SHAME, SHAME ON THOSE WHO DISHONOR CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

By Howie Katz

 

 

Today is Columbus Day, the day we honor the great and brave explorer, Christopher Columbus. 

On August 3, 1492, when Columbus first set out on a westward route to India, most people believed the earth was flat and that his ships would fall off the edge of the world. But on October 12, 1492, Columbus and his crew landed on an island in the Bahamas that he named San Salvador.

 

On October 12, 1492, Columbus and his crew landed on an island in the Bahamas that he named San Salvador.

 

 

But instead of honoring Columbus like they should, leftists have rewritten history by falsely accusing him of enslaving the indigenous people of the Americas. They have defaced and destroyed statues of him and have renamed schools and public facilities that had been named in his honor.

 

 

C 

A statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down at the Minnesota State Capitol on June 11, 2020.

A statue of Christopher Columbus lies in Fountain Lake after it was torn down on June 11, 2020 where the statue stood for decades at Byrd Park in Richmond, Virginia

 

Columbus never mistreated or enslaved any of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. That was done by the Spanish explorers who came after Columbus. 

The second Monday of October is officially designated as a federal holiday in honor of Columbus. But many places have eliminated Columbus Day and replaced it with Indigenous Peoples Day.

Christopher Columbus rightfully deserves an honored place in history and shame, shame on those who would deny him that. 

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN FOR RELEASED HOSTAGES AND THEIR FAMILIES

Israeli 'Juliet' and her secret commando lover are reunited after being captured by Hamas on October 7 before he hid his identity for two years

 

By Andy Jehring and Natalia Lisbona 

 

Daily Mail

Oct 13, 2025

 

Noa, 27, was dragged away from her lover Avinatan, 32, on a motorbike in a harrowing image that went viral and came to sadly embody the atrocity of October 7, 2023 

 

Rescued hostage Noa Argamani was seen reunited with her sweetheart Avinatan Or - as it was revealed that he is a special forces hero in the 'Israeli SAS'.

Emotional pictures show the couple dubbed 'Romeo and Juliet' together at last over two years after they were cruelly ripped apart from each other on October 7.

Noa, 27, was dragged away from Avinatan, 32, on a motorbike in a harrowing image that went viral and came to sadly embody the atrocity of that day.

Now photographs of them back together are not only symbolic of the nightmare being over - but also of love and commitment prevailing over evil.

Avinatan embraced his girlfriend, holding her tightly to him before he put his arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek as she beamed.

He held her face, staring into her eyes as she stared back at him overcome with joy. Avinatan was also seen with his parents, Ditza and Yaron, in hospital after making a heart with his hands to his supporters outside.

Noa was rescued during an Israeli military operation in Gaza in June 2024, alongside three other hostages.

It comes as it was revealed Avinatan serves with the elite Sayeret Matkal unit - considered one of the premier special forces units in Israel.

 

Rescued hostage Noa Argamani, pictured left, was tonight seen reunited with her sweetheart Avinatan Or, right

Emotional pictures show the couple dubbed 'Romeo and Juliet' together at last over two years after they were cruelly ripped apart from each other

 

Based on the SAS, it was established in 1957 and even shares The Regiment's motto - Who Dares Wins.

Dubbed 'The Unit', it conducts intelligence gathering deep behind enemy lines and is tasked with counter-terrorism and hostage rescue.

For two years Avinatan's association with Sayeret Matkal has been hidden over fears of reprisals to him in captivity.

The Daily Mail told last week how Noa had to make a dash back to Israel when his release from captivity was suddenly announced while she was campaigning for him in Washington.

She was with a delegation of 24 hostages and volunteers who had to scramble back in time for the release jumping on eight separate flights.

Posting a picture of herself on top of suitcases in Washington after landing back on Saturday, she wrote: 'Now it's time to come home.'

In her speech to US Cabinet members and senior White House officials including Marco Rubio on the October 7 anniversary last week, Noa vowed to keep fighting for Avinatan.

She said: 'Avinatan and I came to the Nova music festival just to celebrate our life.

 

Avinatan embraced his girlfriend, holding her tightly to him before he put his arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek as she beamed

The pair pictured in an old photo posted to Instagram this month. Noa was rescued during an Israeli military operation in Gaza in June 2024, alongside three other hostages

Avinatan, pictured second left, and Noa, not pictured, are seized by members of Hamas

 

'We found ourselves in the darkest tunnels of Gaza. I cannot even begin to describe those terrible pictures.'

She said she had not seen Avinatan since being dragged away, her arms outstretched as he looked on helplessly, surrounded by armed terrorists.

'I asked about Avinatan everywhere I went,' she said. 

'I didn't know if it was murdered or kidnapped, and I was afraid to know the answer.'

Noa also revealed that she feared every minute that her guards might 'lose control and kill me' and heartbreakingly declared: 'I'm not the same person that I used to be.'

She said: 'I saw it happen in front of my eyes, two of my friends that were with me since October 7 were murdered in captivity.

'Yossi Sharabi and Itay Svirsky were brutally murdered and executed and I survived.'

Noa told those present: 'I dedicate my life to bring my partner, Avinatan, and all the hostages back home.'

Fellow hostages finally released from Hamas captivity on Monday looked shockingly different as they were reunited with their families after 738 days in Gaza.

 

Alon Ohel was among the hostages freed today in a historic ceasefire deal. A new picture released today after he was freed shows his gaunt features

Sergev Kalfon arrives at a medical centre where he underwent a check up after being released 

He was taken while he ran away with his friend. Hamas later published a video of his capture 

 

The 20 remaining living hostages were released two years after being kidnapped when Hamas launched its deadly raid on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

They were at last returned following the Donald Trump-brokered deal between Israel and Hamas, which aims to bring an end to the devastating war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

In emotional scenes, captives reunited with parents, families, friends and loved ones.

Families, who have spent every day since October 7 fighting for their release from gruelling captivity in the enclave's underground tunnel network, gathered in anticipation as tears flowed and hugs were exchanged.

'After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm, the guns are silent and the sirens are still,' Donald Trump said in a historic speech at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

But the brutal reality of two years in captivity was apparent amid a day of joy, with the hostages now looking radically different from the photographs taken before they were seized on October 7, 2023.

Behind the smiles, some appear to have dramatically lost weight, while others appear frail.

Footage released by Hamas showed Alon Ohel, 24, being taken by the militant group from the Nova festival.

 

Ariel Cunio's eyes looked sunken as he was seen walking with IDF representatives after being freed

Cunio and his partner Arbel Yehud were taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Yehud was freed earlier this year but Cunio's brother said the last message he received from him read: 'We are in a horror movie' 

 

Since his capture, Ohel has faced health issues. Last month, his family approved the release of a screenshot from a video that showed he had now gone blind in one eye.

Before he was captured, pictures showed him with a full beard and curly hair.

Pictures shared by the IDF of his reunion with his family today show the drastic weight he has lost. His beard and hair have also been shaved, revealing his gaunt features.

Sergev Kalfon, 27, was taken while running away with a fiend at the music festival. Later, a video of his abduction was released by the militant group.

In February 2025, released hostage, Ohad Ben Ami told Kalfon's father they had been held with four others in a tunnel under 'terrible conditions'.

Before his capture, pictures showed him enjoying a holiday with friends. However, photos released today show him as a shell of his former self, with the toll of years in captivity written across his expression.

Ariel Kunio was abducted on October 7 at Kibbutz Nir Oz. His brother, Eitan, who escaped the attack, says the last message from Ariel read: 'We are in a horror movie.'

His partner, Arbel Yehud, was freed earlier, in January 2025, in a deal that saw Hamas hand over 25 living and eight dead captives.

 

Released Israeli hostage Evyatar David reacts upon arriving at Beilinson Hospital in the Rabin Medical Centre in Petah Tikva in central Israel on October 13, 2025

In August Hamas released a shocking clip of him with his skeleton visible from his thin skin

Released hostage Eitan Horn, in centre, appears visibly changed by his ordeal

Horn is said to have saved many people before he was taken by Hamas militants 

Martan Zangauke was photographed in an embrace with his mother following his release

 

In new photos, his eyes look sunken as he walked with IDF representatives following his release. He tied his hair, which has now grown longer, into a bun and appears to have lost weight.

Evyatar David has undergone one of the most extreme transformations out of all the hostages. Photographs of him before the Hamas attacks show how vibrant the 24-year-old looked. 

In the picture released today, he still appears severely underweight and malnourished. 

Meanwhile, Eitan Horn has undergone a severe body transformation with a shocking weight loss revealed on Monday's return, and Martan Zangauke shared an embrace with his mother after their reunion today.

Yosef Chaim Ohana's father broke down in tears when they reunited earlier today, and Nimrod Cohen was seen under an Israeli flag, looking frail after his release.

Rom Bravslaski, 21, was draped in the Israeli flag as he greeted members of the IDF upon his release, as was Bar Kupershtein, whose family previously said he appeared injured with his body diminished by captivity.

In pictures today, Maxim Herkin appeared in high spirits as he greeted medics and soldiers.

An Israeli-Russian dual national, his friends were among those who were slaughtered in the attack. 

 

Yosef Chaim Ohana's father was emotional when he reunited with his son earlier today 

After his release today, Nimrod Cohen was seen looking frail under an Israeli flag 

 Rom Braslavski was seen draped in the Israeli flag as he greeted members of the IDF 

Bar Kupershtein in a reunion with his family earlier today 

Maxim Herkin appeared in high spirits as he greeted soldiers and medics 

 

Following his video with Kupershtein, he appeared alone in another video, bandaged, allegedly from an Israeli air strike.

Elkana Bohbot, 36, was working at the festival when abducted.

His wife Rikva recalled their last conversation: 'In our last conversation … I told him, "It's not just missiles, come home," and he promised he would return.' 

Media earlier cited released hostages saying Elkana developed a severe skin disease under harsh conditions.

Hamas released a video showing Guy and Alon Ohel being driven around Gaza City in August 2025. The pair were freed today. 

After his release, David Cunio, 35, older brother of Ariel, was pictured laughing alongside a representative of the Israeli army at the Re'im military base in southern Israel.

Twins Gali and Ziv Berman are understood to have been separated in captivity but a photo after their release shows them warmly embracing. 

Earlier this year, freed Matan Angrest's family said they had been told by former hostages that he was suffering from untreated burns, infections, and chronic asthma. 

 

Elkana Bohbot was seen hugging authorities after his release

Gilboa-Dalal was seen waving as he made his way to hospital for medical checks

Released Israeli hostage, David Cunio, held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, sits with a representative of the Israeli army after being released, as part of a prisoner-hostage swap and a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Reim, Israel October 13, 2025

Gali and Ziv Berman, 28-year-old twin brothers, were captured from their home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza with their neighbour, British-Israeli Emily Damari

In this photo provided by the Israeli Defense Forces, Matan Angrest speaks with an IDF representative in Israel on Monday, October 13, 2025

Eitan Mor seen in a helicopter with his family 

 

Eitan Mor, seen in a helicopter with his family today, was kidnapped alongside his brother Yair from Nir Oz. 

Yair was released in February 2025. At the time, Hamas showed a video of the brothers embracing.

Omri Miran, 48, was photographed reuniting with his wife Lishay Miran-Lavi, where he spoke to his daughters Roni, four, and two-year-old Alma on a tablet while at the Re'im base. He was the oldest living hostage to return to Israel today. 

MUCH IS UNRESOLVED ... TRUMP'S AGREEMENT IS NOT A PEACE DEAL, BUT A SHAKY CEASEFIRE WITH TERRORISTS WHICH WAS ONLY IN ITS INITIAL PHASE

Trump's Gaza peace deal hanging by a thread as Hamas 'is already playing tricks', Netanyahu insider warns

 

By Elina Shirazi 

 

Daily Mail

Oct 13, 2025

 

 

President Donald Trump poses with the signed agreement at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a U.S.-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025

 

On a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, Donald Trump announced the end of the war in Gaza on Monday as Hamas freed 20 Israeli hostages.

The first phase of the peace deal is underway, but despite the celebratory mood, experts warned that the ceasefire hangs by a thread, with the future uncertain as Hamas must still fulfill critical demands.

Most notably, the full return of the bodies of Israeli hostages.

The 20 remaining living hostages were released on Monday morning, followed by the remains of four others.

But the bodies of 24 hostages, which Hamas promised to release as part of the peace deal, are still unaccounted for. 

Lianne Pollack-David, former senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says the most critical test lies ahead. Trump's peace deal risks complete collapse if Hamas fails to return the bodies of all deceased Israeli hostages, she says.

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, an Israeli advocacy group, warned that Hamas is already in 'blatant breach' of the peace agreement after it failed to release all of the remains today. 

Pollack-David, who previously negotiated with Palestinians, described the current phase of the deal as dangerously unstable, with the Israel Defense Forces having partially withdrawn to what is called the 'yellow line' –– about a 50 percent pullback.

 

President Trump visiting the country hours after Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages 

Inbar Hayman (left), an Israeli hostage, and Joshua Loitu Mollel, a Tanzanian hostage, who have both died while being held in Gaza 

Itay Chen's (left) remains are still believed to be in Gaza. Tamir Nimrodi (right), who was not among those freed today, is feared dead in Gaza

People and hostages family wait for the return of the hostages at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv

 

 

If Hamas violates the terms, that retreat could be reversed rapidly. 

She emphasized that Trump's agreement is not a peace deal, but a shaky ceasefire with terrorists which was only in its initial phase. Much is unresolved.

Pollack-David says Hamas has already shown signs of defiance, including using psychological tactics to maintain a sense of control.

She says Hamas called the parents of these hostages and let them speak to their loved ones, because they wanted to let them know they maintain control over them. 

'I don't expect Hamas to come out in the next few days or months waving a white flag. They will do whatever they can to survive, and they're already playing these tricks,' the Netanyahu insider said. 

She added, 'What they do next could blow up the whole deal.'

Pollack-David praised Trump's strategic approach in the region, noting that he has effectively compelled regional actors such as Qatar, Turkey and Egypt to take concrete responsibility for Gaza's future, rather than remaining passive observers.

Gaza, she argued, cannot remain solely Israel's problem.

 

Released Israeli hostage Avinatan Or greets well–wishers upon arriving at Beilinson Hospital in the Rabin Medical Centre in Petah Tikva in central Israel 

Released hostage Avinatan Or, who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas and taken to Gaza, reacts upon arrival at the site of Rabin Medical Center–Beilinson Hospital, amid a hostages–prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Petah Tikva, Israel October 13

Israeli soldiers salute as vehicles transporting the bodies of four hostages handed over following a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, arrive to the National Center for Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv on October 13

 

'What President Trump did very smartly is put a lot of responsibility on the regional players… instead of just talking, he's telling them, put your skin in the game,' she said. 

At the same time, she expressed concern that key players like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who she identifies as representatives of a moderate and forward–looking Middle East, have so far played a limited role in the process.

'Qatar and Turkey are now heavily involved, but there are big question marks. They've been strong supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and very anti–Israel,' she explained.

In the end, she said that United States, rather than the current Israeli government, will be the one who will decide if the war has ended.

'The US will be the judge of long term peace. I wish it were Israel, but it can't happen with this current government that mixes ultra-right wing ideology with security considerations. It doesn't fully represent the Israeli public or Israel's best long-term security interests,' she said.

'Trump's vision at this moment is the right one. He's pushing Israel in a direction that may not be convenient to everyone, but it's necessary,' she said.

JOE ROGAN, WHO HAS BEEN A STRONG BACKER OF TRUMP, IS RIGHT IN DESCRIBING THE PRESIDENT'S IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN AS 'HORRIFIC' ..... ALTHOUGH TRUMP VOWED TO TARGET VIOLENT CRIMINALS, MOST OF THOSE ARRESTED BY ICE HAVE BEEN DECENT PEOPLE WITH NO CRIMINAL RECORD

Joe Rogan launches fresh attack on Trump's 'horrific' immigration policy: 'Have some heart!'

 

By Sonya Gugliara 

 

Daily Mail

Oct 13, 2025

 

 

 

Joe Rogan (pictured) has once again torn into Donald Trump for his 'horrific' immigration crackdown, which the podcaster described as brutal and unjust 

 

Joe Rogan has once again torn into Donald Trump for his 'horrific' immigration crackdown, which the podcaster described as brutal and unjust. 

The 58-year-old host of the Joe Rogan Experience came after the Trump administration's harsh Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tactics in last Thursday's episode of his show. 

While discussing the president's deployment of the National Guard to Democrat-run cities with actor-comedian Duncan Trussell, Rogan segued into how the White House has been handling mass deportations. 

'The way it looks is horrific,' Rogan bluntly said. 'When you're just arresting people in front of their kids, just normal, regular people that been been here for 20 years.

'Everybody who has a heart can't get along with that. Everybody with a heart sees that and goes, "That can't be right. That can't be the only way to do this."'

He made it clear that he believes having a strong and secure Southern Border should be a priority, but targeting law-abiding people who have lived most of their lives in the US is 'crazy.' 

'If they've been productive members of society for 20 years, no criminal record, they worked the entire time, they paid taxes, find them a pathway to citizenship,' he said.  

'Find a way where you can do this thing that you want to do, which is keep terrorists and cartel members from getting across the border with rugs that kill 100,000 people a year,' Rogan began addressing Trump. 

 

 

Donald Trump, pictured with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has vowed to target violent criminals in his administration's sweeping ICE raids

Around 493,000 migrants have been deported since Trump took office in January, while another 1.6 million have self-deported (pictured: an ICE arrest in Denver, Colorado in February)  

 

 

'But have a f**king heart while doing it because if you don't, you're not going to get anybody on your side if you're doing this stuff publicly - throwing women to the ground, handcuffing people just for existing on the wrong side of the dirt.'

He noted that many Mexican migrants come to the US as children and have spent their entire lives in the country. 

'They can't even speak Spanish, and they could get sent back,' he asserted. 

Rogan - who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election but previously backed liberal candidates, including Bernie Sanders in 2020 - also denounced Trump's ICE raids in August.

While speaking on his podcast, he expressed discontent with Trump's policies because they target laborers and not the violent criminals he promised. 

In the divisive episode, Rogan explained to Florida Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna his belief that the president has been alienating his supporters by carrying out these extensive and heavily publicized raids. 

Around 493,000 migrants have been deported since Trump took office in January, while another 1.6 million have self-deported, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

 

Rogan said 'everybody who has a heart can't get along' Trump's deportation policies (pictured: ICE protestors in Broadview, Illinois, on Friday)

In July, ICE reported making roughly 990 arrests each day - a staggering drop from the daily rate of 1,224 arrests in June (pictured: workers arrested by ICE in Los Angeles, California in June)

 

ICE agents have arrested another 457,000 illegal migrants in the same time period.

'Ramped-up immigration enforcement targeting the worst of the worst is removing more and more criminal illegal aliens off our streets every day and is sending a clear message to anyone else in this country illegally: Self-deport or we will arrest and deport you,' DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has been credited with handling immigration policies under both of Trump's administrations, declared over the summer that the president wants at least 3,000 ICE arrests per day.

Despite this lofty target, the rate of immigration-related detainments has dropped in recent months, according to data collected by the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). 

In July, ICE reported making roughly 990 arrests each day - a staggering drop from the daily rate of 1,224 arrests in June. 

Trump has also maintained that the primary targets of his tough policies are migrants with violent criminal backgrounds. 

 

Stephen Miller (pictured), who has been credited with handling immigration policies under both of Trump's administrations, declared over the summer that the president wants at least 3,000 ICE arrests per day 

Government-released data has revealed that the number of arrested migrants without criminal histories has surpassed the number of those with a record (pictured: two Long Beach, California car wash employees being detained by ICE in September) 

 

But government-released data has revealed that the number of arrested migrants without criminal histories has surpassed the number of those with a record.

The Guardian reported in late September that approximately 16,525 people with no record were detained, while about 15,725 with a record were. About 13,765 people with pending charges were also arrested. 

About 71.5 percent of detainees have no criminal convictions, according to TRAC.

TURKEY AND QATAR CREATED THE GAZA OF OCTOBER 6 AND CANNOT BE ENTRUSTED WITH SHAPING THE GAZA OF OCTOBER 8

Trump's Gaza plan exposes Turkey and Qatar for what they are

The next phase is not military but cognitive. Jerusalem defines the reality before Doha and Ankara rewrite it in Hamas's language. If they are allowed to sit at the table, the pause will become a defeat; if they are excluded, a new order can emerge: clear victory, sovereignty without intermediaries, and deterrence that endures.

 

by Shay Gal 

 

Israel Hayom

Oct 12, 2025 

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani 

 

The Trump ceasefire framework is not the end of the war; it is the opening of a political battlefield. The guns are silent, but the battle for Gaza's future has begun - who will shape it, and who will be left out.

Turkey and Qatar are not part of the solution; they are part of the problem. States that created the Gaza of October 6 cannot be entrusted with shaping the Gaza of October 8.

For more than a decade, Qatar hosted Hamas's political bureau in Doha. What began as 'humanitarian mediation' became a political and financial infrastructure: funds flowed, leadership flourished, the world looked away. Turkey, for its part, granted passports to Hamas operatives and turned Ankara into a refuge for a movement that calls for Israel's destruction.

Turkey's Education Ministry marked October 7 as "Palestine Awareness Day", ordering all 81 provinces to comply. Children were taught about "conscience, justice, and humanity," but the conscience was Turkish - turning massacre into "the just liberation of Gaza". Minister Yusuf Tekin put it gently: "We must revive humanity's conscience in our children". In practice, it meant turning October 7 from mourning into celebration of murdered Israelis. That week, Ankara boasted of "contact" with Hamas hostage-holders - not with the families, but with the captors. It was hailed as diplomacy, though the line between Ankara and Hamas has never been broken. Not a badge of honor - a fingerprint of a state tied to the captors it pretends to mediate, an identity card of a state complicit with terror. A country that teaches its children that the killer is the hero cannot supervise the disarmament of terror.

The Israeli strike in Doha cracked Qatar's immunity. It failed to kill Hamas's leaders but shattered the illusion that Doha could host terror and still mediate. President Trump, publicly "very concerned" about an attack in a "friendly" state, privately recognized the strategic lever it created: a chance to force a reckoning. From that point, Qatar was compelled to reassess its own boundaries. It did not change sides but changed weight - from a sheltered broker to a fragile node in the pressure map.

Now that the cards are exposed and the masks removed, Jerusalem does not blur the lines. Those who hosted Hamas and educated generations to see massacre as "resistance" cannot be part of the structure meant to prevent its return. Those who fed the monster cannot be trusted to keep it chained. Ankara and Doha are out.

Trump has translated this understanding into policy - a settlement built on responsibility, not sentiment. Egypt mediates along the southern corridor, the United States oversees from above, Qatar is defined in the agreement as a "humanitarian, technical and supportive channel", and Turkey remains in peripheral involvement with no operational control. Yet both capitals tell a different story: Doha speaks of a "central role in reconstruction," Ankara of "involvement in the peace process". In practice, the agreement limits both to symbolic roles, and from that limit there must be no deviation: those who gave Hamas shelter will not receive the keys to Gaza's reconstruction.

Ankara wraps its involvement in the language of "peacekeeping" and "humanitarian responsibility". The façade is neither new nor credible. In 1974 Turkey launched what it called a "Peace Operation" in Cyprus - an invasion that ended with the occupation of the island's north, the expulsion of some 150,000 Greek Cypriots, and the creation of a puppet regime still maintained by Turkish troops. A moral vocabulary was used to justify and disguise territorial and political control. The same method continues today. Under banners such as "security zones" and "counter-terror operations", Ankara has repeatedly invaded Kurdish territories - Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, Peace Spring - redrawing borders, displacing civilians, and ruling through local proxies. Human-rights groups have documented abuses in Afrin and beyond, while elected Kurdish officials were jailed or removed. This is not an exception but a doctrine: the rhetoric of peace as camouflage for coercion.

Today, when Ankara speaks of "dialogue with Hamas for the sake of peace", it repeats the same script - not neutral mediation but explicit alignment. This is not linguistic nuance; it is policy. The same rhetoric that once clothed an occupation in compassion now dresses the patronage of a terrorist organisation in diplomatic language. It is not statesmanship; it is a deliberate tactic of domination through violent proxies - a policy designed to entrench control, not to dismantle terror.

Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin wrote in the Middle East Forum that Turkey's record speaks for itself: in 2012 Turkish-backed militants attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, killing Ambassador Chris Stevens while Turkish diplomats looked away. The same pattern runs from Afghanistan to Libya, where Ankara empowered Islamist factions under the banner of "reconstruction" and "peacekeeping". Rubin warns that giving Erdoğan a foothold in Gaza would not build peace but rearm Hamas - another turn in Ankara's use of Islamist proxies to expand control behind moral rhetoric.

The next phase is not military but cognitive. Jerusalem defines the reality before Doha and Ankara rewrite it in Hamas's language. If they are allowed to sit at the table, the pause will become a defeat; if they are excluded, a new order can emerge: clear victory, sovereignty without intermediaries, and deterrence that endures. This is not isolation. It is the cleansing of the arena from those who conceived Hamas - and now seek to resurrect it.

IT IS FAR FROM CLEAR THAT HAMAS HAS ANY INTENTION OF FULLFILLING THE REST OF THE DEMANDS PUT UPON THEM BY TRUMP, INCLUDING DISARMING AND GIVING UP THEIR CONTROL OF GAZA

After the joyous liberation, Trump’s deal will be tested

If Hamas won’t disarm or give up power in Gaza, will a president who is basking in the title of “peacemaker” or an exhausted Israeli public let the terrorists get away with it? 

 

By Jonathan S. Tobin 

 

JNS

Oct 13, 2025 

 

 

Thousands gather at Hostages Square, outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, to celebrate the return of the remaining hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza for the past two years, Oct, 13, 2025.

 

Around the world, Jews and decent people of all faiths and backgrounds greeted the liberation of the remaining living hostages held by the Hamas terrorists with joyous thanks, relief and tears. After two years of agony for those Israelis who were among the last of those kidnapped during the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, they are finally going home.

But once the prayers of thanksgiving are uttered and the hostages are embraced by a grateful nation with an explosion of happiness, what then?

A seminal moment

The priority right now is to celebrate the freedom of this last group of the 251 who were taken on Oct. 7 and the end of a long ordeal in which they were abused, starved and tortured by their barbarous captors.

What is happening isn’t a mere homecoming.

In a very real sense, those in Israel and elsewhere who spent the last 24 months praying for this day are also being liberated from the anguish, frustration and anger we collectively felt about the trauma of Oct. 7 and what the hostages were enduring. Combined with the prospect that the longest war in Israeli history is also ending, the reaction to the freedom of the captives is going to transcend past examples in which hostages held by terrorists were let go or rescued, and likely be remembered as a seminal moment in modern Jewish history.

And that is exactly what the people who planned, executed and cheered for the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust are counting on.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the terms laid down for ending the war in Gaza and freeing the hostages, which included both an Israeli withdrawal to agreed-upon lines inside the Strip as well as a painful release of imprisoned terrorists with blood on their hands.

But aside from releasing the living hostages and presumably also the bodies of slain captives they’ve been holding, it’s far from clear that Hamas has any intention of fulfilling the rest of the demands put upon them by Trump, including disarming and giving up their control of Gaza. That’s despite the fact that those points were essential to getting Israel to agree to ending its offensive into Gaza City aimed at wiping out the remnants of the terrorists’ forces.

Hamas won’t give up

Instead, we’re told that Hamas’s surrender will only come about as part of negotiations that have been put off so as not to have them interfere with the achievement of the hostages’ release. That was the upshot of an interview with the prime minister of Qatar published in The New York Times the day before the hostage release.

Many observers have assumed that the hostages were the only leverage that Hamas still had in negotiations with Israel and the United States. But it’s clear now that this might be wrong. Perhaps with the prodding of their Qatari funders and allies—who have, with the help of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, wormed their way into Trump’s good graces—the terrorists have realized that their cruel insistence on holding onto the hostages was actually an impediment to their potential survival.

How is that possible? It’s simple. The advantage that Hamas now holds is twofold.

One is that Trump is eager, even desperate, for the ceasefire to hold to keep playing the role of the world’s leading peacemaker. That is a title he will lose if, as he has also promised, he will give the green light to Israel to “obliterate” Hamas if it fails to disarm and give up control in Gaza.

 

 Thousands gather at Hostages Square, outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, to celebrate the return of the remaining hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza for the past two years, Oct, 13, 2025.

 

Trump’s vision

It needs to be stated that Trump deserves enormous credit for the release of the hostages and the ceasefire. Only an American president who was prepared to lay down terms for the war’s end that mandated both the elimination of Hamas and the immediate freedom of all the captives could have done it. And that’s exactly what Trump did, in stark contrast to his predecessor, President Joe Biden, who was more interested in appeasing supporters of Hamas than in liberating Gaza from Islamist control. In this way, Trump seemed to reconcile two goals that had seemed mutually exclusive: the freedom of the hostages and the eradication of the terrorists.

The hostages would not have been freed without Trump, as well as Netanyahu’s tough-minded refusal to be pressured into letting Hamas win the war it started on Oct. 7.

Yet the hard part in implementing the vision of the U.S. president is what follows the release of the hostages. If Hamas thinks that it can talk and negotiate its way out of surrendering Gaza—and the terrorists have every reason to believe that Qatar will back that up—then Trump’s diplomatic triumph will fall far short of the claims being asserted by the administration.

The thing is, even if we allow for the usual Trumpian hyperbole with which he speaks about anything, it’s clear that the president really wants to believe that he has done the impossible.

In his statements in the last week and those made in his speech to the Knesset after flying to Israel to be on hand to witness and take justified credit for the hostage release, he spoke as if he had not only solved the riddle of how to end the post-Oct. 7 war. He also seems to think that this agreement will allow the revival of the 2020 Abraham Accords—the signature foreign-policy achievement of his first term—and that this will lead to peace breaking out throughout the Middle East. He even mentioned the possibility of a peace deal with the Islamist regime in Iran.

The conflict isn’t over

We should all pray that he’s right about the prospects for peace. Still, the odds are—notwithstanding assurances from Qatar—that the conflict with the Palestinians and Hamas is far from over. So long as Palestinians, whether supporters of Hamas or the supposedly more “moderate” Fatah Party that runs the corrupt Palestinian Authority, still believe that their national identity is inextricably linked to a war on the Jews and Zionism, all the Trumpian optimism in the world won’t matter.

Hamas is doubtless counting on Trump not being willing to admit that the peace he seeks is likely to require continued fighting until the last Hamas operatives have disarmed, fled or been killed. If the talks stall as Hamas digs in its heels, will the president be willing to be smeared as the fomenter of Palestinian “genocide” and to give up the praise that he’s gotten for brokering a deal from many of even his most bitter political opponents?

Those who want a Middle East free of Islamist terror, let alone a secure Israel or a Palestinian political culture freed of its obsessions with destroying Israel, should hope that he’s sufficiently tough-minded to stick to his insistence that the terms of the deal are non-negotiable. But the Qataris will likely be urging him to demand that the Jewish state not restart the war under any circumstances, even if Hamas doesn’t disarm. The same may apply to members of Trump’s administration who helped broker this ceasefire deal, including Doha’s business partners Witkoff and Kushner. In addition to Democrats who oppose Israel, those in the GOP who would prefer to withdraw completely from the Middle East (a group that may include U.S. Vice President JD Vance, as well as far more marginal figures like the antisemitic Tucker Carlson, former Fox News host and current political commentator), will also be loud opponents of American support for a renewal of fighting to force Hamas’s surrender. 

After the hostage release, we should all be prepared for the international community, as well as Qatar and those Americans over whom it exerts some influence, to begin beating the drums again for a process that will lead to a Palestinian state. Trump and most of the Arab states may not actually want that. But it is far from certain that their commitment to a Hamas-free Gaza is greater than their desire to maintain a ceasefire, no matter what the terrorists do.

What’s more, flouting a Trump diktat for Israel to hold its fire in the same way that Netanyahu ignored Biden’s demands to halt the war at various points during 2024, with Hamas in a far stronger position, is something that the prime minister would be reluctant to do under any circumstances. And after the joy and gratitude of the Israeli people that is being showered upon Trump now that the hostages are freed, it may be impossible.

If so, then what will happen in Gaza in the coming weeks and months will be a reassertion of Hamas control, with the Islamist group looking to rearm and use the large part of the tunnel system underneath the Strip that was not destroyed during the war to dig in, much as they did in the years before Oct. 7.

Even during the days before the celebration of the hostage release, the world already witnessed the way Hamas was doing just that by openly killing dissidents and members of clans that opposed their rule in Gaza.

It’s not just that Hamas is doing its best to sell the agreement to Palestinians as a victory for them. That would ring hollow if the Islamists were really going to disarm and/or be forced to flee Gaza. The release of many terrorists with blood on their hands in exchange for the hostages in far greater numbers than the Israeli captives will make that claim seem credible. The homecoming celebrations for the released terrorists are, in effect, Hamas “victory” parties. The growing chorus of nations taking up the demand for an independent Palestinian state to reward them for their Oct. 7 atrocities will only further strengthen Hamas’s position.

And that’s when those aspects of Trump’s scheme that require Gaza to be ruled by what may be an entirely mythical group of nonpolitical Palestinian technocrats and policed by an international force, including some troops sent by the Arab world, will begin to seem more and more unrealistic.

Israelis are war-weary

And that leads us to the second reason why Hamas thinks it can still hold onto Gaza even after the hostages are freed.

Israelis are, for understandable reasons, weary of the two-year war they were forced into on Oct. 7. The maintenance of the large army of called-up reservists has placed an enormous strain on these heroic soldiers and their families, as well as on the Israeli economy.

Sending the Israel Defense Forces back into the maelstrom of Gaza to ensure that Hamas doesn’t reconstitute the terrorist state they ruled before Oct. 7 would be an enormous letdown for Israelis. It will also likely prompt the same political opponents who have been demonstrating in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square every week—where they acted as if it was Netanyahu rather than Hamas who was the kidnapper—to try to bring Israel to a standstill. Even without the cover provided by grieving hostage families, the “anti-Bibi” political coalition will, just as it did throughout the two-year war, prioritize its hatred for the prime minister and its determination to topple him over achieving the national war goal of eliminating Hamas.

Most Israelis agree with Netanyahu’s position on ending the terrorist organization and making sure that it cannot make good on its promises to keep on committing more Oct. 7-style massacres to achieve its genocidal goal of Israel’s destruction. Yet restarting the war against Hamas once Israelis have had a taste of peace and Trump is basking in the glow of his diplomatic success will be a lot harder than it was to continue it prior to the hostage deal.

These sobering thoughts are not what will be on most people’s minds as the freedom of the hostages is celebrated. And it is definitely not something most of them want to hear.

Unless Trump is prepared to be as tough-minded as he often claims to be, and Israelis are ready to resume a war they’d prefer were over, these are the factors that may cause Hamas to refuse to budge from Gaza and to think they can get away with it. What follows the release of the hostages will be joy; however, the assumption that it will be peace or anything like it may not only be wrong, but a path toward a revival of the Hamas-run Palestinian state in Gaza that is a guarantee of more massacres like the one that took place two years ago.