President Trump and PM Netanyahu Think Outside the Box— Good-Bye, Oslo; Hello, America

Feb 7, 2025 by Susan Rosenbluth

By Susan L. Rosenbluth

Last Tuesday, February 4, President Donald Trump changed the way the world thinks about Israel and the Hamas terrorists in Gaza—and about Israel and the United States.

Of course, according to many journalists, giving the President such credit is wrong. “No one really believes he’s going to get the Palestinian Arabs to agree to move voluntarily from Gaza, allow him to build luxury hotels in Gaza, and turn that hellhole into a paradise of a Mediterranean resort,” said a mainstream reporter at the press conference.

When asked to comment, I had only one answer: No one honestly has any idea whether the President is going to be able to do everything he says he wants to or not, but it’s never a wise move to bet against what Donald Trump can do if he wants to get something done.

And even if Mr. Trump can’t arrive at the solution he spelled out at the press conference, no one can deny he changed the world by moving the discussion point, the argument, and the image of what the region might look like a year or two from now.

Momentous Photo-Op

It began with the photo-op before he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came out to address the press. These are usually fast-moving, speedy little affairs when, as a rule, nothing is discussed beyond the necessity of getting out of someone’s way. An exception was on March 26, 2010, when President Barak Obama publicly ambushed Mr. Netanyahu, informing him that an Israeli “settlement freeze,” including a halt on all Jewish construction in the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem and withdrawal of IDF troops to pre-Second Intifada positions was now United States policy.

On February 4, President Trump also made sure the gathered journalists at the photo-op received an inkling as to what was going to be discussed at the press conference: The United States intends to take control of Gaza, probably as a protectorate; encourage current Gazan residents to leave the area; and then oversee the redevelopment of the strip to make it not only habitable but gorgeous enough to rival the Riviera.

Further, he implied at the photo-op, the United States may well smile on Israel as the Jewish state extends sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

Fateful Press Conference

At the press conference itself, other topics made it a fateful event as well: If Hamas does not leave Gaza, the Trump administration will not force Israel to extend the ceasefire; all hostages must be released; and Iran will never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

“Where do you think the Gazans will go?” some journalists asked.

Mr. Trump thinks the answer may be Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and who knows where else. Maybe to Indonesia.

“Do you think he’s serious?”

Who knows? But you can bet he’s serious about one thing: He wants recommendations different from the one that’s been batted about for decades. He—and most Israelis and their supporters—have had enough of the tired, unworkable “two-state solution” that never had a snowball’s chance and, despite its favorability from virtually every European diplomat, Democrats in the United States, and even some Republicans, still doesn’t.

Ridiculous Paradigm

Ever since the Oslo Accords reared its ugly head, the “two-state solution” maintained that either Israel relinquish territory and learn to live with terrorists ready to destroy the entire Jewish population, or Israel will devolve into an apartheid state. Ein breira. There are no other choices.

Last Tuesday, President Trump said, wait a minute. That paradigm is nonsense. It amounts to the world’s would-be moralists telling Jews these are your only choices. That, he said, is not true. Arabs in Gaza might want to leave, and those who do should be helped.

According to Israeli journalist Herb Keinon, a longtime columnist for the Jerusalem Post, Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu are not the only ones who think this way. Jordan’s King Abdullah is coming to see Trump next week, and after that, Egyptian President Abdel El-Sisi has an appointment. No one knows what they’ll be discussing, but, in all probability, it won’t be the old “two-state solution.”

Egypt may well have a proposal on how to reconstruct Gaza—minus Hamas or Israel’s intention to restart the war. It’s important that something be decided by March second, which will mark the end of the thirty-three-hostages-released-in-forty-two-days plan that Israel agreed to in the Trump-brokered ceasefire with Hamas.

Will Bibi’s Government Survive

The survival of Israel’s current government led by Mr. Netanyahu may hinge on what happens after March second. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Minister of Finance of the politically conservative National Religious Party–Religious Zionism, has threatened to leave the government—thus, bringing it down—if Israel just lets the ceasefire deadline lapse with no action, i.e. resumption of the war to demolish Hamas.

According to Mr. Keinon, who made his remarks on a Zoom call sponsored by American Friends of Likud, Mr. Trump’s reshuffling of the deck last week means Mr. Smotrich will do nothing of the sort. “He’s not going to bring down the government while Trump is President,” he said. Especially since sovereignty over Judea and Samaria seems to be on the table.

That’s not to say all Mr. Netanyahu’s governmental problems are solved. The issue of the Hareidi Draft still looms darkly over the Knesset, but in the face of what Mr. Trump may be willing to offer, and especially considering his relationship with Mr. Netanyahu, that will not suffice to call for new elections.

Mr. Keinon believes the Likud government under Mr. Netanyahu may well be able to “run out the clock” until new elections are due in November 2026, but he does not think Bibi, who currently faces the “distractions” of court issues in addition to matters of state, will win again. “The political map will change, and by the time 2026 rolls around, our traumatized nation may be thinking about different leaders,” he said.

Heads and Hearts

One of the issues adding to the trauma is the emotional decision surrounding what must be relinquished in exchange for the hostages. Mr. Keinon likened it to the battle between the heart and mind. The heart will do anything for the release of any hostage the enemy will offer; the head says it makes no sense to free terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands who vow to return to the field and kill more Jews.

“The heart won this time because the secret to Israel’s survival is our sense of solidarity. If something terrible happens to one of us, we will do anything to correct it. The alternative is to lose our sense of solidarity.”

He called the hostage experience “a rollercoaster.” We weep as the people we love come home while, at the same time, released terrorists are cheered as heroes by the Palestinians. All we can do is hope Israel has learned it cannot allow freed terrorists to do as they wish unfettered and unmonitored.”

During the Friends of Likud call, some participants pointed out that although the Jewish state has no death penalty for murder, even when perpetrated during terrorism, since October 7, 2023, terrorists caught in the act throughout Israel and the territories have usually been killed on the spot.

What Is Crazy

While Mr. Keinon believes the Likud government and its prime minister will remain in control until the next scheduled election, Mr. Netanyahu’s political enemies on the left have not given up thinking about how to overthrow it. According to Mr. Keinon, the last thing Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid or Benny Gantz wants is for Mr. Netanyahu to take credit for cleansing Gaza of Hamas. Therefore, the Israeli left, like the Democrats in the United States, still argues that Mr. Trump’s idea is “crazily unworkable.”

“But why should anyone think the ‘two-state solution’ with a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria connected to Gaza by a land bridge is less crazy than anything Trump has suggested?” asked Mr. Keinon. “A Palestinian state with the same leaders and ideology that have been around for decades is as unrealistic as a Hamas-less Gaza under the protection of the United States. Trump’s ideas shouldn’t be pooh-poohed as crazy when they can be embraced as easily as anything else that has been suggested for the last thirty years.”

He maintained that after October 7, 2023, nothing is as “nutty” as the old idea of a Palestinian state, no matter how much some Israelis or European leaders still cling to it. “It was tried, and it failed, and now Trump is suggesting alternatives.”

Great Optics

In any case, at the press conference, the optics couldn’t have been better for Israel and her supporters. There was every indication the U.S. and Israel are allied and aligned on every important issue: releasing all the hostages, getting rid of Hamas, and destroying the nuclear capabilities of Iran.

Whatever bad blood Mr. Trump might have harbored against Mr. Netanyahu based on the Israeli Prime Minister’s hasty “Mazal Tov” to then-President Joe Biden in 2021 seemed over and forgotten.

“We don’t know what the two leaders talked about behind closed doors, but publicly, they made clear there is no daylight between Israel and the United States,” said Mr. Keinon. “And when the United States and Israel are close, good things happen; when the President in office tries to separate them, it’s much harder.”

This is important, he said, because after October 7, 2023, the world saw that the issue was not simply how Israel should deal with the Palestinians, but also Iran and its terrorist proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

“This broader perspective is the Trump perspective,” said Mr. Keinon.