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Trump’s Question for Arab Rulers
Jordan King Abdullah II visits Trump at White House (Source: Reuters)
JNS.org – More than 6 million Syrians fled their homeland during that country’s almost 14-year-long civil war. Other nations took them in. It was the humanitarian thing to do, and it fulfilled their obligation under international law.
Since Hamas initiated a full-blown war against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, almost no Gazans have managed to flee because no countries—not even Egypt, whose Sinai Peninsula borders Gaza—were willing to take them in.
Was that because the value of Gaza’s civilians as Hamas’ “human shields”—sacrificial pawns in the jihad against Israel—overrode humanitarian and legal concerns? I report, you decide.
Prior to the current conflict it could be credibly argued that “the Palestinian cause” could be achieved with the creation of a Palestinian state.
It’s now become obvious that, for Hamas and its supporters, the Palestinian cause is and always has been the extermination of Israel, the resurrected Jewish homeland, a tiny island amid an ocean of Arab and Muslim states.
“Two-state solutions” were offered to Palestinian leaders in 1937, 1947, 1967, 1978, 2000, 2001 and 2008. Palestinian leaders declined them all and proposed no alternatives.
However, if you think about it, a kind of two-state solution was in effect the day before Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border and staged the worst orgy of murder and other atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust.
Gaza has been ruled by Palestinians since 2005, when Israel withdrew from the territory without preconditions in the hope of securing peace. Initially, that meant Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah movement, governed. Two years later, Hamas ousted Fatah and established its unfree one-party rule with no further elections.
Gazans have been among the largest recipients of aid from the “international donor community” on a per capita basis.
Food, medicine and construction materials were routinely transported from Israel each day into Gaza. Israel supplied Gazans with electricity. Thousands of Gazans were permitted to enter Israel to take jobs.
Hamas delegated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and other UN agencies the provision of most social services. Hamas gave the UN orders, and the UN agreed without complaint—even when munitions were stored in schools and command-and-control centers set up in hospitals.
Had Hamas been willing to peacefully coexist with Israel, Gaza could have become a successful nation-state confederated in some way with the Palestinian entity on the West Bank.
Instead, Hamas built an army and spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing a subterranean fortress in which its troops would hide during the war it planned to launch.
Early in the conflict, as innocent hostages were being held and tortured by Hamas, the Biden administration demanded that Israel not just deliver aid—food and fuel that Hamas would of course steal—but also formulate a plan for “the day after.”
How odd those demands seem in any historical context. Can you imagine Roosevelt and Churchill providing aid to Germany and formulating the Marshall Plan before the Nazis surrendered?
It’s against this backdrop that President Trump has now raised an audacious idea for post-war Gaza. “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it,” Trump announced last week.
He said the almost 2 million Gazans—who self-identify as “refugees from Palestine” even though they live in a Palestinian territory—should relocate to other countries. At the same time, the United States would dismantle “all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons” in the Strip. He added that, at present, Gaza is “a demolition site,” with “nothing to move back into.”
The feasibility of this proposal notwithstanding, I strongly suspect it was a way of saying to Arab rulers, particularly Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II: “You don’t get to just watch and kibitz. If you don’t like my idea, come up with a better one!”
Remember that following the 1948 British withdrawal from Mandatory Palestine, Egypt ruled Gaza. That rule ended in 1967 after Egypt launched and lost a war against Israel. Note: Egypt never attempted to establish a Palestinian state in Gaza.
As for Jordan, it was carved from the British Mandate for Palestine in 1921. In that new polity, then named Transjordan, the British installed an emir—a Hashemite, a member of a noble clan resettled from Arabia.
The territory remained a British protectorate until 1946, when it was granted independence as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Two years later Jordan conquered Judea and Samaria, expelled all the Jews, renamed those territories the West Bank, and annexed them. Jordan lost them in the 1967 war.
Most Jordanians are Palestinians. Among them is Queen Rania, wife of the current king of Jordan, Abdullah II. If their son, Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah, succeeds to the throne, he will be the first Palestinian king in history.
The Egyptian and Jordanian responses to President Trump’s proposal have so far been unhelpful. They have reiterated their opposition to taking in Palestinians, even temporarily. They insist that Palestinians lead Gaza’s reconstruction, neglecting to specify which Palestinians would be up to the task.
Though Trump is famously unpredictable, I wouldn’t be astonished—based on remarks he’s made over recent days—if he were to tell Sissi and King Abdullah something along these lines:
“You receive huge amounts of American aid along with vital security assistance. These are not entitlements.
“I’m trying to put an end to endless wars in the Middle East. That requires that Gazans not be ruled by Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, or the mullahs in Tehran.
“So, are you with me or against me? Are you an ally? Because I expect America’s allies to contribute to the collective security and give at least as much as they take. Is that you or not?
They should think hard before answering.
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Iran Says It Has Replaced Air Defenses Damaged in Israel War
The S-300 missile system is seen during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 17, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran has replaced air defenses damaged during last month’s conflict with Israel, Iran’s Defah Press news agency reported on Sunday quoting Mahmoud Mousavi, the regular army’s deputy for operations.
During the conflict in June, Israel’s air force dominated Iran’s airspace and dealt a heavy blow to the country’s air defenses while Iranian armed forces launched successive barrages of missiles and drones on Israeli territory.
“Some of our air defenses were damaged, this is not something we can hide, but our colleagues have used domestic resources and replaced them with pre-arranged systems that were stored in suitable locations in order to keep the airspace secure,” Mousavi said.
Prior to the war, Iran had its own domestically-made long-range air defense system Bavar-373 in addition to the Russian-made S-300 system. The report by Defah Press did not mention any import of foreign-made air defense systems to Iran in past weeks.
Following limited Israeli strikes against Iranian missile factories last October, Iran later displayed Russian-made air defenses in a military exercise to show it recovered from the attack.
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Calm Reported in Syria’s Sweida, Damascus Says Truce Holding
Members of Internal Security Forces stand guard at an Internal Security Forces’ checkpoint working to prevent Bedouin fighters from advancing towards Sweida, following renewed fighting between Bedouin fighters and Druze gunmen, despite an announced truce, in Walgha, Sweida province, Syria, July 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Residents reported calm in Syria’s Sweida on Sunday after the Islamist-led government announced that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and a US envoy signaled that a deal to end days of fighting was being implemented.
With hundreds reported killed, the Sweida bloodshed is a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, prompting Israel to launch airstrikes against government forces last week as it declared support for the Druze. Fighting continued on Saturday despite a ceasefire call.
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said on Sunday that internal security forces had managed to calm the situation and enforce the ceasefire, “paving the way for a prisoner exchange and the gradual return of stability throughout the governorate.”
Reuters images showed interior ministry forces near the city, blocking the road in front of members of tribes congregated there. The Interior Ministry said late on Saturday that Bedouin fighters had left the city.
US envoy Tom Barrack said the sides had “navigated to a pause and cessation of hostilities”. “The next foundation stone on a path to inclusion, and lasting de-escalation, is a complete exchange of hostages and detainees, the logistics of which are in process,” he wrote on X.
Kenan Azzam, a dentist, said there was an uneasy calm but the city’s residents were struggling with a lack of water and electricity. “The hospitals are a disaster and out of service, and there are still so many dead and wounded,” he said by phone.
Another resident, Raed Khazaal, said aid was urgently needed. “Houses are destroyed … The smell of corpses is spread throughout the national hospital,” he said in a voice message to Reuters from Sweida.
The Syrian state news agency said an aid convoy sent to the city by the government was refused entry while aid organized by the Syrian Red Crescent was let in. A source familiar with the situation said local factions in Sweida had turned back the government convoy.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Israel sent urgent medical aid to the Druze in Sweida and the step was coordinated with Washington and Syria. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Foreign Ministry and the military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Druze are a small but influential minority in Syria, Israel and Lebanon who follow a religion that is an offshoot of a branch of Shi’ite Islam. Some hardline Sunnis deem their beliefs heretical.
The fighting began a week ago with clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters. Damascus sent troops to quell the fighting, but they were drawn into the violence and accused of widespread violations against the Druze.
Residents of the predominantly Druze city said friends and neighbours were shot at close range in their homes or in the streets by Syrian troops, identified by their fatigues and insignia.
Sharaa on Thursday promised to protect the rights of Druze and to hold to account those who committed violations against “our Druze people.”
He has blamed the violence on “outlaw groups.”
While Sharaa has won US backing since meeting President Donald Trump in May, the violence has underscored the challenge he faces stitching back together a country shattered by 14 years of conflict, and added to pressures on its mosaic of sectarian and ethnic groups.
COASTAL VIOLENCE
After Israel bombed Syrian government forces in Sweida and hit the defense ministry in Damascus last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had established a policy demanding the demilitarization of territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Sweida.
He also said Israel would protect the Druze.
The United States however said it did not support the Israeli strikes. On Friday, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area for two days.
A Syrian security source told Reuters that internal security forces had taken up positions near Sweida, establishing checkpoints in western and eastern parts of the province where retreating tribal fighters had gathered.
On Sunday, Sharaa received the report of an inquiry into violence in Syria’s coastal region in March, where Reuters reported in June that Syrian forces killed 1,500 members of the Alawite minority following attacks on security forces.
The presidency said it would review the inquiry’s conclusions and ensure steps to “bring about justice” and prevent the recurrence of “such violations.” It called on the inquiry to hold a news conference on its findings – if appropriate – as soon as possible.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said on July 18 it had documented the deaths of at least 321 people in Sweida province since July 13. The preliminary toll included civilians, women, children, Bedouin fighters, members of local groups and members of the security forces, it said, and the dead included people killed in field executions by both sides.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another monitoring group, has reported a death toll of at least 940 people.
Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.
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Pope Leo Calls for End to ‘Barbarity of War’ After Strike on Gaza Church
Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Pope Leo called for an end to the “barbarity of war” on Sunday as he spoke of his profound pain over an Israeli strike on the sole Catholic church in Gaza.
Three people died and several were injured, including the parish priest, in the strike on the Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City on Thursday. Photos show its roof has been hit close to the main cross, scorching the stone facade, and shattering windows.
Speaking after his Angelus prayer, Leo read out the names of those killed in the incident.
“I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, of indiscriminate use of force and forced displacement of the population,” he said.
The post Pope Leo Calls for End to ‘Barbarity of War’ After Strike on Gaza Church first appeared on Algemeiner.com.