[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
In his announcement of the his peace deal between Hamas and Israel, President Donald Trump quotes the Sermon on the Mount, writing “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS.” All right. Here’s another passage of scripture for him: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14)
Once the deal was done, Trump said: “I spoke to Bibi Netanyahu just a little while ago. He called. He said, ‘I can’t believe it. Everybody is liking me now,’ meaning him. I said, ‘More importantly, they are loving Israel again,’ and they really are. I said, ‘Israel cannot fight the world Bibi, they cannot fight the world.’ And he understands that very well. So it’s amazing the way it’s all come together.”
Israel cannot fight the world. But the world, or at least the forces of jihad and their non-Muslim useful idiots, can fight Israel, and will continue to do so, Trump peace deal or no Trump peace deal. Trump has not made for peace. He has just made for a slight delay in the jihad. At best. Above all, he has enabled Hamas to fight on.
The reason why this peace deal is no cause for celebration is simple: it will not bring peace. It is based on a fundamental misunderstanding or willful refusal to understand why Hamas is fighting and what the group is all about. Hamas has no interest whatsoever in establishing a “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” except on its own terms, which would require the total destruction of Israel and its replacement with a Sharia state.
What Trump — along with every other leader in the Western world — does not or will not understand is that Hamas is an Islamic group. An Islamic group can be reasonably expected to follow Islamic law. Islamic law does not allow for the establishment of peace between a Muslim entity and a non-Muslim one on an indefinite basis, with, say, two states living side by side and respecting each other’s right to exist. No, the imperative of Islamic conquest encompasses every non-Muslim entity. Muslims must fight unbelievers “until persecution is no more and religion is all for Allah.” (Qur’an 8:39) If Israel’s religion is not all for Allah, the jihad against it will continue. What’s more, Israel is on land that Muslims must ruled. Therefore the Muslims have an imperative before Allah to “drive them out from where they drove you out.” (Qur’an 2:191)
Yet if all that is true, why is Hamas making peace at all? Because it is losing. Consider this passage from a manual of Islamic law: “If Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud.” (Reliance of the Traveller, o9.16)
Note that this can only be done if “Muslims are weak,” so that they can gather strength to fight again — not so that they can live peacefully with non-Muslims indefinitely. The same legal manual also quotes this verse of the Qur’an: “So do not falter and cry out for peace when you have the upper hand, and Allah is with you, and he will not deprive you of your actions.” (47:35) Thus Hamas would not be calling for peace at all if it felt it was in a position of strength. “Interests that justify making a truce are such things as Muslim weakness because of lack of numbers or materiel, or the hope of an enemy becoming Muslim…” (Reliance of the Traveller, o9.16)
The bottom line: Hamas is feeling the heat and wants this peace deal in order to regroup and emerge in a stronger position. The one certainty here is that there will not be a “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” but that Hamas and/or other Islamic jihadis will murder more Israelis and continue to try to destroy the Jewish state.
Avid to be known as the great peacemaker, Trump has destroyed Israel’s chance of really gaining a respite in the endless jihad war against it. That respite would have come from destroying Hamas utterly. Instead, Hamas lives on. The jihad never ends, but the destruction of Hamas would have set it back years. The destruction of Hamas and the toppling of the Islamic Republic of Iran would have set it back decades. Trump has prevented both. If there is a Nobel Jihad Prize, he should get it.
