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Trump’s Vision, and Gaza 2.0
US President Donald Trump looks on as he signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 31, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, then the outrage over President Donald Trump’s announcement on his vision for Gaza misses the failures of the “international community” and the Palestinians themselves over the years:
• Pushing Israel to withdraw from land in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza.
• Watching terrorists build arsenals, attack Israel, and raise generations of people to believe violent death is holy as long as it also kills Jews.
• Pouring in “aid” and money, which the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Hezbollah steal while the agencies feed the people, perverting the idea of productivity, earning power, and self-determination.
• Watching terrorists fire rockets at Israel and demanding a ceasefire when Israel fires back.
• Being sympathetic when individual Israelis are killed in terror incidents, but blaming the lack of “progress” on Israel’s unwillingness to concede a Palestinian state.
Rinse and repeat.
The response to Trump’s plan also misses the progression in the president’s own pronouncements regarding the future of Gaza. The first came in January 2020 at a meeting in Washington with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to introduce his “Vision for Peace,” which, several months and much negotiation later, became the Abraham Accords.
“The Vision” was 180 pages long and meticulously detailed. The high points are these:
First, the complicity of Arab countries in the miserable situation of Palestinians. “It is time,” Trump’s report said, “for the Muslim world to fix the mistake it made in 1948, when it chose to attack instead of to recognize the new state of Israel. The Palestinians are the primary pawn in this adventurism, and it is time for this sad chapter in history to end.”
By recognizing that the Palestinians were left hanging by their Arab brothers between 1948 and 1967, he made the solution to the Palestinian plight the Arab states’ responsibility, as well. That showed up again this week.
Second, while he was extraordinarily sympathetic to the Palestinian people — particularly young people whom he lamented are “growing up with no hope” — he said that there were things the Palestinian Authority does that are unacceptable to both Israel and the United States. He did not mention Hamas at the time, but the point holds. Those claiming the President is advocating “ethnic cleansing” or something worse aren’t paying attention — and don’t want to.
Third, he offered recognition of “Palestine as the nation-state of the Palestinian people” with a capital in Jerusalem (which would remain undivided and under Israeli sovereignty), “where the US will proudly open an embassy,” plus massive international investment. In exchange, the President told them to “meet the challenges of peaceful coexistence”:
• Adopt laws ensuring basic human rights and protecting against financial and political corruption.
• Stop malignant activities of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
• End incitement against Israel; and
• Permanently halt financial compensation to terrorists.
Let’s face it, these constitute a very low bar for any decent and humane society.
Giving up those unacceptable things before the US would support the Palestinians’ desire for an independent state is what some people call “preconditions.” Yes — that’s precisely what they are. Said the president, “It is never too late. It is time to rise up and meet the challenges of the future. If they do it, it will work.”
Except they didn’t.
The PA is an active sponsor of terrorism. It also steals from its own people and represses them politically and — for Christian Arabs, religiously. In Gaza, Hamas did that and more.
Rather than suggesting yet another ceasefire and hoping to work that into a “two-state solution,” or giving the PA control in Gaza, or giving terror-sponsor Qatar the right to redevelop the devastated places by hiring its Hamas buddies to do the work and steal the money, Trump looked at it another way.
The US will do it. There are details to be parsed here — and they will be — but the most important point is, actually, the one Palestinians and their international enablers have been making through their tears — that Gaza is their home; they are Gazans. A Gaza journalist, Tariq Dahlan, apparently told BBC reporter Alice Cuddy, “People in Gaza, like all in the world, are deeply connected to the place where they were born, raised, and have been living all their lives … Every one of us is deeply connected to our homes and we would reject any eviction. We will stay put on this land even though there is death and destruction.”
But if it’s their land and their government — and they are currently situated there — how can they continue to be refugees? The answer is that they are not “refugees.” (Goodbye UNRWA.)
Now, there is a conversation no one wants to have. Except, perhaps, President Trump. In 2020, Palestinians chose not to participate in The Vision, which became the Abraham Accords by the end of that year. In 2025, the deal is different. Less favorable to the Palestinians in the short term, perhaps, but that’s the price of losing the war they started.
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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.
The post Calm Reported in Syria’s Sweida, Damascus Says Truce Holding first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.