Gaza
The first Trump administration – mainly President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner – made a significant effort to establish formal diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states. The Abraham Accords, signed at the White House on September 15, 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, and Morocco followed in December. Sudan also agreed to pursue normalization, but the process was never completed as the country descended into civil war.
The idea behind the Abraham Accords was that economic, diplomatic and security cooperation could help overcome longstanding geopolitical divisions, while eventually fostering broader cultural and social ties.
On paper, the concept behind this endeavor is commendable, but the first Trump administration’s blind spot was Palestine. The strategy behind the Abraham Accords seemed to be built around three thoughts: 1) the notion that Palestine was so weakened and marginalized that Israel could just bypass the conflict altogether, 2) the United States could weaken Palestine even further by withdrawing its humanitarian funding, which Donald Trump did in 2018 when he cut over $200 million in bilateral assistance to Palestine, as well as funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a UN body that supported over 5 million Palestinian refugees, and 3) the Sunni Arab leaders in the region were sick of Palestinian leadership and, despite the suffering of the Palestinian people, were ready to do things differently.
In fact, Jared Kushner said as much in a 2021 Wall Street Journal article when he wrote, “One of the reasons the Arab-Israeli conflict persisted for so long was the myth that it could be solved only after Israel and the Palestinians resolved their differences. That was never true. The Abraham Accords exposed the conflict as nothing more than a real-estate dispute between Israelis and Palestinians that need not hold up Israel’s relations with the broader Arab world.”
Good Lord. A real estate dispute? He cannot be serious with this. Does he not know anything about the centuries of complicated and heart-wrenching history that governs the Middle East?
The regional reaction to Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza between May 11-15, 2021 – two months after Jared wrote those words – demonstrate perfectly how authentic, long-term normalization between these nations is virtually impossible without a credible Israeli commitment toward Palestinian statehood.
Not long after Israeli bombs, shells and missiles started raining down, many Arab countries quickly condemned Israel’s role in the attacks. It probably didn’t help that these Arab governments witnessed the Israelis’ attack on the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s most sacred sites, during their holy month of Ramadan, no less.
The UAE Foreign Ministry issued a statement criticizing “acts of violence committed by right-wing extremist groups in the occupied East Jerusalem” and called on Israeli leadership to “assume responsibility toward de-escalation and putting an end to all aggressions and practices that perpetuate tension and hostility.” The statement ended with the UAE urging “maximum self-restraint to avoid the region slipping into new levels of instability in a way that threatens peace.”
Bahrain and others shared similar concerns, with the Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry condemning “in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation’s blatant assaults on the sanctity of the holy Aqsa Mosque, and on the security and safety of worshipers.” They also called on leaders around the world to “hold the Israeli occupation responsible for this escalation, and to immediately stop its escalatory actions, which violate all international norms and laws.”
An opinion piece by political science lecturer Talal Bannan, published in the Saudi newspaper Okaz, went further, calling Israel a “racist, hateful entity” that exists only “through aggression, racism and raping of land.” Bannan went on to say that any Arab country that enters into an agreement with Israel “acquiesces to Israel’s aggressive behavior.” This wouldn’t seem like that big of a deal except that nothing gets printed in Saudi Arabia without the approval of the highest leaders in the kingdom.
Then came October 7, 2023.
On this day – the day of Shemini Atzeret, a Jewish holiday that closes the autumn thanksgiving festival of Sukkot – the militant Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement Hamas led a coordinated attack on Israel by land, sea, and air from the Gaza Strip. The attack killed around 1,200 people, primarily Israeli citizens, making it the deadliest day for Israel since its independence. More than 250 people were taken hostage during the attack.
The aftermath of the October 7th attacks shows how the naïve decision to take Palestine off the table during the Abraham Accord negotiations came back to haunt everyone.
Although the Abraham Accords themselves have survived years of regional conflict, efforts to expand them have stalled, particularly with Saudi Arabia, which continues to insist that normalization with Israel must include a credible path toward Palestinian statehood. Tensions also elevated quickly when the leaders of Arab countries saw the way Israel was conducting its side of the war.
The heartbreaking images cascading out of Gaza certainly didn’t help…. Palestinian mothers and fathers in unbearable pain, grieving over the bodies of their dead children. Children frantically crying and running aimlessly against the backdrop of bombed out, crumbling buildings. Nor did it help that Israel blatantly blocked humanitarian aid as Palestinians starved to death.
On September 19, 2024, in his version of a State of the Union, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said, “The kingdom will not cease its tireless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without one. We thank all the countries that recognized the Palestinian state as an embodiment of international legitimacy, and we urge other countries to take similar steps.”
Likewise, the UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed said his country would not support Israel in its “day after” plan in Gaza unless a Palestinian state is established: “The United Arab Emirates is not ready to support the day after the war in Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Nevertheless, after President Trump greeted the Israeli hostages freed from Hamas captivity on October 13, 2025, he took a whirlwind victory lap – naturally – basking in applause at the dais of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, for his fervent support of Israel.
*** Important Note ***
Although this next section is at times critical of the country of Israel’s current politics and
leadership, we are wholeheartedly supporters of the soul of Israel and its wonderful people.
We have many Israeli friends and understand that the history of Israel is exceedingly complex.
This section brings us no joy. In fact, it’s difficult for us to include.
On January 19, 2025 – the day before Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term – a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect… but the agreement soon began to unravel. Israel halted the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza on March 2nd, and on March 18th resumed large-scale airstrikes, killing more than 400 Palestinians in a single day. Netanyahu said Hamas had refused to release additional hostages and rejected proposals to extend the ceasefire, while Hamas accused Israel of deliberately overturning the original agreement.
Israel’s Operation Gideon’s Chariots was a major ground offensive intended to seize and hold much more of Gaza while concentrating its population into increasingly restricted areas. The plan was to control 75 percent of Gaza within two months, forcing the entire Gazan population into three zones (Gaza City, the central refugee camps, and the southwestern Mawasi coastline) by using U.S.-provided aerial bombs and bulldozers. It’s important to note that this was an offensive combat operation, not a security or defensive one.
Israel’s siege on Gaza halted all food, fuel, medicine, and other humanitarian aid, essentially using starvation as warfare – which is a war crime, plain and simple.
Listen up everyone: War is awful and people die. That’s just the nature and reality of war. Combatants die and, sadly, innocent civilians sometimes get caught in the crossfire. The United States has certainly been involved in our share of these tragedies, including the one at the Shajarah Tayyebeh Girls’ School and the one where a U.S. bomb missed a nearby target in Southern Iran, destroying a home hosting a wedding celebration – killing at least four civilians and injuring dozens more. Is it heartbreaking? Absolutely. That’s why most of us hate war.
However, deliberately targeting innocent civilians is an entirely different matter. The Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023 were brutal and unacceptable and Israel has every right to defend itself against savage terrorism. But NO country, group or government – whether it be Hamas, Israel or the United States – has a right to disregard the established laws of war without severe consequences. The 1949 Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols exist for a reason and they must be followed, regardless of how ruthless the enemy is.
Hamas fights dirty, no question. Hamas fighters use schools as shields; private homes to imprison hostages; and human beings as barricades to protect their underground military infrastructure. But they are far from the only terrorists who conduct business this way.
During the War on Terror, the United States had to deal with this reality constantly thanks to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Why do you think we were in the Middle East for two decades? Why do you think our Special Forces had to practically go door-to-door, “kicking doors” in? Iraq is roughly the size of California and Afghanistan is smaller than Texas. Does anyone really believe we couldn’t carpet bomb both in two days and be back home within the week? Why didn’t we?
Answer: Civilians. At the time of the October 7th attacks, roughly 3.2 million Palestinians lived in the West Bank and another 2.2 million in the Gaza Strip. For Israeli political and military figures to claim – which they have – that they are justified in killing any Palestinian they come across because there are no innocent Palestinians – basically saying that every single Palestinian, young or old, is an enemy combatant – is outrageous.
Many of the current leaders of Israel cannot deny this is their fundamental belief because they have made multiple public statements to this effect, including one made by President Isaac Herzog, who said that there is an “entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians who were not aware and not involved. It is absolutely not true.” Tell us, President Herzog, how exactly were 6-month-old babies involved?
As Operation Gideon’s Chariots escalated, the people of Gaza were starving to death – literally. Under the international rules of war, it was/is Israel’s responsibility as the occupying power to properly coordinate food and medical distribution and protect food convoys. Period. End of story.
The exact opposite of this went on for over two months, until images of chaos, violence and mass starvation flooded the Internet and much of the world collectively put its foot down against the atrocities happening in Gaza.
It was too little, too late. After Israel ended its 11-week blockade, the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation established just four distribution sites, mostly in southern Gaza and guarded by private American security contractors. The UN refused to participate, calling the system inadequate, dangerously militarized and incapable of safely feeding Gaza’s population.
Conventional aid convoys were frequently overwhelmed by starving civilians and, in some cases, looted by armed gangs. Even more alarming were the repeated shootings of Palestinians attempting to obtain food. Hundreds were killed and thousands wounded near aid routes and distribution sites, with witnesses and UN officials repeatedly reporting Israeli forces opening fire on crowds of desperate civilians. < Israel disputed some of these accounts and maintained that its forces fired warning shots or responded to perceived threats. >
By August 2025, the UN made it official: Israel’s actions had triggered a famine in the Gaza City region. Calling the famine “entirely man-made,” the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – the UN-backed initiative aimed at enhancing food security and nutrition analysis – issued a report confirming this fact: “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed.” Without swift action, they concluded, “avoidable deaths will increase exponentially.” At this point, the Trump/Vance administration had been in power seven months.
By the time the Gaza “peace plan” was agreed to on October 9th – almost nine months after President Trump had been sworn in – Israel’s two-year ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip had killed at least 67,194 Palestinians. Children accounted for roughly 30 percent of the dead. As of October 10th, Gaza health officials had identified 20,179 children among the 67,194 people then recorded as having been killed.
And even those staggering numbers did not represent the full human toll. They did not include, for example, the unknown number of people whose bodies remained buried beneath Gaza’s extensive rubble or were otherwise inaccessible to rescue crews. Independent research had already found evidence that deaths from traumatic injuries were substantially undercounted, although estimates of the true toll varied considerably.
Nor did the official war-death numbers include hundreds of deaths attributed to malnutrition. By October 7th, Gaza health authorities had recorded 461 malnutrition-related deaths, including 157 children.
< Another claim made by the Israeli government is that the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health has exaggerated Gaza’s death toll, but independent research suggests the opposite. The Ministry maintains detailed casualty records containing names, ages, sex and identification numbers, although thousands of missing or unidentified victims remain uncounted. A 2,000-household mortality survey led by researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London estimated that around 75,200 people were violently killed between October 2023 and January 2025 – about 35 percent more than the Ministry recorded for the same period. A separate study using a different statistical method estimated an undercount of about 39 percent. Although the studies didn’t distinguish civilians from combatants, the household survey found that 56 percent of those killed were women, children or people over 64. >
None of this should have come as a shock to anyone. Almost a year before, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. The ICC charges include claims of purposefully targeting medical facilities; deliberately restricting medical and humanitarian supplies; the alleged use of “starvation as a method of warfare;” and “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”
At the same time, the ICC also issued a warrant for the arrest of Muhammad Deif, Hamas’ military chief, for war crimes and crimes against humanity that include murder; cruel treatment; extermination; taking hostages; torture; outrages upon personal dignity; and rape. The ICC had already issued arrest warrants for Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, two other Hamas leaders, but both men have been confirmed dead.
By June 2025, in an article he wrote for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was referring to the Netanyahu government as a “criminal gang,” saying that what Israel was doing in Gaza was “a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians.” He didn’t stop there: “We’re not doing this due to loss of control in any specific sector, not due to some disproportionate outburst by some soldiers in some unit. Rather, it’s the result of government policy – knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.”
< Olmert, who served as Prime Minister between 2006 and 2009, was a member of the conservative Likud Party (Netanyahu’s party) before joining – and later leading – then leading the more centrist Kadima Party. >
Also in June, UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher said in an interview that he had started therapy after being in Gaza: “I’ve been to Darfur, I’ve been to Kupiansk on the Ukraine frontlines. I’ve driven up through Syria just after the fall of the Assad regime. I’ve just been in Kandahar, Kabul, Kunduz in Afghanistan. I was in Mandalay just after the earthquake. Nothing was as bad as going to Gaza… It is that smell and sound of death on this scale, and trauma on this scale… you do carry that with you. I think about it every single day.”
Although in that interview, Mr. Fletcher stopped short of calling what was happening in Gaza genocide, many experts had already determined that Israel’s actions had gone beyond war crimes and crimes against humanity and had risen to that level (genocide was defined in 1948 by the United Nations as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”).
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest court, has been considering a genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel since December 2023. South Africa alleges that Israel’s actions in Gaza – including mass killings, forced displacement, destruction of homes and healthcare facilities, restrictions on humanitarian aid, and measures preventing births – were intended to destroy a substantial part of the Palestinian population. The ICJ hasn’t ruled on whether Israel committed genocide, although it has issued several legally binding provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent acts prohibited by the Genocide Convention and address Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.
Amnesty International issued a report in December 2024 that concluded Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians, documenting the killing of civilians; damage to and destruction of civilian infrastructure; forcible displacement; the obstruction or denial of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid; and the restriction of power supplies. It also assessed Israel’s intent – an element that must be proven to establish genocide – by examining patterns of conduct and multiple statements made by Israeli leaders that appear to call for, or justify, genocidal acts.
Also in December, Moshe Ya’alon – Netanyahu’s former defense minister and a highly decorated former Israeli officer and military Chief of Staff who served for three decades in the Israel Defense Forces, including in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit – accused Israel of “conquering,” “annexing,” and carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in northern Gaza, “basically cleaning the territory of Arabs.” He warned that Israel was losing its way as a liberal democracy and was becoming a “corrupt and leprous fascist Messianic state.”
By July 2025, two of the best-known Israeli human rights groups – B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights – were both saying Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. In its report, B’Tselem cited the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza; the razing of huge areas of Palestinian cities; the forced displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s people; and the restriction of food and other vital supplies. In their view, these actions amounted to “coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip… in other words: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
That same month, Dr. Omer Bartov – a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University and a man who lived the first half of his life in a Zionist home in Israel before later serving in the Israel Defense Forces as a soldier and officer – had come to the “inescapable conclusion” that Israel was “committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” an admission that was a “painful conclusion to reach” and, in his words, “one that I resisted as long as I could.”
Although a UN panel known as the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel had previously found Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in its war with Hamas militants, in September 2025 the panel issued a report saying that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The report cited killing and causing bodily or mental harm; forced displacement; the destruction of cultural, religious and educational structures and facilities; siege, starvation and the blocking of humanitarian aid; targeting of the healthcare system; sexual and gender-based violence; and the direct targeting of children. The goal, the report concluded, was “to erase the Palestinian identity.”
Like the Amnesty International report, the Commission assessed Israel’s intent, referring to statements made by members of the Israeli government as well as the pattern of conduct of the Israeli authorities and security forces that were consistent with those statements. They found that “as early as October 7, 2023, Israeli officials made statements that indicated their intention to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group. Palestinians were consistently dehumanized by Israeli officials. Furthermore, Israeli authorities made many statements that explicitly called for vengeance, destruction and annihilation.”
Among many examples, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel was fighting “human animals” and Israel must “act accordingly.” A recording of the former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence, published by Israeli media, caught him saying that “the fact that 50,000 have already been killed in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,” adding that for every Israeli killed on October 7th, fifty Palestinians should die – and it makes no difference if they are children because “they need a Nakba < i.e., the Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs > from time to time to feel the price.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu made his intentions clear many times, including once when he urged Israelis to remember “what Amalek did to you,” a phrase many people took as a reference to a biblical passage that demands Israelites “kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings” of their enemy.
In her March 2024 report, Anatomy of a Genocide, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Israel’s actions in Gaza met the threshold for genocide. In October 2025, she described the “ongoing genocide” as a “collective crime” enabled by other countries through military, economic and diplomatic support. In her March 2026 report, Torture and Genocide, Albanese went further, concluding that Israel’s systematic torture of Palestinians had become a “structural feature” of the ongoing genocide. She cited not only abuse in detention – including beatings, sexual violence, starvation and lethal mistreatment – but also mass killings, forced displacement, deprivation and the destruction of conditions necessary for life.
Speaking as an American, one of the most concerning indictments of Israel’s conduct came in October 2025, when The Washington Post reported that a classified U.S. State Department inspector general investigation had identified “many hundreds” of potential human-rights violations by Israeli military units in Gaza that could take the State Department years to review. It was the first U.S. government report to acknowledge the scale of Israeli actions in Gaza potentially falling under the Leahy Laws, which prohibit U.S. security assistance to foreign military units credibly implicated in gross human-rights violations.
Unsurprisingly, this remains unresolved. In November 2025, eleven U.S. senators urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to expedite the investigations, warning that Israel’s unusually cumbersome vetting process could allow cases to drag on indefinitely. However, there is no public indication that the State Department has completed its review of the hundreds of cases or declared an Israeli military unit ineligible for assistance under the Leahy Laws.
Months before, ProPublica reported that, in 2024, then Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Joe Biden administration delivered an explicit ultimatum to Israel, demanding the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) allow food and medicine into Gaza every day, giving them 30 days to comply. Although Netanyahu defied the demand – as he had multiple times in the months prior – the Biden administration just let it go and continued enabling him, vetoing United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire; attacking the International Criminal Court for not dropping its charges against Mr. Netanyahu; blaming Hamas for not accepting certain cease-fire terms that the Israelis were also rejecting; and continuing to send Israel a ton of weapons, ignoring U.S. policy and its own policies about supporting militaries credibly accused of human rights abuses.
This also should not come as a shock to anyone. It’s no secret that Israel gets special treatment under U.S. law. This is not my opinion; it’s a fact. For example, Israel enjoys a far different vetting process under the Leahy Laws than countries accused of similar allegations. The Israel Leahy Vetting Forum, as it is called, is a more personalized process than reviews for other countries and involves representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the U.S. secretary of state, and even the Israeli government itself.
For decades, Israel has gotten special treatment in just about every way possible when it comes to the United States government.
There seem to be two main reasons for this. The first is that many Christians, particularly Christian Zionists and evangelical Christians, believe that supporting Israel is a biblical responsibility that aligns believers with God’s purposes. This belief is often rooted in God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” They interpret this passage as extending to Abraham’s descendants and, ultimately, to the modern State of Israel, leading some believers to conclude that those who support Israel will receive God’s blessing, while those who oppose it risk divine judgment.
The second – and much more consequential – reason for the special treatment is money. The pro-Israel lobby is the most powerful issue lobby in U.S. foreign affairs. Since 1998, the pro-Israel lobby has spent over 90 MILLION DOLLARS lobbying Congress, spending over $6 million in 2025 alone.
But that’s child’s play compared to the amount of money that goes directly to the political parties and candidates. Pro-Israel contributions to these totaled over 142 MILLION DOLLARS in the 2024 election cycle alone. This may come as a surprise, but Democrats received more money from pro-Israel sources than Republicans did. In fact, the top five pro-Israel recipients were Democrats.
For millions of reasons, lobbying and unlimited money in politics have become so detrimental to this nation that the way they currently function can no longer be tolerated (read more here). But…
*** Here is the Moment of Truth ***
Israel could not have inflicted this level of pain and
destruction on the Palestinian people without
American money, weapons and political support.