By Palestine Chronicle Staff
US President Donald Trump addresses the Knesset. (Photo: video grab)
The first phase of Trump’s Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Friday under Trump’s plan to end the two-year Israeli offensive on the enclave.
US President Donald Trump on Monday hailed what he called “the historic dawn of the Middle East” as the ceasefire agreement to end Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip came into effect.
“So this long and difficult war has now ended,” Trump said in his address to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, adding, “some people say 3,000 years, some people say 500 years, whatever it is, the granddaddy of them all.”
“In an unprecedented achievement, virtually the entire region has endorsed the plan that Gaza will be immediately demilitarized and Hamas will be disarmed, and Israel’s security will no longer be threatened in any way, shape or form,” he stated, to rapturous applause.
The US president went on to say that Israel, “with our help, has won all they can, by force of arms.”
He said it was now “time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”
The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Friday under Trump’s plan to end the two-year Israeli offensive on the enclave.
Abraham Accords
Trump said eight years ago he visited the Middle East “on a very special first trip abroad” as the president of the United States, and, in a nod to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said “at your request”.
He said he had addressed the leaders of the Arab and Muslim world gathered and Saudi Arabia, then telling them “it was time to build a future free of the grip of extremism and terror.”
Trump said, “The journey we started back then led to the crushing defeat of the Isis caliphate, to the monumental Abraham Accords and ultimately to the historic ceasefire this week in which many of those same nations really played a very pivotal role.”
He claimed the Middle East “is finally ready to embrace its extraordinary potential” and that “it should be clear to everyone throughout the region that decades of fermenting terrorism, and extremism, jihadism, and anti-Semitism have not worked; they’ve been a disaster.”
The Abraham Accords, first signed in 2020, established diplomatic ties between Israel and a few Arab states, beginning with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and Morocco a few months later.
He said those nations that “set aside their differences … are now among the most successful in the region,” adding that he would be mentioning this to “some other friends” to join the Abraham Accords.
‘Bibi to be Remembered’
After departing Israel, Trump joined over 20 world leaders for a summit in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, which he and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will co-chair.
Trump said he advised Netanyahu that the “timing” of the ceasefire agreement “is brilliant” because in the past few months, the “world wanted peace,” including Israel.
“I said, Bibi you’re going to be remembered for this. far more than if you kept this thing going going going going, kill, kill, kill kill … And I just want to congratulate you for having the courage to say, that’s it. We’ve won, and now let’s rebuild Israel and make it stronger that it’s ever been before,” he stated.
Trump said it was, for the Palestinians, also a “chance to turn forever from the path of terror and violence.”
Backed by the United States, Israel killed over 67,000 Palestinians in its two-year genocidal assault on Gaza and injured more than 169,000 more.
‘Best Weapons’ Supplied to Israel
Trump boasted that the US makes “the best weapons in the world … and we’ve given a lot to Israel.”
He said Netanyahu “would call me so many times,” asking whether Trump could “get me this weapon, that weapon,” adding some of them he had never heard of.
“But we’d get them here, wouldn’t we? They are the best and you used them. Well, it also takes people that know how to use them. And you obviously used them very well,” he continued.
Deal Offer to Iran
The US president boasted that he “terminated Iran’s nuclear programme with things called B2 bombers” and that “many of Iran’s top terrorists, including nuclear scientists and commanders, have been extinguished from this Earth with ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’.”
Trump later said the US was prepared to make a deal when Tehran is “ready,” claiming that neither the United States, nor Israel, “bear the people of Iran any hostility” but that they “merely want to live in peace.”
“There’s nothing that would do more good for this part of the world than for Iran’s leaders to renounce terrorists, stop threatening their neighbors, quit funding their militant proxies and finally recognize Israel’s right to existence,” he stated.
Referring to a deal with Iran, he said, “We are ready when you are and it will be the best decision that Iran has ever made, and it’s going to happen,” Trump said, referring to a deal with Iran.”
‘Golden Age of Israel’
Trump said that following the start of his 20-point ceasefire plan, a “golden age of Israel and the golden age of the Middle East” lies ahead.
“Instead of building fortresses to keep enemy today, the nations of this region should be building infrastructure to weave your commerce closer together, because you’ve got to compete with a big world out there in commerce. Now it’s a different kind of competition. Instead of making weapons and missiles, the wealth of this region should float to schools and medicine, industry,” he said.
Trump said “We have done the impossible and brought our hostages home,” adding that “We’re going to build a legacy that all people of this region can be proud of.”
“Tel Aviv to Dubai, Haifa to Beirut, Jerusalem to Damascus, and from Israel to Egypt, from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, from India to Pakistan, from Indonesia to Iraq, from Syria to Bahrain, Turkey to Jordan, The United Arab Emirates to Oman, and Armenia to Azerbaijan… Israel. America, and all of the nations of the Middle East will soon be safer, stronger. greater, and more prosperous than ever before,” he stated.
Trump also urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu who faces three charges of corruption.
“I have an idea Mr. President, why don’t you give him a pardon?” the US president said.
Speech Interrupted
Two Israeli lawmakers – Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif, members of the left-wing Hadash Party – interrupted the US president’s address, chanting slogans demanding recognition of Palestinian statehood and denouncing the Gaza genocide, according to the Anadolu news agency.
Footage showed Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif, members of the left-wing Hadash Party, being removed from the Knesset plenum after raising a paper banner reading “recognize Palestine.”
Trump ‘Greatest Friend of Israel’
Earlier, Netanyahu praised Trump as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”
“No American president has ever done more for Israel, and as I said in Washington, it ain’t even close. It’s really not a match,” Netanyahu told the Knesset before Trump’s address.
“Welcome to Israel, on this moving day that will be inscribed in the history of our people, and you, Mr. President, will also be inscribed in the history of our people,” Netanyahu told the US leader.
The speech came hours after Hamas released 20 living Israeli hostages under Trump’s plan to end a two-year Israeli war in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas handed over the captives in exchange for 1,968 Palestinian detainees, including 250 sentenced to life imprisonment. Among the detainees are 1,700 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana also called Trump “the best friend that the state of Israel has ever had,” and “a giant of Jewish history.”
(PC, Anadolu)
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