On Israel, Trump Is Right and His Critics Are Wrong by Joan Swirsky

The following article originally appeared October 16, 2025, American Thinker.  It is written by my friend and colleague Joan Swirsky.

Some of the most astute writers and commentators who have weighed in on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire/hostage release/end of war issue that is on every media outlet’s front burner today and for the last few weeks is dead wrong about what they say is the foolish, dangerous, misguided, cave-to-the-terrorists, endanger Israel, empower-our-enemies choice that President Donald Trump and his negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have made in this delicate process.

“What is it about cutting off the head of the snake Trump doesn’t understand?” rails one critic who questions why Hamas has not yet been obliterated.

“What right does Trump have to repeatedly warn Israel against sovereignty decisions over at least a significant portion of 4,000-year-old ancestral Jewish lands in Judea and Samaria?” says another critic who admits he voted twice for President Trump.

And here is what the Green Prince — son of one of the founders of Hamas — tells Chris Cuomo at CNN he thinks about this bad “deal”:

Dozens — nay, hundreds — of other headlines echo everything from disapproval to horror to disgust and contempt.

• Trump’s Gaza Deal: A Win for Islamic Jihad
• Trump’s Gaza Deal is Horrible — And Why Netanyahu Agreed to it
• The New Trump-Blair Gaza is Frightening
• US Paying High Price to Qatar for Deal Hamas is Already Violating
• What’s Missing From Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan
• The Pitfalls That Could Still Derail Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan

Even P.M. Netanyahu’s brother-in-law, of all people, weighed in, saying that “for forty years already, I’ve fought against the moral abomination of releasing terrorists.”

Convenient Amnesia

Interestingly, those critics choose to forget that in his former life as a billionaire builder, then-Mr. Trump dealt routinely with the mob — the Mafia — the organization that essentially controlled all building in New York, and the unions (of plumbers, electricians, et al.), as well as countless politicians, judges, again et al.

As everyone knows, the penalty for crossing the mob…let’s leave it at that.

The point is that dealing with tough and cutthroat characters was nothing new to Mr. Trump.

But granted, the mob appeared to be small potatoes during President Trump’s first term, as he encountered the treachery of the Democrat Party’s vicious daily — actually, hourly — assaults via the phony Russian hoax, the phony impeachments, the phony January 6 “insurrection,” the phony lawfare attacks, on and on and on.

But he survived and, after the rigged election of 2020, went on to thunderously win his second term in the White House — in spite of two assassination attempts.  He is now keenly aware of the subversive, indeed treasonous, Democrats who are now, thanks to their regressive policies and alienating representatives, polling at the bottom of the fetid barrel, right along with the longtime cesspool in New York City, commonly known as the United Nations.

But what about the Israel deal?

Critics of this deal often cite the outrage of President Trump dealing with the likes of Qatar, the very funders and arch-believers in Hamas — and Hezbollah and the Houthis, et al. — and all of the goals inscribed in their mission statements…to annihilate all Jews on earth and to occupy, actually own, every square inch of Israel.

• How could he even speak to these terrorist-supporters?
• Doesn’t he know that they always lie, that there is even an Islamic word, taqiyya, that in essence permits and even approves of both lying and deception?
• Can’t he appreciate that they are laughing behind his back?
• Doesn’t he appreciate that the minute they agree to anything, or sign any document, they will renege and violate every word?

In fact, knowing all of these things is precisely the president’s genius!

Real Insight

It reminds me of something I learned when I was studying to become a psychotherapist decades ago.  One of the theorists we studied was Erik Erikson (1902–1994), a German-American child psychoanalyst who coined the phrase “identity crisis” and was ranked as the 12th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.

The incident took place when Dr. Erikson went to visit one of his patients in a mental hospital.  Upon seeing the doctor, the patient greeted him warmly and then reminded him: “Dr. Erikson, you do remember that I am Jesus Christ!”

And what was Dr. Erikson’s response?  Did he remind the patient that he was delusional?  Did he correct the patient’s statement by telling him his actual name?  Did he recommend that the patient should see him more often?

None of the above.  He simply said, “Oh, I understand that your father was a carpenter.”

What was Dr. Erikson doing?  Instead of being a didactic therapist, citing all the things he had learned in his medical residency about the human psyche, he entered into his patient’s world.  In fact, he affirmed this delusion by de facto not only agreeing that he was speaking with Jesus Christ, but by affirming that he knew something factual about his background.

By doing so, he also affirmed his patient’s trust.

Sound Familiar?

If you’re speaking with someone who believes fervently in terrorism, who donates massive amounts of money to keep terrorist networks alive and in savage action, do you scold him, chastise him, lecture him, judge him…or do you enter into their warped worlds, finding words that convince them that you’re not going to talk about murder and rape and sadism on an unspeakable level, but rather the huge and enticing benefits of calling it a day, and also the huge and draconian consequences if you don’t?

Mystery Solved

How did President Trump get terror-infatuated Qatar and all the surrounding anti-Israel Arab states, and most if not all of the European anti-Israel countries, to embrace the unprecedented ceasefire and hostage release that took place before the eyes of the entire world on October 13, 2025?

Simply, he entered their world.  He told them he understands their concerns.  He never contradicted their blatant racism.  He never challenged their 7th-century mentality.  He only told them that what lay in their futures was eminently more attractive — and more profitable — than their current path.

And to be sure, he also told them that if they crossed him, they would be crossing the United States of America, and that, in his book, would require him to level consequences they never wanted to think about.

Joan Swirsky is a New York–based journalist and author.  Her website is www.joanswirsky.com, and she can be reached at joanswirsky@gmail.com.