By | Aug 23, 2026
President Donald J. Trump, The White House, Public domain
A British journalist has delivered a scathing review of Trump’s policy toward Israel and Gaza: “Wise up, America!,” by Melanie Phillips, JNS, August 21, 2026:
The impasse arose because Hamas is refusing to honor the agreement signed by Israel last October in which the terrorist group would disarm before Israel started to withdraw from Gaza….
The agreement signed in October was quite clear. First, Hamas would disarm completely. And only after that was done would the IDF remove its troops from Gaza. Now Hamas has been claiming that its disarming should take place in steps, with a partial Israeli withdrawal accompanying each episode of disarming. In the terror group’s view, both Hamas’ disarming and the withdrawal of troops by the IDF will end at the same time. But that’s not what the agreement said.
Worse still, by stating that its aim is a credible pathway towards Palestinian self-determination and statehood, the Roadmap cements the appalling message that the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 created a political opening for the establishment of a Palestinian state….
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a large majority of Israelis, insist that “there will never be a Palestinian state.” The Board of Peace, however, says that its ultimate aim is precisely that, to create the conditions for a “pathway” for “Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” That’s its view, but there is nothing in the ceasefire agreement, which is all about Gaza, that says anything about a future Palestinian state. The Board of Peace is getting way ahead of itself, trying a little proleptic bullying of the Israelis. It should stick to its task, which is the total disarming of Hamas followed by a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Israelis have sent the White House a list of violations by Hamas. They say the terror group continues to retain and smuggle weapons; rebuild its military infrastructure, recruitment and training; continue with armed activity and intelligence gathering; and prepare and use explosive devices against Israeli troops. This report documented 14 Hamas violations within a single 24-hour period—the overwhelming majority of which were classified as developing threats to Israeli forces….
This list shows that Hamas has no real intention of disarming. It is playing for time, hoping to improve its military through rebuilding infrastructure, signing up new recruits and training them, planting explosive devices against Israeli troops behind the Yellow Line, gathering more intelligence about Israel’s military, all while stalling on turning over its weapons. The farce continues, and the Board of Peace has yet to denounce Hamas for its behavior. It doesn’t, you see, want to anger Hamas, which it fears would then pull out of the agreement that has already proved itself useless in disarming of Hamas.
The war in the Middle East is not distinct from the war of conquest against the West, which is one unified project involving Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. The United States is currently fighting the former without grasping what it’s up against, and not fighting the latter at all.
Trump keeps thinking that Iran is run by rational men, who will do a cost-benefit analysis of their every move. That’s not how the fanatics in Tehran think. They will let their long-suffering people suffer still more, if that allows the leaders in Tehran to keep control of the Strait of Hormuz. They calculate that they can outwit and outwait the gullible blowhard, Donald Trump, who will be gone in 2½ years. His successor, they are sure, will be ready by then to pull out of the Gulf — those destroyers and aircraft carriers are costing a fortune to maintain, and Congress is getting antsy — leaving Iran in control of the Strait of Hormuz. They may well be right.
As for the Muslim Brotherhood, what has Trump done to curb Qatar’s vast spending — more than sixty billion dollars — to promote itself and Islam in American universities? Nothing. What has he done to curb Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ideological supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, from pursuing his neo-Ottoman dreams of a renewed caliphate, with Turkish military outposts now in northern Iraq, in Somalia, Libya, Northern Cyprus, Qatar, Chad, Sudan, and Syria? Turkey now has more troops posted overseas than any other country except the U.S. Again, Trump has done nothing to prevent or reverse this Turkish military expansion, for he is inordinately fond of Erdogan, a “strong leader” just like, he allows himself to believe, himself.
Of the forty-four million Muslims now in Europe, how many do you think support the Muslim Brotherhood? Of the 3.5 million Muslims in the U.S., how many do you think support the Muslim Brotherhood? How many non-Muslims in the West now march and chant and carry signs and vote against Israel and in support of Hamas, which is the Gaza offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood?
The correct answer, to all three questions, is many. Far too many.
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