What a difference an election makes.

Last week the new leaders of Hamas threatened to stop releasing hostages because of imaginary Israeli violations of the cease-fire agreement. When President Trump demanded that all hostages be released by Saturday or “all hell would break loose,” the Israeli cabinet endorsed Trump’s demand. Hamas’s new leaders partially caved in, and the hostage releases continued.
But we shouldn’t send any funds to rebuild Gaza unless the Arab nations agree to Trump’s plan.
This was the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, that a sitting U.S. president pressured Hamas instead of Israel.
Let’s pause here to remember that the Biden administration — again and again — pressured Israel, not Hamas, to begin a cease-fire. Former secretary of state Tony Blinken admitted in January that every time the Biden crew pressured Israel into a cease-fire, the Hamas terrorists pulled back from any cease-fire deal to release the hostages Hamas took on Oct. 7. Blinken and Biden were too stupid to realize that pressure on Israel was counterproductive, yet they pressured Israel again and again.
My Twitter feed is chock-a-block with pictures of hostages taken by Hamas who remain in captivity. Some are babies. It’s about five hundred days that they have been in captivity and many may no longer be alive. The bodies of those murdered in captivity are also being held hostage by Hamas.
Hamas, we must remember, committed enormous and multitudinous war crimes on Oct. 7. Killing civilians intentionally, burning families and raping women are war crimes, not “resistance.” The only Hamas member indicted by the so-called “International Criminal Court” was dead at the time of his indictment. That didn’t stop the ICC from indicting Israeli PM Netanyahu and former defense minister Gallant. (As I’ve written elsewhere, the ICC is a rogue court that operates in accordance with ideology, not evidence.)
President Trump’s plan — to rebuild the Gaza Strip after moving...