Unfortunately for those in the streets, there are times when the hard won lessons of the past have to be relearned at great cost…and if not learned the price may well be your very soul. //

The original essay framed a two state solution upending the current paradigm that would have Israel trading land for peace as it has done so many times without securing peace. The solution would require the Arab nations and Turkey to trade land for peace…while creating a new nation.
“The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey drove out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese—and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.” Eric Hoffer
(Note: The late British historian Arnold Toynbee condemned Zionism vociferously but he eventually had to acknowledge his hostility was “disproportionate” and misplaced i.e. he ascribed to Zionism his contempt for Western colonialism. Toynbee was a Chatham House apologist ahead of his time) //

There are Middle East “experts” who believe Israel, Iran, Turkey and Egypt are vying to be the regional hegemon when in truth Israel simply wants to live in peace and Iran is in such a precarious position it cannot influence the emerging reality on the ground. On the other hand, after leaving tens of billions in equipment to the Taliban and strengthening Iran at every opportunity the Biden administration has continued the Obama policy of arming the enemies of Israel with the State Department informing Congress on December 20th 2024 it had approved the sale of $4.69 billion in equipment including 555 US-made M1A1 Abrams tanks and $630 million for 2,183 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles along with $30 million in precision-guided munitions to Egypt.
Egypt has no neighbors to defend against that would require 555 US-made M1A1 Abrams tanks and $630 million for 2,183 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles along with $30 million in precision-guided munitions…except Israel. The axis developing is that of a north, Turkey, and south, Egypt, alliance against Israel and controlling Syria would put Turkey on Israel’s border. Open your eyes; Egypt is remilitarizing the Sinai; building numerous highway tunnels under the Suez that open to numerous highways to nowhere in the Sinai while quadrupling its arms storage facilities along the canal i.e. preparing for war against Israel in violation of the Israel/Egypt peace treaty. .
Not only has Egypt militarized the Sinai and violate international law by not accepting Palestinian refugees from Gaza into the Sinai as a signatory to the African Union Convention on Refugees it has now been proven the Rafah border was laced with tunnels allowing for Hamas to be armed. Egypt is not an ally of the west. //

Trump would be well advised to 1) remove the 60 or so B-60 nuclear gravity bombs from Incirlik, Turkey, before withdrawing given Erdogan has hinted the bombs belong to Turkey under adverse possession, then 2) stop the sale of military equipment to Egypt, and finally, 3)insist upon a NATO blackout of Turkey. The truth is Turkey is not an ally of the west and hasn’t been for decades; Turkey is an Islamic enemy that should be treated as such…with suspicion and utmost caution.
Defusing the situation will require a strong dose of fear God…the beginning of wisdom.