I served in Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and Lebanon in the 1990s. I patrolled the alleys of Gaza, manned checkpoints across Judea and Samaria, cleared roads of explosives in Lebanon, and stood face-to-face with young jihadists who threw stones and firebombs at us long before the world demanded the creation of something called a “Palestinian state.”
I packed up the last IDF base in Gaza City under the Oslo Accords. Today, during this war, I’ve spent nights on the hilltops of Judea protecting Jewish communities so there won’t be another October 7-style invasion.
This experience is why I view Trump’s new “path to a Palestinian state,” now adopted into a U.N. Security Council resolution, with deep concern.
Because whether Trump intends it or not, the message it sends into the Arab Muslim world is unmistakable: Mass murder works. Terrorism pays. Kill Jews, and the world will reward you.
Trump may be trying to bring “stability” to the region; but jihadist movements do not interpret signals the way Western diplomats do. They interpret them the way a 1,400-year-old ideology teaches them to: Concessions = weakness. Diplomacy = victory. Recognition = divine approval.
Even a conceptual path to statehood, filled with impossible conditions, is read as vindication, because they live to wait patiently and try to kill us and destroy us on another day.
They were raised on jihad. Raised to hate Jews. Raised to believe that killing us was a sacred obligation.
The Western Misunderstanding: I Watched it for Decades
When I patrolled Gaza in the 1990s, the youth attacking us weren’t reacting to “occupation.” They were raised on jihad. Raised to hate Jews. Raised to believe that killing us was a sacred obligation.
I saw the same thing in Shechem. In South Lebanon. Everywhere I served. And the data today are even clearer: Majorities of Arab Muslims in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria openly support the October 7 atrocities. Not fringe elements. Not “radicals.” Majorities.
There are endless videos from UNRWA schools of children dreaming of becoming martyrs. Schools named after suicide bombers. Hamas terrorists calling parents on October 7 to brag about killing Jews—and the parents celebrating.
As we’ve heard directly from the hostages who returned from Gaza, the fantasy of “innocent civilians” simply does not exist there. The people of Gaza were not bystanders. They participated in the atrocities of October 7, they celebrated the slaughter, and they assisted in the captivity and torture of our people. Not a single Gazan came forward to claim the $5 million reward offered for information about even one hostage. Not one. Instead, the streets filled with cheering crowds—men, women, and youth, beating our captives, whether dead or alive, and proudly parading them through Gaza like trophies.
This is the truth the world refuses to confront: a society that raises its children to hate Jews, glorifies murder, and participates in terror is not a population of “innocents.” It is a population complicit in evil. Only when we stop pretending otherwise can we truly protect ourselves, speak honestly, and defeat this jihadi enemy once and for all.
This is not a population ready for peaceful coexistence. It is a culture built on a genocidal ideology the world keeps funding.
So what does a “path to statehood” communicate? “Your strategy is working—continue.”
What No One Wants to Admit: Only Israel Will Disarm Hamas
International forces will not disarm Hamas. Arab states will not disarm Hamas. The U.N. will not disarm Hamas. The United States will not send soldiers into the tunnels. And we don’t want anyone else to do it anyway.
Only the IDF will do this job. Which means one thing: Israel will inevitably have to return to all of Gaza militarily, permanently. And not just Gaza.
Hezbollah has made it clear it will never disarm voluntarily. Even with American pressure, the Lebanese government cannot and will not disarm Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon. Which means: Israel will eventually have to return to Southern Lebanon as well, and remain there permanently.
And Iran, the command center, is accelerating its war build-up in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and at home. None of those fronts are over.
Trump talks about peace in the Middle East. But the Middle East is preparing for the next war. And the jihadists see Trump’s plan not as diplomacy… but as opportunity.
The Story That Reveals Everything: From Tzvi Yechezkeli’s Book “I Told You it’s Jihad
After the U.S. captured Baghdad, General David Petraeus sat inside Saddam Hussein’s former palace, now an American military headquarters. U.S. officers were confident. They believed they had won decisively. Then an Iraqi Muslim leader walked in and asked a simple question: “Who won the war?” The Americans were stunned: “What do you mean? We won.” The Iraqi was genuinely confused. He explained: “In our worldview, victory means expelling a population and taking the land. Tanks entering a palace means nothing.”
Years later, after the U.S. withdrew and Iraq collapsed into chaos, American officers saw this Muslim militant leader and admitted: “You were right.” He admitted that the U.S. never understood the region—let alone the man’s religion. And today, Western leaders still don’t.
A Real Path to Peace: Not the Fantasy Being Sold
A real path to peace would say:
- Gaza will never again be a terror launching pad.
- Hamas and all jihadi supporters will be uprooted entirely.
- Gaza will remain permanently demilitarized.
- Israel will remain in control, forever.
- Jews will resettle Gaza again, as they did for centuries before the modern State of Israel.
- Jihadist aggression will result in loss of land, not political reward.
This is the only language understood in the Middle East, because it is the only language that works in the jihadi Muslim world.
The Part the West Still Refuses to See
The jihadi Muslims threatening Israel are of the same ideology destroying Western countries: Europe collapsing from within. Canada swallowed by imported jihadist networks. The United States dealing with jihadists embedded in universities, politics, media, NGOs, and even in local, state, and federal politics. It is the same 1,400-year war, just in different stages and different languages.
Israel is not fighting a “local conflict.” Israel is the frontline of the entire freedom-loving world. And here is the truth no Western politician wants to admit: Money, diplomacy, and business deals cannot stop a worldview whose explicit goal is global domination in the name of Allah.
If the West wants to survive—if America wants to remain America—it must support the one nation standing between civilization and barbarism.
That frontline is the Jewish State of Israel. Supporting Israel is not charity. It is self-preservation for the free world.
