The people taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks and held as prisoners needed to be returned home, and we should all be glad they have been. But after the celebrations are over, we will have to come to terms with a new age in America. We are now in the “negotiate-with-terrorists” phase of American foreign policy.
President Trump has been eager to make deals and proclaim peace throughout the world, even if the deals don’t last or the peace is tenuous. You have to give him credit for being aggressive in pushing for countries and combatants to make a deal.
However, we need to rain on this parade. To secure the release of the hostages, Trump and his administration did legitimize the rule of Hamas in Gaza. This is something that other administrations had refused to do. Trump’s 20-point plan says that Hamas needs to cease control politically and not engage in terror tactics. But this is easier said than done.
With the release of the hostages, there is no guarantee that Israel will keep its word. It could resume attacks on Gaza, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be under extreme pressure from right-wing Israelis to take Gaza for itself. As for Hamas, an insurgent group, it can (and probably will) find a way to incorporate itself into whatever new Palestinian government results from the agreement, bringing us to the bigger picture and problems with Trump’s dealmaking in the Middle East.
In this new age of Trump’s wheeling and dealing, America has found itself expanding relationships and recognizing countries, governments and entities that should be questioned.
For more than two decades, both Republicans and Democrats have bristled at Saudi Arabia’s alleged involvement with terrorism, its killing of journalists, human rights violations and its advocacy of Wahhabism. But when it comes to Trump, money talks, so the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can do all those things yet host WWE, LIV golf, UFC fights, Formula One races, and championship boxing bouts. Up next, Saudis are looking to start investing in both the NFL and NBA.
Qatar, once criticized for close ties to Hamas, now finds itself one of Trump’s closest allies in the Middle East. They once gifted him a new Air Force One, and he has now gifted them a facility to train their pilots in Idaho.
Trump was so eager to declare an end to the Syrian Civil War that he took the victorious terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham off its list of foreign terrorist organizations. Syria’s new government is thus led by a former soldier of al Qaeda in Iraq, who fought against Americans in the Iraq War and later led jihadist groups in Syria.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban are fighting Pakistan in clashes that have killed hundreds. The Taliban is also fighting ISIS-K and accusing them of terror attacks while the Pakistanis are claiming the same about the Taliban. In the middle of this is Bagram Air Base, which Trump has suggested the U.S. should perhaps reclaim. Even though that plan has been rejected by the Taliban so far and objected to by surrounding countries such as India and China, Trump could still make overtures to the Taliban, promising to help them fight off their own extremist enemies such as ISIS-K.
In short, we now have an American foreign policy that has gone out of its way to ally with funders and supporters of Hamas, to negotiate with Hamas and to give them the benefit of good faith reciprocity. We allow the Saudis to buy influence in American sports and entertainment, and we even settle for violent jihadist groups taking over countries, as in Syria.
To be fair, it could happen that Trump’s plans to make Hamas disarm and have no say in a future Palestinian government will come true. But he might feel pressure to gloss over those points to preserve a lasting peace. The Israelis would definitely not be on board with that, which could even endanger the cease-fire.
But Trump’s art of the deal is that you make a deal as fast as possible, no matter who it is with. Yes, the hostages are free and we should be glad about it. But Americans need to recognize the drawbacks — terrorists will now have a place at the negotiating table if they can appease Trump. Our former enemies can now hold sway over our government. Did we wasted 20-plus years on a “war on terror,” just to be allies and partners with people who funded and engaged in terror against Americans?
Jos Joseph is a published writer and is a graduate of the Harvard Extension School and Ohio State University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif.
