While it is true that Israel has never had a friend in the White House like Donald J. Trump, his negotiator, Steve Witkoff, maneuvered Israel into a painful and dangerous ceasefire agreement that will release over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terrorist attacks and murders, while leaving some 60 Israelis in the hands of Hamas. Even worse, Israel may be forced to end the war with Hamas still in power on the southern border. 

This has led to many Trump supporters expressing dismay at the incoming president. The Victory Coalition, an informal working group established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to combat the threat of Islamist extremism, issued a briefing paper titled “Did Steve Witkoff Engineer Trump’s First Defeat Before He Even Takes Office?”.

The Victory Coalition strongly supports Trump but are concerned that by adopting a policy of pressuring Israel, the administration will be credited with Biden’s abject foreign policy failures that resulted from an anti-Israel stance. 

To address this problem, an online petition has been issued requesting that the new president work toward a new policy that more closely resembles his promised pro-Israel policy of “peace through strength.”

After congratulating the president, the petition states:

“Your laudable effort to achieve prior to your inauguration the release of the hostages Hamas seized during its murderous invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, was misapplied to create pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to accept terms utterly inconsistent with the safety of Israelis and U.S. vital interests. The deal as it stands will mean victory for Hamas, defeat for Israel, and another war in a matter of years, at most.” 

The petition goes on to outline the problematic aspects of the ceasefire agreement that are more consistent with the anti-Israel policies of the previous administration:

• Halt attacks on Hamas despite evidence that it is continuing to prepare for further warfare against the Jewish State, including the resumption of construction of tunnels;

• Suspend air operations, including vital surveillance activities, for a minimum of ten hours per day;

• In exchange for 33 dead or living hostages, send 1,650 convicted terrorists back to Gaza or to Judea and Samaria, the latter of which are increasingly becoming war zones;

• In the unlikely event a second phase of the ceasefire deal actually eventuates, in exchange for the remaining living or deceased hostages, release another 3,000 imprisoned terrorists, who will go on to kill hundreds, if not thousands, including Americans;

• Withdraw from all of Gaza – including, in due course, entirely from the strategically critical Philadelphi Corridor between Rafah and Egypt and the buffer zone established in Gaza to protect the Israeli border;

• Remove Israeli forces from the Netzarim corridor separating north and south Gaza, thereby eliminating the logistics structure it affords the IDF for rapid-reaction operations throughout the entire Strip; and

• Enable the 300,000 residents of northern Gaza to return there, including fighting-age males, with “remote monitoring” by Israel, but the actual screening is conducted by Qataris and Egyptians.

“We respectfully urge you to reiterate that you expect all of the hostages, alive and deceased, to be released by Hamas by the time of your inauguration,” the petition requested. “Either way, Israel must finish the job of destroying that monstrous terrorist organization. We didn’t allow the Nazis to govern Germany and we cannot allow Hamas to govern Gaza. Hamas needs to surrender or be killed. And Israel should have your full and vocal support in achieving one of those outcomes or the other as swiftly as possible, as she does ours.”

To sign the petition, click on the link.