Why Gaza Should Be Placed Under US and Israeli Control

by Bassam Tawil  •  January 15, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Placing the Gaza Strip under the jurisdiction of an international body that includes longtime supporters of Hamas and other terrorists will unfortunately be even more disastrous than the 1993 Oslo Accord, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

• The last thing Israel and the US need in the Gaza Strip is another Oslo Accord-style counterfeit agreement.

• In reality, there are only two countries capable of carrying out this task: the US and Israel. Other countries -- not only Arab and Muslim, as Jordan's King Abdullah II warned, but also European, including, Germany, Italy, Britain and Canada -- clearly have less than no interest in actively combating terrorism in the Gaza Strip.

• [A]s Trump said about Venezuela, "We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and secure transition... We can't take a chance that somebody else takes over... that doesn't have the good of the... people in mind."

• If the US can run Venezuela or Greenland, or set up "security" for Ukraine consisting of US businesses, why not in the Gaza Strip -- smaller but geopolitically just as critical for the US -- as well?

• US and Israeli control of the Gaza Strip would, ironically, provide the least risk to all the parties involved -- most of all to the Palestinians of Gaza. Such an arrangement seems the only realistic solution that could lead to reduced violence and long-term regional stability.

• A joint US and Israeli security and business presence there could result at last in the emergence of moderate, pragmatic Palestinians. Such an outcome will certainly never take place if Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan or the Palestinian Authority are allowed inside the Gaza Strip. There is a far higher probability of accords being torn up and a new war launched after Trump leaves office.

• American or Israeli control of the Gaza Strip would not only prevent Palestinian terrorists from gaining more power and launching attacks again but also send a reassuring message to neighboring Arab and Islamic states that they would be able to rely on the US when it comes to combating Islamist terrorism against their own regimes as well.

• A strong US and foreign business presence, with the knowledge that these investments are safely protected, would not only create job opportunities and improve living conditions for local residents but could also make Gaza the spectacular "Gaza Riviera" it is waiting to become.

• At the moment, many countries are hardly rushing to invest in Gaza. If countries aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood were in charge, there would be no way of protecting their investment, or even enforcing law and order.

• If the US Administration thinks that an Arab and Muslim "Peace Board" will actually take any significant action to ensure that Hamas disarms and disbands, they are in for a nasty shock. The minute the first shot is fired, the last thing on the minds of the "Board of Peace" will be enforcing "Peace."

• After two years of death and destruction, many Palestinians would prefer to live under American or even -- without admitting it of course --- Israeli control, than under a terror group that has brought them nothing but death, destruction and a new nakba (catastrophe).

• Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Islamic countries would most likely be happy to be on the side of the "strong horse."

• Strange as it may seem, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are popular among many Arabs and Muslims: they are viewed as reliable, sturdy and uncompromising leaders who can be counted on to keep their word.

• If Arab and Muslim states disagree, they are welcome to stay behind and watch the train leave the station. If not, the Gaza Strip and the "Board of Peace" will be just another failed experiment.

Placing the Gaza Strip under the jurisdiction of an international body that includes longtime supporters of Hamas and other terrorists will unfortunately be even more disastrous than the 1993 Oslo Accord, signed between Israel and Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The last thing Israel and the US need in the Gaza Strip is another Oslo Accord-style counterfeit agreement. Pictured: Arafat stands next to a machine gun emplacement in 1983 in Lebanon. (Photo by Palestinian Press Office/Getty Images)

US President Donald J. Trump is expected to announce the formation of a "Board of Peace" to oversee temporarily the running of the Gaza Strip and manage its reconstruction. According to multiple reports, Qatar and Turkey are among several countries that have been invited to join the board.

Both countries are widely known as major international supporters of political Islam, specifically through their historical and ongoing backing of terrorist and Muslim Brotherhood groups – including Hamas, which is currently ruling the Gaza Strip and has shown no signs of letting up. With countries such as these, it is, frankly, hard to see how the new board would be able to bring peace, security and stability to the Middle East.

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A Father's Cry, a Nation's Future

by Ahmed Charai  •  January 15, 2026 at 4:00 am

• In invoking Jared Kushner, this father is not expressing envy of power or privilege, but of something far rarer: normality — a life in which one can plan, build, and hope without fear.

• [T]he Iranian people are not the regime. They are its first and greatest victims.

• One option merits serious and immediate examination: a constitutional monarchy rooted in the Pahlavi framework, adapted to the realities of the twenty-first century.

• The father who wrote that letter is not asking for a crown or a constitution. He is asking for dignity—for a system that allows him to work honestly, care for his parents, educate his children, and sleep without fear. Any political vision that fails to meet this fundamental human demand will fail, regardless of ideology.

One option for the future of Iran merits serious and immediate examination: a constitutional monarchy rooted in the Pahlavi framework, adapted to the realities of the twenty-first century. Pictured: A poster of Iran's exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, put up by protesters outside the Iranian Embassy on January 14, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

There are moments when abstraction collapses under the weight of lived reality — when a single human voice compels strategy to confront morality.

Such a moment emerged when a letter written by an Iranian father, living inside Iran and addressed to Jared Kushner, circulated widely across the Abraham TV platforms, reaching more than 27 million viewers. Devoid of slogans and free of ideological posture, the letter articulated a truth that decades of propaganda have attempted — and failed — to obscure.

The author did not write as a dissident intellectual, a political activist, or a partisan figure. He wrote as a father — a man anxious about rising prices, unavailable medicine, exhausted hospitals, and a future that feels increasingly foreclosed. His words carried no call for vengeance, no appeal for chaos, no revolutionary rhetoric. They carried something far more unsettling for an authoritarian system: quiet honesty.

That is precisely why the letter matters.

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Statement on the Ongoing Uprising in Iran

by Swedish Members of Parliament  •  January 15, 2026 at 3:00 am

Pictured: Iranians protest against the regime on January 9, 2026, in Tehran. (Photo by MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

The Iranian people are once again engaged in sustained, nationwide resistance against the Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime that for more than four decades has relied on systematic repression, ideological coercion, and violence to maintain power. This uprising is not an isolated episode, but the continuation of a long struggle for national sovereignty, and democratic self-determination.

Since the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini in September 2022, Iranian citizens from all regions have demonstrated extraordinary courage in confronting a state apparatus that employs arbitrary detention, torture, executions, and mass surveillance to suppress peaceful dissent. The persistence of these protests, despite brutal crackdowns, reflects a profound and irreversible rupture between the Iranian population and the ruling regime.

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