Articles & Op-Eds

On the evening of Feb. 4, U.S. President Donald Trump shocked the world—including many lawmakers in his own party—by announcing that the United States will “take over” the Gaza Strip. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out,” he said.

As President Donald Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington today, Trump must push Netanyahu to create a political horizon for Palestinians in Gaza.

The end of the fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza is a good initial step to reversing 15 months of unprecedented horror that was unleashed by the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack against Israeli communities near Gaza.

Since the October 7 attack and the horrendous discourse that the massacre has unleashed, it has been difficult for many in the Jewish and pro-Israel communities to remain hopeful about the prospect of peace and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. An avalanche of hateful rhetoric, coupled with intense protests, has seemingly ignored the plight of hostages still in Hamas’s captivity, and a host of academic and media-based justifications for violence as a form of “resistance” have caused many to give up hope.

As America eulogizes Jimmy Carter, it is essential to reflect on a key component of his legacy that enabled him to succeed as a peacemaker in the Middle East: radical pragmatism rooted in humanity.

Although I’ve lost many relatives, I still believe Palestinians and Israelis can embrace a different path.

I was born in Gaza Strip in the late 1990s, one of six children. At the time, the Palestinian Authority was the ruling party. My father, like most people in Gaza, was sick of the PA's corruption and was waiting for any alternative. Hamas promised "change and reform" and they won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in 2006. One year later, I awoke to the sound of gunfire. Hamas gunmen were fighting Fatah, and they ended up killing of more than 600 Palestinians. It became clear very quickly that Hamas was not the "change and reform" that we hoped for.

At around 5 A.M. on Thursday, Dec. 14, I received a WhatsApp message that I was hoping desperately never to receive. My mother informed me that a deadly Israeli airstrike had hit her family's home in Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, which was supposed to be a safe area, in Rafah's "Brazil" neighborhood, a few hundred feet from the borders with Egypt.