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In this mailing:
* Khaled Abu Toameh: An Even Better Trump Solution for Gaza
* Ahmed Charai: The Middle East at a Moment of Strategic Choice


** An Even Better Trump Solution for Gaza ([link removed])
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • January 5, 2026 at 5:00 am
* The Arab and Muslim countries, including Pakistan, will not disarm Hamas.
* Pakistan -- which does not recognize Israel and does not regard Hamas as a terrorist organization –- was the first country to recognize Iran's Khomeini regime in 1979, just as, in 1947, Iran was the first country to recognize Pakistan's independence. Since then, not only has Pakistan had far closer relations with Iran than with Israel, but, after the Gaza War in 2023, has repeatedly called for Muslim nations to "unite against Israel."
* Meanwhile, it is simply not realistic to assume that the Palestinian terror groups will voluntarily hand over their weapons.
* These Arab and Muslim heads of state will only take action against Islamist terrorists when they pose a threat to their regimes, security and stability.
* The Gaza Strip does not need peacekeepers and monitors. US President Donald J. Trump himself came up with the solution months ago, as he did this week for Venezuela: "We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years."
* Developers would rush in to create Trump's original vision of a "Gaza Riviera": "Gaza would be under U.S. trusteeship for around ten years 'until a reformed and deradicalized Palestinian Polity is ready to step in its shoes.'"
* Those Palestinians in Gaza who wish to leave would be able to do so without fear of being threatened or shot. The US could make sure that any terrorists who refused completely to disarm would, as Trump warned about "bad hombres" in Mexico be "taken care of." If there are legitimate concerns about US troops being put in harm's way, perhaps Gaza's neighbor to the east might help out.
* Above all, Trump the master builder could oversee the successful development of some of the world's most magnificent real estate, as he said about Venezuela: "We are going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure... and start making money for the country."
* Change the word "oil" above to "real estate development" for Gaza, and Trump will have delivered the most far-reaching peace ever in history -- twice -- to two separate hemispheres.
* Arab and Muslim countries might object: it ruins their chances of attacking Israel more easily after Trump leaves office. That is precisely why a pervasive US or Israeli presence in Gaza is the only way to ensure the success of peace in Gaza, peace in the rest of the Middle East, and a spectacular future for the peaceful Palestinians who remain.

The Gaza Strip does not need peacekeepers and monitors. US President Donald J. Trump himself came up with the solution months ago, as he did this week for Venezuela: "We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition." A pervasive US or Israeli presence in Gaza is the only way to ensure the success of peace in Gaza, peace in the rest of the Middle East, and a spectacular future for the peaceful Palestinians who remain. Pictured: Trump speaks during the Gaza Peace Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on October 13, 2025. (Photo by Yoan Valat/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

The Arab and Muslim countries, including Pakistan, will not disarm Hamas.

Pakistan -- which does not recognize Israel and does not regard Hamas as a terrorist organization –- was the first country to recognize Iran's Khomeini regime in 1979, just as, in 1947, Iran was the first country to recognize Pakistan's independence. Since then, not only has Pakistan had far closer relations with Iran than with Israel, but, after the Gaza War in 2023, has repeatedly called for Muslim nations to "unite against Israel" (such as here, here and here).

In a recent interview, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty was asked about the issue of disarming the Iranian-backed terrorist group -- in accordance with the second phase of US President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan for ending the war in the Gaza Strip.

Abdelatty replied:

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** The Middle East at a Moment of Strategic Choice ([link removed])
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by Ahmed Charai • January 5, 2026 at 4:00 am
* The second [challenge to the Abraham Accords] is more insidious. It comes from states that speak the language of counterterrorism while enabling movements tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. They denounce extremism while empowering ideologues inside "legitimate" institutions; they praise stability while tolerating and even sponsoring destabilizing networks under the protection of state recognition.
* For those states supporting violent Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ambiguity must end. Strategic clarity is not moral theater; it is survival logic. One cannot oppose the Muslim Brotherhood while enabling its advance. One cannot fight terrorism while empowering regressive Islamist movements that capture governing institutions. One cannot defend the Abraham Accords rhetorically while eroding their foundations in practice.

One cannot fight terrorism while empowering regressive Islamist movements that capture governing institutions. One cannot defend the Abraham Accords rhetorically while eroding their foundations in practice. The Abraham Accords can still shape the Middle East's future, but only if those who benefited from their promise accept the cost of clarity. History will not record intentions. It will record strategic choices. Pictured from left to right: Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington, DC on September 15, 2020. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Some media commentators were quick to dismiss Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting last month with President Donald J. Trump, depicting it as driven by domestic politics, legal pressures, or media optics. But that is a mistake. This meeting comes at a time of profound regional fragility and converging pressures.

On one front lies Iran's aggressive proxy network, stretching from Gaza to Lebanon, from Yemen across the Red Sea. On the other lies a quieter but no less corrosive danger: the strategic incoherence of actors who present themselves as partners of the United States while sustaining, through action or omission, the ecosystems in which extremism regenerates. This dual pressure — external aggression and internal contradiction — defines the strategic reality confronting Washington and its allies.

Continue Reading Article ([link removed])

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