President Trump announced his 20-point peace plan on September 29. He announced on social media:
I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.
Phase one includes the ceasefire that has taken effect. The IDF withdrew to the agreed lines at the appointed hour last week. With the IDF standing down from its offensive, Hamas has donned its uniforms and resumed a killing spree against its internal political opponents.
President Trump has arrived in Jerusalem to speak to the Knesset. Hamas has reportedly released all 20 living hostages. The fate of the 28 hostage corpses remains to be determined, but hope abides. It is a great day.
The twin brothers, Gali and Ziv Berman from Kibbutz Kfar Aza abducted from their beds on that Saturday morning, Oct 7th, two years ago, reunited at the border crossing after being held separately in captivity. pic.twitter.com/lA9a4YS3DK
— Tal Schneider טל שניידר تال شنايدر (@talschneider) October 13, 2025
The American flag is flying wherever crowds are gathered in Israel today. I don’t think any president of the United States has ever been loved in Israel the way President Trump is loved. He is celebrated as a hero. Signing the guest book at the Knesset, he has declared “A new beginning.”
Who are we to disagree? To disagree today, anyway? We join all decent people in celebrating the return of the hostages from their captivity and the hope for a peaceful future.
President Trump deserves our thanks and congratulations. Prime Minister Netanyahu has persisted to bring Israel to this day with the performance and sacrifice of the IDF as well as the support of Israel’s intelligence services. He too deserves our congratulations. His long career in Israeli politics has pointed to the triumphant moment today.
At the same time Israel is releasing 2,000 Palestinian murderers and terrorists from its jails. It is a bitter pill that it has become accustomed to swallow when necessary to redeem its hostages.
President Trump and his team have refuted the canards and shibboleths that have governed American foreign policy in the Middle East for the past few generations. He deserves a Churchillian peace prize.
One hesitates to say more with so many moving parts remain unseen. The Danish theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr is quoted as saying, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future!” It sounds like one of the sayings attributed to Yogi Berra. In any event, it applies with special force to the scene before us today.
Watching events unfold in Israel this morning, I thought of the day when Elvis and his friends met Nixon, as recounted by Peter Guralnick in Careless Love. “Leaving the White House,” Guralnick writes, “Sonny and Jerry never stopped to ponder the many strange things that had occurred on this day. As far as they were concerned, there was one thing, and one thing only, responsible for whatever had happened to them, good or bad: they were with Elvis Presley.” So we can say of President Trump today.
