Trump to the Middle East—America is Back!

“If the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity,” President-elect Trump threatened on Monday. Both Hamas and Hezbollah (what is left of them) heard it. So did Tehran. The statement came a few hours after the IDF announced that Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli hostage, had died during the savage attack on Israel on October 7. Hamas had taken his body to Gaza. The news tragically ended the ordeal Neutra’s family had endured for more than 420 days in the hope Omer was still alive.

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza back in 2005, also evacuating four Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007. Since then, instead of using the billions of dollars received to build Gaza’s economy, Hamas has constructed hundreds of miles of tunnels with the sole goal of fighting the State of Israel to its destruction. It has never recognized the right of Israel to exist. Hamas leaders have amounted to a staggering wealth of $11 billion while Gaza’s people suffered. Hiding in the tunnels, placing their rocket launchers near schools, mosques, and other densely populated areas, Hamas “fighters” sacrificed tens of thousands of Palestinians, betting on global outcry for support to their “cause” as the world watches Gaza’s destruction. Until his recent demise, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar called the deaths of Palestinian civilians “necessary sacrifices,” adding, “We have Israelis right where we want them.”

Public support for Hamas should have no place in our country, nor in any democracy that upholds the rule of law and freedom. It is a divide over Israel among Democrats, with pro-Palestinian rhetoric coming from so-called “progressives,” that has encouraged anti-Israeli protests resulting in “Hamas is coming” slogans, Hezbollah flags at Princeton University, and a deplorable rise in antisemitic violence throughout the country. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a “progressive” congresswoman, even condemned the Israeli killing of Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah terrorist on the FBI’s most wanted list responsible for the killing of 241 U.S. servicemen back in 1983.

While the Biden administration helped Israel defend itself from continuous projectiles launched by Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iran by deploying U.S. military assets to help shoot down these projectiles, it held back from helping Israel to win the war.

Much had to do with the election calculus, especially for Pennsylvania and Michigan, swing states with significant Arab American populations, where Harris lost badly, especially in the Arab-majority city of Dearborn, where anti-Israeli sentiment is strongest. This was the first time since George W. Bush’s election in 2000 that the Republican nominee won this city. 

Now, President Biden has no electoral considerations to think of and should take advantage of President-elect Trump’s strong ultimatum to isolate Hamas and get the hostages out promptly. As Bassem Eid, a respected Palestinian human rights activist living in the West Bank, summed it up correctly: “Hamas has got to go. War to the death is a terrible philosophy for both one’s neighbors and the innocents being governed under such a policy. No new day will dawn in Gaza until the day that the nightmarish oppression of Hamas is banished to the dust heap of history. Israelis, Palestinians, and the international community must work together to speed that day along.” 

Once the hostages are released, a ceasefire can take effect, and more serious efforts to address the humanitarian relief and challenges of Gaza’s post-war governance and reconstruction will begin. This awaits the Trump administration, which can hopefully build upon the historic Abraham Accords it brokered in its first term. Amid all the uncertainties in the Middle East, one thing is now clear—America is back!

Sasha Toperich is executive vice president of the Transatlantic Leadership Network. He previously served as a director of the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Gulf initiatives and a senior fellow at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.

Image: Noam Galai / Shutterstock.com.