Morton Klein | ZOA in the news | August 24, 2026
Israel was right to reject the latest 15-point plan. Not negotiate it away. Not soften it. Reject it. Israel has every right to decide what terms it will accept when its security and survival are at stake.
It is also about America’s credibility, President Donald Trump’s legacy and whether the United States still has the power to make agreements that mean something. Trump has made extraordinary and courageous decisions and we know this historic visionary president will continue to do so.
Israel and the United States are separate sovereign nations. Each must make their own decisions based on their security and interests. But right now, those interests intersect at a critical point: Gaza. If Hamas is allowed to violate, delay or reopen an agreement and Israel is pressured to make more concessions, America’s enemies will learn a dangerous lesson: Keep delaying. Keep violating. Keep demanding. Eventually Washington and her allies will negotiate against itself.
The original Oct. 9, 2025, 20-point plan was a contract entered into by Hamas and Israel, not an opening bid. Yet the latest 15-point proposal changes critical terms. It does not destroy Hamas’s weapons, tunnels and weapons factories. Instead, those weapons would be transferred to an Arab authority for storage and control. That is not disarmament. It is putting the gun on the shelf and pretending the gun no longer exists.
There is no reason to believe Hamas cannot infiltrate another organization in Gaza. It’s already proven it can, whether a civil authority, a foreign aid group like UNRWA, a press organization or any other. Any organization entrusted with its weapons will become Hamas’s prime target for infiltration, hijacking and eventually rearming.
The ideology that produced Hamas must also be confronted. Hamas is the produce of terrorist indoctrination, hatred of Jews, Christians and Americans and glorification of martyrdom. You cannot destroy Hamas while preserving the ideology that creates its next generation of recruit. Nor should terrorism be rewarded with Palestinian statehood. If terrorism produces political gains, terrorism has been incentivized, not defeated.
Israel has made its decision. Now America needs to make its own. The United States should not tell Israel what it must accept or negotiate Israel’s security for it. But Washington must make clear that an agreement reached with American involvement is not a suggestion. If Hamas violates its commitments, there must be consequences. Washington should not pressure Israel to give Hamas more simply because Hamas refuses to honor its commitments. It should pressure the Arab guarantors – Turkey, Qatar and Egypt – to force Hamas to.
This is where Trump’s negotiating power and legacy are at stake. Trump has built his foreign policy around the principle that American strength creates leverage for peace. That leverage depends on adversaries believing that when the United States reaches an agreement, the agreement is final. If an agreement can be endlessly reopened every time one side violates it, then it is not an agreement. It is the beginning of another negotiation.
Tehran is watching closely in its own negotiations with the United States over ending the war, its nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and its terrorist proxies. If Hamas can delay and violate an agreement while America pressures Israel for additional concessions, Tehran will see a proven strategy: Delay produces concessions. Violations produce negotiations. Renegotiation produces rewards.
America cannot allow itself to be played by Hamas and then expect Iran to negotiate seriously. Tehran will use the same playbook on the nuclear issue, its proxies and the Strait of Hormuz.
Hamas and Iran must understand that violations have consequences. Washington must not pressure its allies into surrendering more because their enemies refuse to honor their commitments.
Peace means eliminating the ability to wage war, not merely pausing the shooting. Hamas must be disarmed. Its weapons, tunnels and weapons factories must be destroyed. Its ideology must be confronted and there must a radical reformation of the Gaza educational system and curriculum. Gaza must stop being taught to hate Israel and Jews and stop promoting violence and the killing of Jews. There must be no discussion now of a Palestinian state which will surely be a terrorist disaster as polls show 80% of the Israelis rightly believe.
Israel was right to reject this plan. Now America must defend the principle that makes American negotiating power possible: A deal is a deal. When a party violates an agreement, there must be consequences. If America allows every signed agreement to become the starting point for another round of concessions, America will surrender the negotiating power that keeps its enemies in check and peace through strength will have failed long before President Trump leaves the White House.
Morton A. Klein is the national president of the Zionist Organization of America.
This op-ed was originally published by USA Today and can be viewed here.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.