This isn’t one of my usual columns, just some random thoughts on this happy day, when Trump did what other presidents couldn’t, and brought at least some temporary peace to the Middle East.
I just spent 20 minutes watching videos of Jewish families being reunited with their loved ones who had been held for two years by evil animals in Gaza. I don’t know a word of Hebrew, but I didn’t need to. I think these videos are going right up there in my pantheon of feel-good videos to watch now. (Joining military members surprising their families after being deployed, people with cochlear implants hearing for the first time, dogs greeting their owners after a long time away, and election nights 2016 and 2024.)
I hope we all learn the lessons of the process that led to this day. Lessons like, “Don’t appease terrorists. Maim them with explosive pagers, kill their leaders (even if they’re hiding out in Qatar or Iran), and ignore the UN and spineless anti-Semitic politicians and college kids, here or abroad.”
And whatever you do, don’t elect a morally confused leftist who can’t tell good from evil as your president.
I hate to say it, but I think that when the joy of this moment has passed, Israel is going to have to do some hard thinking about their strategy of giving up thousands of jihadi terrorists every time Jewish hostages are taken. I can’t blame them for wanting their loved ones back, and it says good things about the depth of their love that they are willing to give up so much to rescue their people.
But strategically, it has backfired in the past, and it’s almost guaranteed to do so again in the future. It incentivizes evil people to take hostages, and makes a mockery of the Israeli judicial system, since giving terrorists harsh sentences means nothing, when they can be set free every time more Jews are kidnapped.
For evidence, I point to the famous case of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier taken hostage in 2006, and ransomed by Israel five years later in exchange for 1027 Palestinian criminals and terrorists, including 280 who were serving multiple life sentences for terrorist acts.
Among those were terrorists who participated in bus bombings and other massacres; many had more than one life sentence, and one had 36! One of those scumbags, with 4 life sentences, was Yahya Sinwar, who became the head of Hamas and chief architect of the October 7th terrorist attack.
Which means that rescuing Gilad Shalit partially contributed to the deaths of thousands of Jews since October 7th, and over 100 more Jews being taken hostage and subjected to death or torture for two years. That’s a very hard truth to say or to hear, and I don’t know what the solution is, but I don’t think it involves continually trading thousands of violent and guilty men for handfuls of innocents, whose numbers are only going to grow in the future.
(I feel like I should point out that the Jews don’t have our frustratingly self-sacrificial “new” testament. Normally I am very grateful for the Gospels and all the rest, but I have to admit that there are times when it would be a relief to just have the OG “eye for an eye” rule still in place and operational. And post October 7th would definitely be one of those times!)
But such thoughts are for another day. Today is a day for celebrating, and basking in the relief and joy of families reunited, and a national wound salved in Israel.
Not to mention a time for enjoying the schadenfreude-tastic spectacle of our leftists grinding their teeth and rending their garments in frustrated outrage over watching Trump be lauded as an international hero! Oh, shoot it straight into my veins!
I can’t help but think of Tolstoy’s line, “Every happy family is alike; every miserable one is unhappy in its own way.”
And boy do our seething leftists have a thousand ways of being miserable today! Most of them decided on trying to ignore this international triumph. Lefty streamers and talking heads who can’t quit yammering about how Trump is a moron, and responsible for the ongoing disaster in Gaza, have suddenly gone radio silent.
Many other sour souls – like a certain Barry O, who never met a foreign crisis that he didn’t inflame – felt duty bound to put out a positive statement, but then – hilariously enough – couldn’t bring themselves to mention the Orange Elephant in the room who brought about the spectacular deal that they are grudgingly praising.
But the idiots occupying the deepest circle of the Democrats’ Dantean Inferno are those who ridiculously tried to take credit for Trump’s accomplishment, which was only achieved because he did the exact opposite of everything they did.
Grandma Squanto cast a certain fetching Indian maiden in the starring role (#wemustneverstopmockingher), beginning her comment – which didn’t mention Trump – with self-congratulation: “For two excruciating years, I have called for the return of the hostages brutally kidnapped on October 7th and held in Gaza.”
Yes. And for two excruciating years, your nagging produced exactly nothing. Because if foreign policy results were achieved by sending out a super-white harpy to obnoxiously hector people, Hillary Clinton would have achieved world peace when she was SecState.
Sidebar: JD Vance proves once again that he’s got a black belt in trolling, with this reaction to Lizzie Warren’s tweet: “The president told me he did this on Indigenous People’s Day in honor of you!” Perfect!
Speaking of incompetent SecStates, Tony Blinken laughably claimed that Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza was based on one developed by the Biden administration!
Which is weird, because every Biden plan had only 9 points: 1. Try to make it down the stairs intact. 2. Watch out for that sandbag. 3. Look at the picture cards the nice girl gives you when taking questions in a press conference. 4. If the teleprompter goes down, fake a stroke and Roomba your way off stage. 5. Don’t ask if any dead people are in the room. 6. Don’t talk to any dead people in the room. 7. Don’t do that creepy whisper. 8. Or that frightening yell. 9. Don’t poop on the Pope.
And on his best day ever, Biden went 2-for-9. (And that’s spotting him 1 on the vast majority of occasions when the Pope wasn’t present to be pooped upon.)
Speaking of Corn Pop’s nemesis, in addition to not knowing whether he’s afoot or horseback, Joey Gaffes might actually believe that he had something to do with Trump’s triumph: “The road to this deal was not easy. My administration worked relentlessly to…end the war.”
But even Joe had to give Trump credit for “getting a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line.”
As if Biden had engineered a drive down to the one-yard line and left it to Trump on first-and-goal, rather than playing for 50 minutes, throwing 4 picks, lining up behind the left tackle instead of the center, then falling and breaking his hip, after which Trump was called in, down by 4 touchdowns with 10 minutes left, and somehow pulled off a miracle.
You’ve got to love those Dems!
On a more somber note, a substantial plurality (if not an outright majority) of the elite left has revealed their true selves, and it’s been an ugly sight. First, Charlie Kirk got murdered, and not only could they not at least feign sadness, they openly celebrated.
And now, after years of theatrically beating their breast over the terrible “genocide” happening in Gaza, it took them three days after the announcement of a settlement to even grudgingly put out the most tepid acknowledgment of the horrific tragedy’s end.
Which means that either they never gave a damn about the “Palestinian” lives they pretended to agonize over, or they never believed that a genocide was happening in the first place. Or both.
The smart money is on both.
Think about what they’ve shown to the world! When a good man was murdered, they gloated, and when a terrible war was ended, they pouted.
What’s wrong with these people?!
Never mind. It’s a great day, and for the sake of their own pinched hatreds, they’ve banished themselves to the cold and miserable darkness.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are inside the warm, glowing mansion, feasting and toasting and partying with the Jews, and with all people of good will everywhere.
L’chaim, CO nation!
But still…Hamas and Trantifa delenda est!
Martin Simpson 