The agreement could pave the way for wider regional peace, made possible by Trump’s backing and Israeli resolve – in contrast to Europe’s failed bid to pressure the victim into concessions
October 9, 2025 08:21
Two years after the October 7 massacres, the war may at last be drawing to a close. If the terms President Trump announced last night hold, the hostages will be freed on Simchat Torah, the very festival when the Hamas invasion began. That coincidence will not erase the horror of that day; nothing ever can. But it may allow the anniversary, forever marked by grief, also to carry another memory: of deliverance, of life reclaimed, and of a nation enduring.
For Jews in Britain, too, it would be a moment of vindication: a community that stood united with Israel and refused to let the plight of the hostages be forgotten.
This breakthrough came about because US President Trump stood by Israel, backing its military action against Hamas without which no deal that genuinely promised peace could ever have been achieved: one that demands the immediate release of all hostages, Hamas’s disarmament, and Israel’s security presence in Gaza for the foreseeable future. And although it may never be reported as such, it is plain that Washington also pressured Hamas’s backers, Qatar and Turkey, forcing them in turn to lean on the Islamist terrorists. We may never know the full story, but it seems more than likely that Israel’s failed attempt to assassinate Hamas’s leadership in Doha nonetheless succeeded in sending an unmistakable message: Qatar’s days of playing both arsonist and firefighter were finished. It now had to choose to put out the flames.
Trump’s morally and strategically sound policy stands in stark contrast to that of Europe and the UK, which abandoned Israel, isolated and vilified it, pressing the victim to surrender to the very terrorists who had attacked it. Many Western governments were less interested in confronting terror abroad than in appeasing radicals at home.
This was not only shameful in its betrayal of an ally, possibly prolonging the war by giving Hamas hope that Europe could deliver what its fighters could not. It backfired domestically as well. Trying to placate fanatics never calms them, it emboldens them. The results have been plain these past days: hateful demonstrations that refused to pause even after the Manchester attack, and which in the UK and across Europe turned October 7 commemorations into renewed celebrations of the worst massacre of Jews since the Shoah. European leaders will struggle with the demons they have allowed this war to unleash within its own society long after Hamas is hopefully gone as a governing force.
Israel, for all its losses, stands today stronger than it did on October 6: Hamas nearly broken, Hezbollah diminished, Iran’s arsenal blunted. From that position of strength it can look forward to a brighter future. Once Hamas does hand over its last bargaining chip – the hostages – the path to its irrelevance may at last come within reach. It would open the possibility of hope not just for Gaza but the entire Middle East, extending the Abraham Accords into a regional peace that could even embrace Saudi Arabia.
But none of this is guaranteed. Hamas may try to delay, to fudge terms, to resist disarmament and to cling to a role in Gaza’s future politics. Ensuring the deal’s implementation will require keeping the threat of renewed Israeli military force real and credible. No doubt, should that moment arrive, we will hear from the usual suspects – including, most likely, Europe – renewed calls for Israeli restraint and “de-escalation”. But failure to once and for all remove Hamas from the scene is a recipe for perpetual war and misery; an enduring peace can exist only without the Islamists.
Even as we dare to hope for peace, we must remember the price. Nearly 1,200 innocents were massacred on October 7. Thousands of young Israeli soldiers have since laid down their lives or suffered terrible wounds to defend their country, protect its people and bring the hostages home. Their sacrifice can never be repaid. If the hostages are freed on this anniversary, it will be because of their courage, their endurance – and the unbreakable will of a nation that has always chosen life.
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