For anyone who has been living in a state of suspended animation since the Oct. 7 attack when Hamas took hundreds of hostages from Israel, the timing of the announcement on Wednesday that a deal had been reached for their release at the two-year mark could not have been more resonant.

But the timing has another significance: It comes on the eve of this year’s announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize — a sought-after award for the man who demanded and brokered the deal, U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump has previously expressed resentment that the Nobel committee had not honored him. Since returning to office this year, he has claimed — with some evidence — to have helped end seven world conflicts. And on Wednesday, he announced that he had achieved the biggest deal of them all, a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that he says could pave the way for lasting peace in the Middle East.

Those grateful for the deal say he deserves the honor.

“I call on the Nobel committee to award President Trump the Nobel Peace Prize. He did something unbelievable,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a video statement on Thursday.

“President Trump shouldn’t just win the Nobel Prize — it should be renamed after him,” said the Republican Jewish Coalition in a statement.

And in Israel, a farmer who has used his land to send political messages in the past had the words “Nobel 4 Trump” plowed into his fields.

Trump is clearly eager for the prize. Soon after he announced the deal, the White House tweeted a picture of him with the words “The Peace President” in all-caps. Trump’s son Eric tweeted, “Retweet if you believe @realDonaldTrump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize,” quickly drawing tens of thousands of retweets. And his Jewish commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, added his own take: “Undoubtedly, President Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Not everyone who is happy to see a deal says Trump deserves the prize. “Trump gets what he wants because he is a bully. Period. And apparently, bullying was what was necessary to get this ceasefire done,” wrote Elana Sztokman, an Israeli liberal voice, on her Substack.

It appears unlikely that Trump could get the prize this year. Nominations, which can only come from specific people empowered to suggest recipients, were required to be made by Jan. 31, and the committee said it made its choice in Monday, before the deal.

The prize, awarded most years since 1901, is intended to recognize those “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” The Nobel committee, which consists of five Norwegians, is famously resistant to pressure campaigns, and some of its members have spoken out against the kinds of anti-democratic policies that Trump is advancing at home.

Still, the committee’s chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes indicated this week — without mentioning Trump specifically — that the committee saw efforts to vie for the prize as a positive.

“We feel that the world is listening, and the world is discussing, and discussing how we can achieve peace is a good thing,” he told the BBC during a rare interview about the process.

At least two people did nominate Trump before the deadline, including an Israeli professor of law at Case Western Reserve University who said she did so in January after a brief ceasefire that resulted in the return of some but not all of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.

“Their return was an act of justice and humanity, and President Trump played a decisive role in achieving it,” Anat Alon-Beck told the Times of Israel on Thursday. “What distinguishes President Trump is his ability to deliver meaningful results through determined leadership. Under his guidance, a historic ceasefire agreement was reached, bringing home hostages whose lives were hanging by a thread.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominated Trump in July, after the deadline, amid ceasefire talks that did not yield a deal. “It’s well deserved, and you should get it,” Netanyahu told Trump at the White House when presenting the letter, which did not mention Gaza.

Past recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize include Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, as well as two Israeli prime ministers who struck peace agreements and their Arab counterparts. One agreement — for Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, has held — while the other, in 1994 for Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Yassir Arafat, soon collapsed amid unprecedented violence.

Some human rights advocates say even if Trump is unlikely to take home his white whale this year, there’s a chance that he could in the future if the Gaza deal is in fact inked and holds. Nina Graeger, the director of the think tank PRIO, told the BBC, “I think it would be difficult not to look in his direction then,”

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In New York City, the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel fell against the backdrop of a mayoral election that brought Israel and Gaza to the fore of local politics.

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and frontrunner, attended a vigil hosted by Israelis for Peace in Union Square on the anniversary of the attack. The anti-occupation activists have rallied weekly for two years to demand a ceasefire, the release of hostages and an end to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Mamdani’s pro-Palestinian advocacy and staunch criticism of Israel are central to his swift ascent in politics, and his opponents in the race have latched onto his views, accusing him of fanning antisemitism at a time when anti-Jewish attacks are on the rise.

Now, the race enters its final stretch as a tentative peace dawns on the Middle East, with President Donald Trump announcing that Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage deal and an initial phase to end the two-year war on Wednesday night.

Mamdani attended the Tuesday vigil with Brad Lander, the city comptroller and a close Jewish ally, and held a lit candle while listening to Israeli and Palestinian speakers, as well as local rabbis. One of the speakers, Tamar Glazerman — whose aunt was killed by Hamas on Oct. 7 — decried Israel’s retaliation in Gaza, saying, “War crimes cannot justify other war crimes.” A banner behind her read, “Stop the Genocide. Save Gaza. Free All Hostages.”

These sentiments echoed a statement that Mamdani released to mark the anniversary. “Two years ago today, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more,” he said. He called for the return of the remaining hostages and said he mourned the dead.

He went on to say that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government “launched a genocidal war,” killing more than 67,000 Palestinians and reducing swaths of Gaza to rubble. He criticized the U.S. government for being “complicit” and reiterated his long-held view that “the occupation and apartheid must end.”

The statement gathered over 20 million views on X and rebukes from many, including the Israeli government, who said he was wrong to focus on Gaza on a day anchored in Israeli tragedy.

“Two years after Hamas launched its barbaric massacre against Israel and the Jewish people, Mamdani has chosen to act as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda — spreading Hamas’s fake genocide campaign,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, adding that Mamdani “normalizes antisemitism” and “stands with Jews only when they are dead.”

Mamdani also drew criticism from Jews who said he only paid lip service to their mourning. Zachary Braiterman, a professor of modern Judaism at Syracuse University who supports the Israeli movement to end the war, said Mamdani “speaks quickly past NYC Jews as we stop and mark the 2 year anniversary of 10/7.”

Other critiques came from pro-Palestinian activists who said his statement undermined their cause. Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of the group Within Our Lifetime, accused Mamdani of erasing “the decades of siege, occupation, and systematic killing that led to that day.”

The double-sided critique drew the attention of Adam Carlson, head of the polling firm Zenith Research. “The fact that everyone on both extremes is up in arms over this statement means that he absolutely nailed it,” tweeted Carlson.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani’s closest competitor, focused his own comment on the Hamas attack and did not mention Israel’s retaliation or the fate of Palestinians.

“To the Jewish people — I stand with you. I mourn with you and I will forever be by your side in the fight against evil and anti-semitism in all forms,” said Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary and relaunched his campaign as an independent.

Cuomo has centered an appeal to Jewish New Yorkers in his bid for mayor, touting his pro-Israel record as governor. He recently collected a slew of endorsements from Jewish groups and leaders, largely representing Orthodox communities, after incumbent Mayor Eric Adams dropped out and the field narrowed to Cuomo, Mamdani and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.

Jewish voters are divided over this election, with many younger, more progressive Jews backing Mamdani and many aligning with his views on Israel and Gaza. A recent Marist poll conducted before Adams quit found the same proportion of Jewish voters — 35% — breaking for both Cuomo and Mamdani.

Sliwa said that Oct. 7 was “a dark day” and called for the release of hostages. He also acknowledged the ensuing devastation without explicitly naming Palestinians in Gaza.

“The death and destruction that has followed in the region is deeply disheartening, and my prayers are with all families here in New York and abroad who continue to feel this pain,” he said.

The mayoral race coincides with a dramatic shift in how New Yorkers view Israel. According to a New York Times/Siena poll last month, 44% of New Yorkers said they had greater sympathy for Palestinians, compared with 26% who sympathized more with Israel. Voters also preferred Mamdani’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — once viewed as a fringe left stance in the city’s political landscape — over the other candidates’ by a wide margin.

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Date and time: Wed, Oct 22, 2025 / 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM EDT
Location: Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street, Toronto, ON, M6J 2W5

Get your tickets here

In a post-Oct. 7 world, news feeds are filled with videos, podcasts and reports of Jews and Muslims talking at each other, about each other—but rarely with each other. This limited series brings together Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, from across the country and the political divide, to sit down and have difficult conversations—in good faith.

In this live podcast recording, we’re bringing comedy sets from Adrienne Fish, Nour Hadidi, Foad HP and Dan Rosen before a panel discussion with all four about what it’s like performing as Muslim and Jewish comics in 2025—including all the pitfalls they have to navigate as they speak their minds onstage.

Included: Entrance to Koffler Arts and post-event reception.

Parking: Free and paid options available, but spots are limited.

All proceeds will go to charity

Hosted by The Canadian Jewish News, in partnership with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

The post In Good Faith: A Jewish/Muslim Night of Comedy and Conversation appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.