President Donald Trump gave a powerful inaugural speech on January 20. One thing he said though, portends grave trouble.

“I’m pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families,” he said. Yes, Hamas released three hostages, and more are coming. But he said nothing about the terrifying price paid for those hostages.

Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel had already virtually destroyed Hezbollah in Lebanon and had dealt deadly blows to Hamas in Gaza. But then, word of the Israel-Hamas deal reached the Gazan streets, and thousands of gun-toting Arabs emerged from their underground tunnels, celebrating and shouting that they had won the war!

How could this possibly happen?

A Shameful Deal

Melanie Phillips, a resident of Jerusalem and one of the world’s best journalists, wrote in a January 16 Jewish News Syndicate article about this elation in the streets of Gaza. “Those Arabs were ecstatic because they believed that the deal would enable them to now, finally, destroy Israel and the Jews,” she wrote.

When the lopsided terms of the deal became known, it looked like “Israel was being forced to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory and would continue to face a genocidal enemy,” Phillips wrote.

“And there was distraught disbelief that President-elect Donald Trump—upon whom so many were relying to enable Israel to defend itself against genocide—could have betrayed the Jewish state by forcing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to accept the disastrous terms promoted by the Biden administration” (ibid).

This belief is hard to refute. Although Joe Biden tried to take credit, it was clearly Trump who made the deal happen. He actually pushed through what Biden was planning and hoping he could do. Why?

Understand: The Jewish state of Israel—referred to in biblical prophecy as Judah—is America’s only real ally in the Middle East. Our two peoples are tied together. Israel depends on the United States for armaments to fight its war. It is no exaggeration to say that if they lose those, they lose the war. Israel desperately needs America’s help.

Israel had weathered the storms of a hostile Biden administration and were anticipating President Trump being far more favorable. But this deal is hardly more favorable than what Biden’s team would have offered!

The deal unfolds in phases. In the first, Israel’s soldiers vacate populated areas in Gaza and more aid comes in. Hamas releases only 33 of the 94 hostages still captive in Gaza—and even that, just a few at a time. The remaining hostages won’t be released until later. And for these 33 people, Israel must release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners! In this initial swap, it is 30 prisoners for each civilian hostage, and 50 for each female soldier that Hamas hands over.

Realize: Israel does not imprison innocent civilians. The men it is setting free are criminals, terrorists and murderers who have killed a lot of Jews!

Israel had made tremendous progress eliminating the threat from Hamas. But with this deal, about everything Israel achieved in its war was quickly reversed!

Israel was so close to victory—and now, suddenly, it has lost. It had nearly destroyed Hamas’s terrorists, and now, instead, it has emboldened them. It happened so suddenly that it horrified the Israeli people.

“We have to be honest: For those of us who support the Jewish nation against the medieval militants that wish to destroy it, this is a bad deal,” Brendan O’Neill wrote for Spiked Online. “It is hard to see it as anything other than a boon for Hamas and a blow to Israel” (January 16). As comforting as it is to see hostages returned to families, he wrote, “it is undeniable that the war aim of eliminating Hamas, a noble goal, has not only been temporarily halted but reversed. It seems that Israel must, after all, suffer a genocidal terror army on its doorstep.”

Remember, in a 2011 prisoner swap—1,027 Palestinians for one Israel soldier—Israel released Yahya Sinwar, who became Hamas’s leader and an architect of the October 7 massacre! As O’Neill asked, chillingly, “Who is Israel releasing this time? What might they go on to do?”

“Taking the Israeli hostages was an evil masterstroke by Hamas,” Phillips continued. “However, America is largely responsible for abandoning them to their fate and allowing Hamas to continue to deploy these innocents as an infernal weapon of blackmail and extortion” (op cit). That is a very condemning analysis, and it is sadly accurate!

The reality is, with this deal, President Trump betrayed Israel.

Judge by Fruits

On January 7, Mr. Trump warned in a press conference that there would be terrible consequences if Hamas didn’t release the hostages before his inauguration. He badly wanted to show that his words have impact. And he wanted a ceasefire in place to end the war before he took office. So when Hamas offered a deal—even a terrible one—he pressured Israel to take it.

“For me, this raises red flags about Trump’s approach to international affairs,” wrote O’Neill. It does for me too! “To elevate the peace of mind of America’s incoming rulers over the right of the Jewish state to defeat the anti-Semites that threaten its very existence seems disastrously short-termist. Do Trump’s advisers not appreciate what is at stake in the Middle East?” (emphasis mine throughout).

What is at stake? Israel’s survival—and much more! Giving these genocidal terrorists prizes for the hostages they took, and space to regroup, can only have disastrous consequences. Can’t President Trump recognize that?

“As for Trump,” Phillips wrote, “the fear is that his transactionalism will mean he ends up playing the same role as the Biden administration in empowering evil. We can only hold our breath.” We must judge by fruits. Mr. Trump had strong words, but what are his deeds in this greatest possible crisis in the Middle East?

“Trump will say he ‘won the peace,’ but the price of this ‘peace’ is high indeed: the halting of Israel’s just war on modern-day pogromists who loathe America as much as they do Israel,” O’Neill wrote. This deal provides only an illusion of peace—but it undermines real peace!

“Wouldn’t the destruction of Hamas be good for both Israelis and Palestinians? … And shouldn’t we now stand with civilization, proudly, against Islamism?” O’Neill concluded. “Trump can gloat, but unless we give answers to these questions, the crisis both there and here will continue.”

In his inaugural address, right before announcing this deal, President Trump said, “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be.” That is a good goal, but it must be achieved honorably. History is full of appeasers who sought peace at any cost—and invited the opposite!

“Trump doesn’t want a war on his watch,” Melanie Phillips continued. “He has virtually promised the American people that he will bring an end to war. But sometimes an enemy arises with whom any agreement is a deal with the devil.” Absolutely right! This world is full of grave dangers. Sometimes you must fight—or else be taken captive or destroyed by evil people!

In this agreement, Phillips wrote, President Trump is “dealing with the devil.” You can surely say it is not of God’s doing. This is a catastrophic, monumental mistake!

This deal has exposed Mr. Trump’s flaws in a way that none of us want to see. Something is dreadfully wrong here.

What Mr. Trump has done here is going to plague him for the rest of his tenure in office! Just watch and see if it doesn’t happen that way—unless he dramatically changes course.

Betraying a Friend

President Trump not only betrayed Israel, he disgraced Netanyahu specifically. This is a catastrophe difficult to even describe.

Melanie Phillips wrote another article, headlined “If This Deal Fails Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu Is Finished” (Times, January 20). She wrote about the pressure Trump applied for Netanyahu to accept this deal, and how “Israel’s greatest political escape artist had no option but to agree.” That is probably true.

This could have serious consequences for him. “Israelis have suppressed their anger with him while the war continues,” Phillips wrote. “However, polling suggests that accepting these ceasefire terms has caused support from his electoral base to start to hemorrhage.” That is politically deadly.

“[I]f it becomes clear that Israel has failed to deliver its supreme objectives of destroying Hamas altogether as a military force and ensuring that never again will the country be invaded and its citizens slaughtered, raped, beheaded and kidnapped, Netanyahu will be toast,” she concluded. “And in a supreme irony, the person delivering the coup de grâce that has eluded Netanyahu’s many political foes would be the man he once lauded as Israel’s greatest-ever friend in the White House, Donald J. Trump.”

The Israelis loved Trump during his first term. Now they say he has betrayed them. That is terrible. This is America’s only strong ally in the region. And in many ways, if Israel goes, so goes America.

Fight, Fight, Fight?

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump was shot in the ear, rose to his feet and yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” He said America must fight to win against those who would destroy it!

As I have written, God protected him, and for good reason (article, “Why God Is Saving America Through Trump,” page 4).

The question is, where is that fighting spirit now when it comes to helping an ally in its worst crisis?

Mr. Trump does not want a war—but sometimes you can’t avoid it! The Israelis certainly know that: After being attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, what else could they do?

Netanyahu was fighting and winning like no Israeli prime minister has done for quite some time. He has the will to fight, fight, fight for his nation in a war. That is the kind of ally you need in the fight for freedom! There may be political differences between those two men, but this is not politics. This is about winning a war for all politicians and all peoples!

This is the challenge Israel faces. But we have seen real fight in the Jewish state. The survival of their nation depends on it. Fight, fight, fight—or die as a nation!

Yet now, the Israelis have been forced to deal with the devil. That will bring bitter fruit. I believe the consequences will be with us for a long time to come.

“For the past 15 months, Israel has fought with brilliance and tenacity to crush Hamas and ensure that an unspeakable atrocity like the one the terrorist group unleashed on Oct. 7, 2023, never recurs,” wrote Jeff Jacoby for the Boston Globe. “Yet now it is on the point of making a grievous blunder—of repeating a grievous blunder—that all but guarantees that more Israelis will be killed, maimed and abducted in future atrocities” (January 15). The Jews are repeating the same grievous blunder again and again!

Jacoby noted an opinion survey finding that 64 percent of Israelis support releasing terrorists with “blood on their hands” if that brings hostages home. This shows that the people are far weaker than they should be.

He wrote about past failed hostage exchanges that have had terrible results. Such deals encourage more hostage-taking and put more terrorists back on the street, who go on to kill more Jews. “All of which means that if this deal is approved, it is a certainty that Israeli hostages will remain in Gaza’s dungeons and that hundreds of Palestinian militants—including many with blood on their hands—will return to the fight,” he wrote. “Despite everything Israel has done to destroy Hamas’s infrastructure and decapitate its leadership, it will remain a deadly foe capable of plotting further atrocities.

“Will Israel never learn?”

Will they never learn? And will we never learn?

Do we have the will to fight? God says broken pride in our power is a curse—a curse for our disobedience to Him (Leviticus 26:18-19). In some ways, President Trump has shown a strengthening of some of that pride, which has been woefully absent for many years. But we cannot ignore reality. We must recognize this deal for what it is: a disturbing sign of America’s lost power in the Middle East, a red flag about the president’s approach to international affairs, a warning about the reliability of America’s alliance with Israel, and a terrible harbinger of far worse curses to come on both nations!