Peloni:  The US should have no military presence in Lebanon, and should be supporting Israel’s enforcement of the terms of the deal, not in restraining those effort or placing US or international forces in the breach on the border.

Unspeakably terrible idea, if true. From the Lebanese press today, following Ortagus’ visit: “Informed sources say the US side is considering submitting a proposal for the deployment of reinforced international forces under US leadership in the locations that Israel says it wants… pic.twitter.com/S8BB6UOByI

— Tony Badran (@AcrossTheBay) February 8, 2025

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Interest, established.

J.E. Dyer, a retired Naval Intelligence officer, blogs as The Optimistic Conservative | Feb 6, 2025

This article is obviously a follow-up to the press conference held by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday, 4 January 2025, in which Trump made a series of remarkable statements about the situation in Gaza and the role he envisions in it for the United States.

Shoshana Bryen • JPC • February 6, 2025

The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Peloni:  Open the gates, and watch the Gazans Self Deport.  Their state of destruction and despair is of their own making and involved their own support for and choice of fully embracing terrorism as their national pastime and code of honor.  Israel must take control of Gaza, crush Hamas, and fascilitate the movement of Gazans elsewhere, and it will take very little encouragement or support to see the vast majority of Gazans leaving under their own steam.

Peloni:  This would be the greatest policy failure of the Trump administration if the Mullahs are left in power, the consequences of which would be targeting Israel, the US, and the entire Western World.

by Majid Rafizadeh  • Gatestone Institute •  February 8, 2025

Possessing nuclear weapons provides any regime with a protective shield against foreign intervention, removing the fear of retaliation. Given this reality, no diplomatic effort — regardless of its structure — will convince Iran to relinquish its nuclear ambitions voluntarily. Fars Media Corporation, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

• Possessing nuclear weapons provides any regime with a protective shield against foreign intervention, removing the fear of retaliation. Given this reality, no diplomatic effort — regardless of its structure — will convince Iran to relinquish its nuclear ambitions voluntarily.

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It is hard to fathom why France should display such ire at the Trump proposal to procure Greenland since the idea is hardly new, having been raised several times in the far off and recent past without setting off any outrage.

Dr. Martin Sherman |  Feb 7, 2025

Dan Scavino, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

By Janatan Sayeh | February 6, 2025

The FBI’s Persian-language wanted poster for Ahmad Khazai, Iran’s former counterintelligence deputy in its Ministry of Intelligence.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently issued “seeking information” posters for two operatives of the Islamic Republic’s intelligence services implicated in the 2007 abduction of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson on Iran’s Kish Island.

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Peloni:  Trump will find that Abdullah’s opposition to accepting the Gazans is very real and any concessions on this point will be very limited, as the Pals represent an oppressed minority under Abdullah’s rule, despite being paid billions of US dollars to improve the living standards of the overwhelming Pal majority in the country.  A govt under Mudar Zahran, however, would be far mor obliging to Trump’s demand of taking the Gazan masses, in addition to reforming the Islamist foundation on which Jordan currently exists.

Ahmad Sharawi | FDD

The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Following the onslaught in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, Jordan’s King Abdullah II quickly declared that any attempt to resettle Gaza residents in the Hashemite Kingdom would constitute a “red line.” Now, as Abdullah arrives for a meeting with Donald Trump on February 11 — making him the first Arab leader to meet with the U.S. president since his inauguration last month — he faces an administration actively pushing a proposal that crosses that same red line.

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Israel apparently knew something was coming but ‘US ownership’ came as surprise

Hanan Lischinsky | Published: February 7, 2025

Official White House Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This week, U.S. President Donald Trump did what he does best, smashing decade-old paradigms of Middle East policy with a new idea whose details remain shrouded with questions: The U.S. will take over Gaza, while its inhabitants will move somewhere else, possibly to return after reconstruction.

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Amb. Daniel Friedman | X | Feb 7, 2025

Ambassador David Friedman attend an event in honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary with Prime Minister Netanyahu and participate in a distinguished panel discussion on Israel’s foreign relations over the years at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, Jerusalem April 23, 2018  Photo credit: Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv

Many have expressed doubt over the legality and the theology of Gaza being turned over to the United States. A simple structure properly would satisfy both issues:

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Peloni:  The interests of the Saudis lies in complete contradiction to the establishment of another Islamist Pal State.  Instead, what is needed is to first recognize Jordan as the Arab state which was carved from the Palestinian Mandate for the local Arab population, and to then install a governing leadership under Mudar Zahran which will evict the existing Islamist elements which are well embraced by the usurping Hashemite regime, thus avoiding creating another Islamist state and radically transforming another.  The path to any stability and peace requires a clear connection to history and reality, and the way to achieve this goal is thru the Jordan Option.

Netanyahu suggests to his base that if Saudi Arabia insists on a Palestinian state as a prerequisite for normalisation, Saudi should create a Palestinian state on its own territory

US suggestions that a breakthrough in normalisation was imminent appear premature pic.twitter.com/NFleRKtdi0

— Dr Andreas Krieg (@andreas_krieg) February 7, 2025

Peloni:  As I have noted before, the US must once and for all end its support of terrorism across the Middle East.

by Daniel Greenfield | Feb 7, 2025

“It is really, really a sad day in America,” Rep. Ilhan Omar declared at a rally by Democrats outside USAID headquarters protesting President Trump’s reconstruction of the aid agency.

It wasn’t a sad day for America, but it was so for Somalia.

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Peloni:  Al-Sain provides an important view of how fellow Arabs view their Pal brothers, that is with such a disdain that few non-Arabs could easily describe their contempt.  It is an important factor to consider when considering what to do with the Pals in Gaza.  Sending them to Jordan would be the most obvious choice, as Jordan violated international law when it rescinded citizenship from the Pals, and Jordan is already a nation comprised of an overwhelming Pal majority.  In fact, what is missing in Jordan is the leadership which would outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies, while also embracing the Pals as being Jordanian citizens.  For these reasons and others, Trump must embrace the many strong benefits of the Jordan Option, with Mudar Zahran as the leader of the New Jordanian state.

Trump is right to reject the two state delusion and his proposal to relocate Gaza's population cuts through decades of long-entrenched, failed orthodoxies. pic.twitter.com/RVnE4oqzua

— Jonathan Sacerdoti (@jonsac) February 5, 2025

Peloni:  I think that Trump’s decision to move into the Middle East quandary is just part of his continued move against China.  In fact, his bold proposal has significant implications for the fickled nature of US allies in the Middle East, whose moves toward China in recent years is simultaneously harmful to the US and emboldening of China.  With a base of operations in Gaza, it places the US in a position of independent power projection, the likes it has never had in the Middle East, with which to influence its allies into accepting that American military dominance in the region is far more relevant than Chinese economic incursions into the region.  The consequence of this is that Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be under significant pressure to return to their previous positions of being stronger and more reliable allies than they have become due to US waffling in the region.  This will also allow the US the means by which to stabilize the region and maintain peaceful support for the development of the launching the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, all while turning Gaza into an enterprise which enterprise which compensates the US presence in the region.  Notably, this was among the first initiatives undertaken by Trump, even as more specific elements of his foreign policy are yet to be developed or stated.  For all of these reasons, and others, I believe that Trump’s Gaza proposal is very important to his second term, and likely one which he will not easily abandon.

Trump offers a way out of this cycle of bloodshed. He proposes evacuating the civilian population from Gaza, even if temporarily, allowing the process of rehabilitation and rebuilding to begin in a Gaza empty of both residents and Hamas. Yet everyone rushes to refuse the proposal.

Peloni: Highly recommended article.

By Lee Smith | Tablet | Feb 5, 2025

Click on link to read article:

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/end-of-palestine