A directional read: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Washington equipped with one request from his government partner, Religious Zionism Party Chairman Bezalel Smotrich: to present portions of the October 7 horror footage at the outset of his meeting with President Donald J. Trump.*
While Palestinians maintain their narrative as the primary victims of this war, Israel has forgotten in the past year to show why we entered it in the first place. Only the disturbing images of Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Moshe Mozes emerging from an incited, terror-supporting crowd provided a brief but necessary reminder of who awaits us beyond the border.
Some claim these are 2 million innocent civilians – but if we don't close our eyes for a moment, we can describe them more accurately: 2 million terror supporters and their helpers. Those who called their mothers after murdering Jews in kibbutzim, those who stole and looted, and those who kidnapped people and refused to release them throughout the long months of war.
Even among us, apparently, some have managed to forget. Entire studio discussions treat Palestinians as if they were innocent citizens caught up in events of a war over the future of Gaza. It's no coincidence that one of the Torah's most important commandments passes through memory. If you don't remember, you struggle to maintain over time what you were commanded. If you don't have righteousness of path – you won't have a path at all.
Questions surrounding Gaza continue to multiply. Next week, discussions will begin on the second phase of the deal, or in unvarnished terms – ending the war. In Zionist history, we returned to Gaza and left it in the 50s, 60s, 90s, and during the Disengagement Plan. Each time we repeated the same formula: We tried settlement, terror struck us, and instead of standing firm on security – we fled under diplomatic pressure, hoping this time the result would be different. In a new exhibit we inaugurated this week at the Katif Heritage Center, it's described how David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon did it. The question is whether Benjamin Netanyahu will repeat his predecessors' mistakes.
Back in 1957, when we captured Gaza and then gave it up under international pressure, Menachem Begin issued the following warning: "My heart, my heart is with you, my sisters and brothers in the Negev. Because of the confused Mapai leader's fault and order, the Minister of Retreat and Abandonment, your blood will be spilled like water. There will be no more security for your communities."
In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin sought to calm the horror predictions voiced following the signing of the Oslo Accords: "Likud's horror stories are familiar. They promised us Katyushas from Gaza too. For a year now, the Gaza Strip has been largely under Palestinian Authority control. There hasn't been a single Katyusha, and there won't be a Katyusha. And so on and so forth, all the talk. Likud is terrified of peace. Peace cowards." Now both Trump and Netanyahu dream of a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia and a new Middle East. If these dreams rely on the same formulas, Gaza border region residents should prepare for next time.
Success or Failure
Netanyahu can influence the direction of the meeting with Trump. Not because the new administration doesn't clearly see our enemies beyond the fence, but because another viewing of the October 7 events can influence the tactics for ending the war.
Not reconstruction gifts for Gaza and another puppet government that will be thrown from rooftops within a year, but an understanding that this is a large group of Jew-haters and attackers, who must not again be given governing capabilities and establishment on our border. In Israel, they are very pleased with Trump's intention to exile Palestinians from here, to the point where it sometimes seems the new White House administration understands the Gaza threat more correctly than some Israeli citizens.
Netanyahu may encounter a different interpretation of the proposed solutions. At this stage, he will need to remember that whoever was there when the massacre occurred and when deals at incomprehensible prices were carried out, is the one whose name will also be on the result: long-term security for the people of Israel – or another round for his impressive collection.
Meanwhile, the change in Israel-US relations is registered not only in Netanyahu's trip to the White House after a long boycott, but also and especially in yesterday's amazing meeting image between Smotrich and Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. This is the first time in two years that Smotrich, serving as a senior minister, is documented with a White House senior official. In retrospect, it turns out that he actually met with some of Biden's people, but was requested to keep these meetings undocumented.
Now it can be said that Trump's inauguration in Washington ended an abnormal situation, where the White House boycotts a senior Israeli official and the public he represents. A meeting of an hour and a half with Witkoff, a photo and warm handshake on January 30 show how relations between partner nations should look. The setting looks right, they say, in Jerusalem. Now the big question is what will be the results in the Oval Office.
