watched the IDF in action, visited terror tunnels, understand the proximity, whether it’s the Golan Heights or Hezbollah or the Gaza Strip, the threat that Israeli citizens have been under.”

“It always struck me, the sense of purpose that permeates the state of Israel living under an existential threat,” the U.S. secretary said. “And have always had a great deal of respect for the response that country has had.”

Hegseth Netanyahu — U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a bilateral exchange with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2025. Credit: U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Sanders/U.S. Department of Defense.

“Now destroying Hamas’s capabilities in Gaza, Hezbollah’s capabilities in the north, damaging the Houthi infrastructure in Yemen and things that are of great importance to America,” he added. “Those are all of great importance to us, but in September of 2024, killing the man responsible for the 1983 bombing of the Marine Corps compound in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. You have a long memory. We have a long memory and may our relationship continue to endure.”

Hegseth also told Netanyahu that “I hope you’ve noticed here at the Defense Department under President Trump, we are laser focused on reviving the warrior ethos, on rebuilding America’s military and reestablishing deterrence, which is something you, prime minister, have done in your neighborhood in impressive, aggressive and important ways.”

Per the Pentagon transcript, Netanyahu told Hegseth that “you’ve been a great and stalwart friend of Israel, and we see President Trump and the team that he’s put together is extraordinary friends, extraordinary patriots of America and therefore also champions of the American-Israel Alliance.”

“I truly believe Israel obviously has no greater friend than the United States, and I think the United States has no better friend than Israel,” Netanyahu said.

“It’s an ally that perhaps is different from any of your allies because we have no compunction about fighting our enemies by ourselves. We’re willing to shoulder the burden of our defense,” the Israeli premier added. “But by confronting the forces of radicalism and terror and the forces that are anti-American at their core, they call you the ‘great Satan’ and they call us the ‘small Satan.’ We just stand in their way, but you are their great enemy.”

“By confronting these various enemies, we are not only defeating those who wish to attack us, but those who wish to attack you as well,” he added, “and therefore, our victory is your victory, and we are well ahead and well advanced in the pursuit of our war goals that will give security and peace.”

JNS

Source: https://www.jns.org/us-100-committed-to-israeli-security-hegseth-tells-netanyahu/

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Top Arizona lawmaker spotlights 'adorable moment' as Trump signed women's sports executive order - Andrew Mark Miller

by Andrew Mark Miller

GOP State Sen. Warren Petersen is the president of the Arizona Senate

Arizona’s Senate president, Republican Sen. Warren Petersen, spoke to Fox News Digital after attending President Donald Trump's signing of the "No Men in Women's Sports" executive order, which Petersen called an "incredible" moment for female athletes nationwide.

"I think the impact is huge," Petersen told Fox News Digital shortly after witnessing Trump sign the highly anticipated executive order to keep biological males out of women’s sports, fulfilling one of his most prominent campaign promises.

"We now have a multi-pronged approach to making sure that only girls play in girls sports and boys cannot play in girls sports," Petersen said. "We've passed laws to do this. We've been litigating in the courts, and now we have the executive branch issuing an executive order saying that the way they're interpreting Title IX is just boys and girls. Boys are boys and girls are girls. And if you violate this title, if you allow boys to play in girls sports, then you're going to lose federal funding, and you're going to be investigated. I think it's great news."

Citing recent polling, Petersen pointed out that 70% of Americans "want to see girls' sports protected."

RILEY GAINES: THE ALL-OUT WAR ON FEMALE ATHLETES ENDS NOW, THANKS TO PRESIDENT TRUMP

Sen. Warren Petersen, right, spoke to Fox News Digital about his experience at President Donald Trump's executive order signing on Wednesday. (Getty Images)

"I think this is a perfect example of why you're seeing Democrats with the 31% approval rating," Petersen said. "I think this is a perfect example of what you saw in Arizona, that we increased our majorities, and we won virtually all of our competitive races. So I'm excited. I mean, President Trump is making girl sports great again and that's good for America. That's good for American girls. And girls can now pursue their dreams. It has been absolutely ridiculous that you've had girls work their whole lives, set goals, work hard only for some boy to come along and snatch their dreams away from them. In sports, it's really been unthinkable that we have allowed this to happen to some of our girls and some of the women."

Petersen, who posted a photo at the event with former NCAA swimmer and girls sports activist Riley Gaines, spoke to Fox News Digital about the "disconnect" between the average American voter and Democrat politicians on the issue of girls' sports.

RILEY GAINES TEARS INTO WNBA STAR, WHO GAVE CAITLIN CLARK BLACK EYE, FOR WEARING ANTI-TRUMP SHIRT

President Donald Trump signs an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sporting events, in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

"They're totally out of touch with their voters," Petersen said. "They have this really loud, small faction that's well-funded and well-organized, but it is by far out of touch with what the vast majority of Americans believe. And quite frankly, it's out of touch with logic and science. The biggest gaslight that we have had to deal with over the last several years are the Democrats trying to convince the rest of America that boys are girls. I mean, that is total lunacy, totally insane. It flies in the face of just common logic and the voters sent a message loud and clear that they're not going to have it."

As Trump was signing the executive order, dozens of young female athletes who were in the audience walked up to the table and surrounded Trump after he invited them over in a moment that Petersen called "incredible."

"I think it was just a feeling of relief, I can't believe this battle is over," Petersen told Fox News Digital. "The boys playing in girls sports, you know, stolen titles from our girls and women. That time is over. And I thought it was really an adorable moment. We're you're just extremely grateful for this president."

President Donald Trump waves after signing an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sporting events, in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

"I think this common sense move that he's making is just, you know, the reason why his his polling is very high right now. And, you know, people are just so sick of politicians making promises saying they're going to do things…and nobody can say that Trump is not fulfilling his promises because not only is Trump fulfilling his promises, but he's doing it at a breakneck speed."

Petersen, who has filed paperwork to run for attorney general in Arizona, told Fox News Digital that he will continue to fight for the "right side" of this issue in his home state.

"I'm the lead defendant in a case to protect the Save Women's Sports Act in Arizona," Petersen explained.

"It's sitting at the Supreme Court right now. We're going to see that trial all the way through. We have an attorney general who's completely out of touch with the rest of the Democrats. She wouldn't defend the law. She thought it was okay for boys to play in girl sports. So I am defending that law. It's in the Supreme Court. We are going to see that all the way through."

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-arizona-lawmaker-spotlights-adorable-moment-trump-signed-womens-sports-executive-order

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Are Trump’s Tariffs Really Tariffs? - Victor Davis Hanson

by Victor Davis Hanson

Trump’s tariffs aim to curb unfair trade, illegal immigration, and fentanyl smuggling while forcing allies and rivals to stop exploiting U.S. generosity.

Hysteria has erupted here and abroad over President Trump’s threats to level trade tariffs against particular countries.

Both American and foreign critics blasted them variously as either counterproductive and suicidal or unfair, imperialistic, and xenophobic.

Certainly, tariffs are widely hated by doctrinaire economists. They complain that tariffs burden consumers with higher prices to protect weak domestic industries that, shielded from competition, will have no incentive to improve efficiency.

Their ideal is “free” trade. Supposedly a free global market alone should adjudicate which particular industry in any country can produce the greatest good for the world’s consumers, whether defined by lower prices or better quality, or both.

Even when “free trade” becomes “unfair trade”—such as China’s massive mercantile surpluses—many neoliberal economists still insist that even subsidized foreign imports are beneficial.

Cheap imports, Americans were told, supposedly still lowered prices for consumers, still forced domestic producers to economize to remain competitive, and still brought “creative destruction,” as inefficient domestic industries properly gave way to more efficient, market-driven ones.

But many exporters to the U.S. are propped up by their own governments.

They may seem more competitive only because their governments want to dump products at a loss to capture market share, subsidize their businesses’ overhead to protect domestic employment or seek to create a monopoly over a strategic industry.

Yet when Trump threatened to level tariffs against Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Venezuela, China, or the European Union, they were not primarily aimed at propping up particular inefficient U.S. industries at all.

Instead, an exasperated Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs for three reasons.

It refused to address its cartels’ illegal multibillion-dollar export of lethal fentanyl into the United States.

The cartels buy Chinese-supplied raw fentanyl with impunity, disguise it to resemble toxic drugs, and smuggle the product across a porous border.

The result over the last decade is more dead Americans from fentanyl than the total number of all U.S. soldiers lost in the wars of the twentieth century.

Second, Mexico had stonewalled all American efforts to stop their export of millions of illegal aliens into the United States—10-12 million in the last four years alone.

Mexico adds insult to injury by raking in profits from some $63 billion in remittances sent from its former resident citizens now residing in the United States and often subsidized by American taxpayers.

Third, Mexico grows its American trade surpluses each year. The imbalance is now a mind-boggling nearly $170 billion.

Trump threatened Canada because it has so far refused to police its side of an open and increasingly dangerous border. And it has racked up a $50 billion surplus by leveling asymmetrical tariffs on lots of U.S. products.

Canada also has refused to keep its NATO promises to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense.

Canada’s pathetic 1.37 percent expenditure is predicated on American magnanimity. The U.S. alone protects Canada under the American North American nuclear shield and subsidizes NATO deadbeats like Canada by funding some 16 percent of the budget of the 32-nation alliance, as well as policing the international seas.

As for Venezuela and Colombia, both communist nations have deliberately emptied their prisons to send hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the U.S.—many of them violent felons. They do so either out of crass self-interest, hatred, or a strategic desire to weaken America.

China is a special case.

Its entire 20th-century ascendance was based on stealing U.S. technology, dumping its products on the U.S. market below the cost of production to capture market share, and forcing American corporations to relocate, offshore, and outsource—leaving our industrial hinterland a “rustbelt.”

The European Union runs a gargantuan half-trillion-dollar surplus with the U.S.

How?

Because for nearly the last 80 years, the U.S. has subsidized its defense during the Cold War and afterwards.

Europe acts as if it is recovering from World War II, so it can hit up a supposedly limitlessly rich American patron with asymmetrical tariffs.

Consider the various Trump “tariffs” leveled by an exasperated, and now $36 trillion-indebted, America.

Almost none of them meet the traditional definitions of an industry-protecting tariff.

Instead, they are the last-gasp tools of American leverage used only when decades of bipartisan diplomacy, summits, entreaties, and empty threats have all failed.

So, Trump is not a mercantilist.

Instead, he is trying to stop the multimillion-person influx of foreign criminals, the crashing of the border by millions of illegal aliens, the cartels’ export of American-killing drugs, the violation of past trade agreements, and allies from using America to subsidize their own defense.

The Trump tariffs are the last, desperate effort to reestablish global reciprocity and keep America safe.

And our “shocked” friends, allies, and enemies privately have known that all too well.

Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/06/are-trumps-tariffs-really-tariffs/

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Nation Builder: Trump Eyes Ownership of Gaza Strip - Phillip Wegmann

by Phillip Wegmann

Trump proposes a U.S. takeover of Gaza, pitching it as a redevelopment project, while critics call it a stunning reversal of his anti-nation-building stance.

His appetite for territorial expansion has not waned. Before he even returned to the White House, Donald Trump set his sights on the Panama Canal and then resource-rich Greenland. Now, the president who once railed against foreign entanglements wants to acquire some of the most disputed geography in the world.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump announced Tuesday. Once redeveloped and under an American flag, he added, it could become “the Riviera of the Middle East.” The news shocked the world, but not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who stood by the side of the president and smiled.

“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” Trump said during a joint press conference with the Israeli leader. “Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out, create an economic development.”

Trump has long argued that neighboring countries should take in Gazan refugees whose lives have been destroyed by the Israel-Hamas war. His latest suggestion comes amidst a tenuous ceasefire and after the terrorist organization released dozens of hostages. Egypt and Jordan have already rejected the idea of accepting refugees, but the president expressed optimism that the leaders of those nations would “open their hearts.” Otherwise, Trump did not provide details on how the U.S. would acquire the real estate. Notably, though, he did not rule out deploying American soldiers to the region to support nation-building.

This is a change from a president who prides himself on avoiding foreign entanglements. He swept aside and replaced the old guard of the GOP by critiquing the neoconservative establishment that supported the invasion of Iraq, telling voters nearly a decade ago, “We’re getting out of the nation-building business.” And once in office, Trump largely put that vision into practice. He reduced the U.S. footprint in Afghanistan and later withdrew U.S. forces from Syria entirely, proclaiming, “Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand.”

Asked if there would be American soldiers in Gaza, Trump replied, “If it’s necessary, we will do that.”

Details were sparse, but White House staff were told Tuesday afternoon to stay late into the night. Big news was expected. After Trump made his announcement, even some senior administration officials were surprised and still looking for answers. “That was interesting,” one told RealClearPolitics after the press conference wrapped. Asked what the plan would look like in practice, the official replied, “I need to get clarity myself.”

Pressed for additional details, a White House official would only say that “the president is providing a bold vision to rebuild Gaza and bring peace and stability to the Middle East.” The genesis for the idea may have come from inside the Trump family. “Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable,” Jared Kushner said last year. Speaking before the Harvard Kennedy School, the president’s son-in-law and former senior advisor qualified that the real estate would only become valuable “if people would focus on building up livelihoods.”

“If you think about all the money that’s gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation,” Kushner opined, “what could have been done?”

Trump now seems to be in search of that answer. Steve Witkoff, a billionaire investor who helped secure a ceasefire and hostage exchange earlier this year, could play a key role. He was seated alongside the rest of the American delegation in the East Room. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, was on the phone, “listening,” the president said, “to every single word that we say.” Trump allies have often repeated the refrain that he ought to be taken seriously, not literally. When it comes to territorial expansion, however, the new administration insists that Trump is the former. Rubio has repeatedly said that the plan to acquire Greenland “is not a joke.”

Trump looks to his legacy as he begins his second term and has vowed to deliver a new “Golden Age of America.” Expanding the map is one way to write himself into history, explained a longtime Republican operative who was digesting the news late Tuesday night as it pinged around GOP circles. “You read any American history book,” the source said, “and it’s about manifest destiny. There is no faster way to build a legacy than putting your flag in the ground.”

Democrats immediately insisted that the idea was a non-starter. “Any vote for the occupation of Gaza will fail in the Senate,” said Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, but not before picking up on the sudden Trump reversal. “What happened to the anti-war president?” he asked. Delaware Sen. Chris Coons was similarly aghast. “For the first time in more than two decades, U.S. troops aren’t at war,” he said. “Now Trump wants to send U.S. servicemembers halfway around the world to occupy land in the Middle East.”

Netanyahu, for his part, was effusive in his praise of Trump, whom he called “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.” Asked specifically about the new plan to annex Gaza, the prime minister replied, “I think it’s something that could change history. And I think it’s worthwhile really pursuing.” A more concrete possibility may be the Israeli annexation of the West Bank. Trump did not come down on that issue but said that a decision would be coming in the next four weeks, a development that would no doubt shake the region.

Allies of the White House hold out hope that unconventional thinking could provide a solution to a decades-old problem. Nothing else has worked. No other agreement has lasted. “Trump’s proposed USA takeover of the Gaza Strip may sound out of the box,” said David Friedman, who previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, “but it is brilliant, historic, and the only idea I have heard in 50 years that has a chance of bringing security, peace, and prosperity to this troubled region.”

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

Phillip Wegmann

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/06/nation-builder-trump-eyes-ownership-of-gaza-strip/

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Taliban minister flees after condemning ban on women's education - report - Jerusalem Post Staff

by Jerusalem Post Staff

Senior Taliban official Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai has reportedly left Afghanistan after publicly opposing the regime's ban on women's education.

Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who is reported to have fled to Dubai after criticising the education ban and the Taliban’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

(photo credit: Sefa Karacan/Anadolu/Getty)

Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, may have been forced to flee the country after criticising the government’s ban on higher education for girls, The Guardian reported on Monday.

Stanikzai was speaking at a graduation ceremony in Afghanistan's Khost province in January when he expressed his request for the government to “open the doors of knowledge.”

“There is no excuse for this – not now and not in the future,” Stanikzai said.

The minister explained that during Mohammed’s time, men and women were allowed to pursue education equally, stating that “there were such remarkable women that if I were to elaborate on their contributions, it would take a considerable amount of time.”

Stanikzai went on to state that barring women from education went against Islam, saying, “The Prophet said: Whoever has two or three wives and does not maintain justice among them will be resurrected on the Day of Judgement in a state where half of their body will be paralyzed."

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“We are being unjust to 20 million people. We have deprived women of their rights,” he added.

Stanikzai is currently in Dubai

According to The Guardian, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, allegedly issued a travel ban and ordered for the minister to be arrested after the speech.

Stanikzai has confirmed to local media that he was in Dubai, though he claimed it was for health reasons.

Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, women’s rights to education, work, or even appearing in public have been systemically reduced.

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-840893

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Katz instructs IDF to prepare plan allowing Gazans to leave voluntarily - Jerusalem Post Staff

by Jerusalem Post Staff

"The plan will include exit options through land crossings as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air," Katz said.

An illustrative image of Defense Minister Israel Katz.

(photo credit: Khalil Kahlout/Flash90/Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF on Thursday to prepare a plan allowing for Gazans wishing to leave the Gaza Strip voluntarily.

"The plan will include exit options through land crossings as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air," Katz said.

He welcomed US President Donald Trump's suggestion to relocate Gazans presented on Tuesday following his meeting in Washington with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Despite Katz’s instructions to the IDF to prepare, there have been no indications that a large number of Gazans are willing to leave Gaza, and the key countries Trump wants to accept them – Jordan and Egypt – have repeatedly condemned the plan and rejected any possibility of taking any significant number of Palestinians in.

The US, Israel, and the IDF do not have the legal authority to force other countries to take on the population of Gaza, so all the IDF can do is avoid getting in the way if, against all signs, such a move starts to take place.

US President Donald Trump meets with Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington D.C., February 4, 2025. (credit: Liri Agami/Flash90)

The defense minister stated that Hamas had utilized Gazans as human shields, arrogated humanitarian aid for its own purpose, and barred them from leaving.

He added, "Gaza residents should be allowed the freedom to exit and emigrate, as is customary everywhere in the world.

The Defense Minister noted the legal duty of countries to allow the entry of Gazans. "Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have leveled false accusations and blood libels against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territory.

"Their hypocrisy will be exposed if they refuse to do so. There are countries like Canada, which has a structured immigration program and has previously expressed willingness to take in residents from Gaza," Katz added.

Spain, Ireland, and Norway have all harshly criticized Israel, while often failing to put IDF military actions during the war in context of Hamas’s use of human shields.

However, unless the Gazans themselves and with some kind of UN multilateral support, start large scale requests to be relocated all over the world, those countries currently have no obligation to take on Gazans who do not seek to move.

If Israel tried to forcefully transfer Gaza’s population, which neither Trump nor the Israeli government has yet broached, most legal scholars would accuse Jerusalem of war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

Although Israel already faces war crimes allegations before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, the alleged crimes there so far with any immediate relevance are far smaller and narrower than the accusation would become in the case of a forced transfer.

Trump's plan

On Tuesday, Trump told The Jerusalem Post that his plan to relocate the residents of Gaza "will happen."

He asserted Jordan and Egypt “won’t tell [him] no” with regard to welcoming Gazans, adding, "I want to remove all the residents of Gaza.”

Immediately after he said this, all of the Arab governments reiterated their rejection of transferring Gaza’s population.

Amichai Stein contributed to this report.

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-840907

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Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Trump to 'Post': Gazan relocation plan will happen, Egypt and Jordan won't say no - Amichai Stein, Reuters, Jerusalem Post Staff

by Amichai Stein, Reuters, Jerusalem Post Staff

Trump described the area as a “pure demolition site,” and said Gazans would be happy to leave the area and never return.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 4, 2025.

(photo credit: REUTERS/ELIZABETH FRANTZ)

US President Donald Trump told The Jerusalem Post that he believed Jordan and Egypt “won’t tell [him] no” when asked to welcome Gazan refugees, during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

“They won’t tell me no. I want to remove all the residents of Gaza,” he responded. “It will happen.”

He said in an earlier statement that the “Gaza thing” has not worked.

“It’s never worked. And I feel very differently about Gaza than a lot of people. I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land, and we get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable and enjoyable,” he said.

Trump described the area as a “pure demolition site,” stating that he would find the right piece – or pieces – of land to build a new home for Gazans. He stated that he believed if given the chance, Gazans would choose to leave.

US President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the entrance of the White House in Washington, U.S, February 4, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS)

“They have no alternative right now. I mean, they’re there because they have no alternative. What do they have? It is a big pile of rubble right now. I mean, have you seen the pictures of it? Have you been there? It’s terrible to live [there]. Who can live like that?”

Trump and Netanyahu Oval Office meeting

In his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump said he did not believe Gazans would ever want to return once a new home is provided, but that he would like to see an agreement to “resettle people permanently in nice homes and where they can be happy and not be shot, not be killed.”

Trump further told the Post that the Muslim countries “won’t refuse me,” adding that there are “approximately 1.8 million people [in Gaza], and they can all live somewhere where they will have great lives without fearing for their lives every day.”

Amichai Stein, Reuters, Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-840712

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Can US President Donald Trump ‘make Gaza great again’? - analysis - Amichai Stein

by Amichai Stein

The laws of physics can’t be bent, and when Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states say they will oppose the plan, the question is: does Trump have "all hell" ready to force them to accept it?

US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US. February 4, 2025.

(photo credit: REUTERS/ELIZABETH FRANTZ)

WASHINGTON – Just 24 hours ago, the idea of pressuring Gazans to leave the Gaza Strip was a concept associated with the Israeli far Right, but now it’s the official plan of the president of the United States.

“All of them,” said Trump, in response to this reporter’s question about how many Gazans the president thinks need to leave. Three words that made jaws drop inside the Oval Office at the beginning of the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

What started as a joke two weeks ago became an idea last week and is now officially US administration policy.“We’ll own the Gaza Strip,” Trump told reporters during the press conference. “We will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.”

He even hinted that he was willing to send boots on the ground. “Egypt and Jordan won’t say no,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “I think there’s a good chance it will happen.”

The US president’s stubbornness makes it harder for this plan to disappear one day. In contrast to his decision on tariffs against Canada and Mexico, which are now frozen, Trump has set a very high bar with this statement.

It can’t just go away, especially if you consider that rebuilding Gaza will take 10 to 15 years. This fact won’t change. Trump, jokes the web, wants to turn Gaza into MAGA (Make America Great Again).

Displaced Palestinians make their way back to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip on January 27, 2025. (credit: Ali Hassan/Flash90)

Netanyahu's response

Netanyahu’s statement on the issue was, “Trump has an unconventional way of thinking; he thinks outside the box,” he said, but he didn’t go as far as fully embracing it.

Yes, it seems Netanyahu enjoyed every moment of Trump’s statement, but deep down, he and other Israeli officials fear that Trump’s plan might cause turbulence among Israel’s neighbors.

The laws of physics can’t be bent, and when Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states say they will oppose the plan, the question is: Does Trump have “all hell” ready to force them to accept it? Does he have plan B to convince them too?We won’t have to wait long for the answer. Next week, King Abdullah II of Jordan will arrive at the White House. What Trump says standing next to him will give us an indication of what the 47th president’s plans are for Gaza and its residents.

Amichai Stein

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-840733

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Trump's Middle East envoy explains Gaza takeover proposal: 'More hope' for Palestinians' futures - Ashley Carnahan

by Ashley Carnahan

Trump floated the idea of the US 'taking over' the Gaza Strip

Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, said Gaza will be "uninhabitable" for at least 10 to 15 years as reconstruction talks continue amid a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

"I think everybody wants to see peace in the region," Witkoff said in a Tuesday interview on "Hannity."

"And peace in the region means a better life for the Palestinians. A better life is not necessarily tied to the physical space that you're in today. A better life is about better opportunity, better financial conditions, better aspirations for you and your family. That doesn't occur because you get to pitch a tent in the Gaza Strip and you're surrounded by 30,000 munitions that could go off at any moment. It's a dangerous place to live today."

People inspect the debris and rubble at the site of Israeli bombardment on a residential block in Jalaa Street in Gaza City on Jan. 14, 2025 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)

TRUMP CUTS US OFF FROM UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, BANS UNRWA FUNDING

President Donald Trump proposed the United States "take over" the Gaza Strip, level it and rebuild it at some point in the future during a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East," Trump said, adding it’s a decision he didn’t make lightly.

"Everybody I've spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent — in a really magnificent area that nobody would know. Nobody could look, because all they see is death and destruction and rubble and demolished buildings falling all over. It's just a terrible, terrible sight."

A view of destroyed buildings as the scale of destruction, caused by Israeli attacks, comes to surface following the withdrawal of the Israeli army in Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 29,2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The president has repeatedly suggested relocating Palestinians to nearby Egypt and Jordan, although both countries have rejected such calls.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry released a statement shortly after Trump’s remarks, reaffirming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s position on the establishment of a Palestinian state, something it says must happen before the Arab country establishes diplomatic relations with Israel.

THIRD ROUND OF HOSTAGES RELEASES BEGINS AS PART OF HAMAS' GAZA CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT WITH ISRAEL

Witkoff told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Trump wants to give Palestinians "more hope" for a better future, and one potentially away from the war-torn enclave.

Palestinians walk through the destruction left by the Israeli air and ground offensive after they withdrew from Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, April 7, 2024.

"I think he's telling the Middle East that the last 50 years of doing things was not a correct way of doing things, and that he's going to change it up, because all of those iterations have not worked," the real estate investor and developer said.

Netanyahu told reporters that Trump’s Gaza proposal is something that could change history.

"President Trump is taking it to a much higher level," Netanyahu said. "He sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so much — so many attacks against us, so many trials and so many tribulations. He has a different idea, and I think it is worth paying attention to this."

Ashley Carnahan is a writer at Fox News Digital.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/trumps-middle-east-envoy-explains-presidents-gaza-proposal-more-hope-palestinians-futures

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