On Monday, October 13, 2025, we were blessed and heartened to see the release of the last 20 living Israeli hostages from their captivity by Hamas. This was only phase one of President Donald Trump's acclaimed, historic multinational agreement between the USA, Israel, the Middle Eastern Arab world, the bloodthirsty Hamas terror group, and Turkey, a Muslim but non-Arab country that is a member of NATO. Additionally, the 28 deceased hostages held by Hamas will be returned (and a few have been returned) assuming that their bodies can be located in the rubble of Gaza.
Israel’s success in knocking out the leadership of Hezb’allah, blasting the Houthis, and taking control of the skies above Iran -- all with the unqualified support of the U.S. government under Trump (none of that Biden-Blinken equivocating b.s. behind the scenes) -- happened because of Pres. Trump’s unambiguous support of the God-blessed State of Israel. The U.S. under Trump’s directive as commander-in-chief of our Armed Forces provided the coup de grâce to Iran’s destructive policies and actions towards Israel and the world by obliterating their underground nuclear program with 30,000 pound bombs.
With smiling aplomb, Pres. Trump publicly said that his success in bringing peace to warring parties is because he is a dealmaker. He has been making deals all his life, and in a meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt he stated that he still expects that Iran will be coming to the negotiating table and will sign onto a deal.
Iran, as we know, is the mother ship of terrorism throughout the Middle East for the past 50 years and has been the chief supporter of the Israel-hating, America-hating maniacs that have been sporadically but viciously bombing and blasting Israeli and American interests throughout the world and the Middle East for decades. Iran has been the latest face of the hydra-headed monster of Islam which has been hostile towards western civilization for many centuries.
The Ottomans based in Turkey joined with Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I as the most recent attempt to invade western civilization and conquer the “infidel” [sic].
TV news shows have been engaged in an orgy of comments about President Trump’s deserving the Nobel Peace Prize after this historic negotiation which assures not only the return of the Israeli prisoners, but a pathway to the rehabilitation and non-terrorist governance of wrecked Gazan territory. Not only has the President led the negotiations that fostered the release of the hostages and a path to new governance and new goals for Gaza, but since he took office, he has also interceded to bring some reconciliations to other warring factions and governments throughout the globe.
However, this remarkable breakthrough in the impasse over hostages and the future of Gaza and of peace and prosperity in the Middle East is in this writer’s view of greater significance than any Nobel Peace Prize could possibly suggest. Trump’s leadership is much greater than the partisan Nobel Prize could ever recognize. If one looks at the list of Nobel Peace Prize winners since the year 2000, the only three names of public figures of the USA on the list are Democrats -- Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Barack Obama. To say that the Nobel Prize Committee has a left-wing bias would be an understatement.
Trump’s achievement should not be elevated by insisting that he is a candidate for the Nobel Prize because that award is less than what he deserves. He should be seen not only as a world figure in the context of Nobel, but should insistently and perpetually be likened to Cyrus the Great, King of Persia and Babylonia which Cyrus conquered in the 6th century BC.
His rule “was characterized by innovative governance, including the use of both Median and Persian officials, the establishment of postal services, and the introduction of coinage. He is remembered for his humanitarian principles, including a decree that is considered by many to be an early declaration of human rights. His legacy of cultural integration and respect for diverse traditions marked a pivotal moment in history, influencing future leaders and shaping the identity of the Persian monarchy.”
More crucially in seeing the parallel between Cyrus and Trump, Cyrus also allowed Nehemiah the prophet to return to Judea with more than 40,000 people to rebuild the temple built by King Solomon that had been utterly destroyed by the Babylonians. The Israelites who had not been savagely killed by the Babylonians had been marched to Babylonia where they lived in enclaves separate from the Babylonian people. Cyrus respected their love and longing for their homeland and for their destroyed temple.
Thus, he was an innovative and a great ruler, even to the point of respecting the Israelites who had been conquered by the very people Cyrus had conquered.
Cyrus could not have expressed his magnanimity towards the Israelites had he not first conquered the seemingly invincible Babylonians. However, he succeeded in doing this because he diverted the Euphrates River, which enabled his armies to cross into Babylonia and defeat them. His maneuver is described by the great historian Herodotus as follows: “He placed a portion of his army at the point where the river enters the city, and another body at the back of the place where it issues forth, [and] he turned the Euphrates… which was then a marsh, on which the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the stream became fordable.”
This diversion of the Euphrates and victory by Cyrus is comparable to the bombing of the underground Iranian nuclear facilities by the Trump military that ended the conflict between Iran and Israel and presaged this final deal with Hamas and other Islamic powers and the release of the 20 hostages.
Trump’s ingenuity, his use of raw power, his magnanimity, and his genuine respect for all parties including Israel is far beyond the requirements of the Nobel Prize. It classifies him as a world leader of historical proportions not unlike Cyrus, who ruled 2600 years ago. We can be thankful that we live under his presidency and are privileged to witness one of the “deals” of the ages.
E. Jeffrey Ludwig has been contributing to AmericanThinker.com for more than 15 years. He teaches philosophy and has taught various subjects at Harvard, Penn State, Boston State College, Juniata College, and was listed four times in Who’s Who Among America’s High School Teachers. He is pastor of a small Bible believing church.
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