So far, so great: Hamas and Israel truly seem set to make Stage One happen, with all living hostages freed early next week as the IDF pulls back to the first cease-fire line.
Israelis and Gazans alike are cheering the evident start of the end of this awful war — and rightly crediting President Donald Trump for making it happen.
Yet it gets tougher from here, as Israelis release 100 hard cases for every live hostage they welcome home, and the terrorists take their time finding and handing over the mortal remains of the other hostages.
Then more talks on toward a total ceasefire, with Hamas disarming and an interim, trustworthy Gaza governing authority established — two vital steps that the terrorists have not yet explicitly agreed to, and will likely try to avoid.
Yet a new Middle East beckons, with reconstruction and deradicalization in Gaza, expansion of the Abraham Accords, normalization of Israel as a regional partner and an open road toward answering Palestinians’ national aspirations.
A Nobel Peace Prize would be the least Trump deserves.
Many questions remain: We don’t yet know if the Hamas fighters in Gaza (rather than the “leaders” in Qatar) are fully on board with Stage One, let alone the rest; many Israelis will rightly worry that “peace” will somehow fail to get Hamas gone from Gaza.
Yet what’s most striking now is who’s not celebrating: the entire protesting class.
That is, the worldwide “ceasefire now” brigades stand exposed as a callous, cynical fifth column for Hamas.
Vile UN “special rapporteur” Francesca Albanese insists that the “genocide” will (somehow) continue even if the fighting truly stops — which makes some sense, as it was always a propaganda fiction.
Will the “Free Palestine” crew dare embrace a Gaza free of war and Hamas? Or will they admit that their goal was always only annihilating the Jewish state?
For now, at least, everything’s moving toward the light, not darkness. Freeing the hostages from their tunnel prisons will be the first hard proof that peace is peeking through.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
