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chairman donald trump to plead strongly israel to divert attention from waging war against Hamas What he called the “ultimate prize” of “peace and prosperity”. middle east region, as he became the fifth US president to address the Knesset on Monday.
In remarks to the Israeli legislature, which were equal parts triumphalist and delirious, filled with non sequiturs, attacks on his predecessors and claims about economic conditions in the United States, Trump said that the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the return of the remaining surviving hostages marked “the historic dawn of a new Middle East” and an “incredible victory for Israel and the world.”
The President concluded his remarks by saying that Israeli President Isaac Herzog should pardon the Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu He is accused of breach of trust, bribery and fraud.
However, Trump’s remarks focused on the peace agreement.
“Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment when everything started to change,” Trump said.
“As the dust settles, the smoke subsides, the debris is removed, and the ashes are cleared from the air, the day dawns and a field is changed – and a beautiful and much brighter future suddenly appears within our reach.”
He also praised the implementation of the peace deal he signed a few weeks ago with Netanyahu at the White House, marking not only an end to the two-year-old war, but also an end to what he called “an era of terror and death,” marking “the beginning of the era of faith and hope and God.”
He said, “This will be the golden age of Israel and the golden age of the Middle East.”
The president received a rousing welcome as he entered the Knesset chamber following his remarks, with members chanting his name as well as the name of his roving peace envoy. Steve Witkoff. Ivanka Trump, his daughter and wife of Witkoff’s negotiator Jared Kushner, also received a standing ovation.
He spoke just hours after the Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that all 20 remaining surviving hostages held by Hamas are in Israeli custody and back on Israeli soil, ending more than two years of captivity, and just days after Israel ended a years-long bombing campaign against Gaza that has taken nearly 70,000 lives.
Trump noted the significance of the ceasefire, telling the Knesset: “After so many years of constant war and endless danger, today, the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are silent, and the sun is rising over the Holy Land that is finally at peace.”
But he also cautioned the Israelis against resuming the military campaign that Netanyahu has insisted on continuing despite international condemnation as the death toll in Gaza rises and famine spreads.
Trump said Israel “has won all that can be won by force of arms” and instead called on the Knesset to “turn these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”
He said, “Together, we have shown that peace is not just a hope we can dream about, it is a reality we can create day by day, person by person, nation by nation.”
At the same time, the President also urged the people of Gaza to abandon Hamas’ violent methods, which led to two years of war. He said it had been “clear to everyone” in the Middle East that “decades of promoting terrorism and extremism, jihadism and anti-Semitism” have “completely and completely” backfired by delivering “nothing but misery, suffering and failure” in Gaza and Iran.
He said Gazans’ “full focus” moving forward should be on “restoring the basic principles of stability, security, dignity and economic development” so that “their children can have a better life”.
He said, “It is clearer than ever that the productive and responsible nations of the region must not be enemies or adversaries; you must also be partners and ultimately friends.”
Trump also said that “virtually the entire region” of the Middle East supported his plan, which also included provisions for Gaza to be “immediately demilitarized” along with “disarming” Hamas so that Israel’s security “will not be threatened in any way, shape or form” in the future.
He said, “Only by embracing the opportunities of this moment can we achieve our goal of ensuring that the horrors of recent years will never happen again.”
He issued a similar warning to the government of Iran, which he claimed wanted to “make a deal” with Israel and the United States to end years of hostility.
“They want to make a deal, and we’re going to see if we can do something, because it’s madness, what’s happening, and we’re not going to do it anymore… There’s nothing we need more for this part of the world than for Iran’s leaders to renounce terrorists, stop bullying their neighbors, stop funding their terrorist proxies, and finally recognize Israel’s right to exist. It would be better for us,” he said.
Netanyahu, who spoke to the Knesset in the afternoon after meeting Trump upon his arrival in Tel Aviv, said Trump’s plan opened “the door to a historic expansion of peace in our region and beyond our region” and said he was “committed” to the peace plan with Trump.
“Mr. President, you are committed to this peace. I am committed to this peace. And together, Mr. President, we will achieve this peace,” he said, introducing the president followed by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and opposition leader Yair Lapid.
Trump said he was scheduled to join other world leaders for a peace summit in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, but quipped that his trip was delayed because of lengthy remarks by Ohana, Netanyahu and Lapid.
He said, “I have come very late. You kept me waiting for a long time between the opposition leaders and Bibi’s wonderful but very long speech.” “I thought I would run here, give speeches and then go to Egypt. However, it didn’t work out.”
He said he would meet with the “most powerful” and “richest” countries on Earth to further discuss peace plans.
He said, “Let’s enjoy our lives, let’s rebuild Israel and make it stronger, bigger and better than ever before.”
It remains to be seen whether Netanyahu’s commitment to the peace plan will remain.
The Israeli leader had accepted an invitation from the Egyptian President to attend, but canceled the trip. It became known that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would also attend, although Netanyahu’s office cited the Jewish holiday. Simchat Torah As a reason for the reversal.
The “historic dawn” that Trump spoke of comes after several rounds of trouble and the beginning of a truce between the two White House administrations.
For more than two years, multiple efforts were made, brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt, to secure the release of all hostages and detainees from Gaza and advance a comprehensive ceasefire agreement to end the devastating war.
Two ceasefires – in late 2023 and early 2025 – both ultimately collapsed, leading to the return of unprecedented massacres in Gaza and the deaths of additional hostages in captivity.
In September, in the wake of Israel’s bombing of Qatar – which threatened to drag the entire Middle East into region-wide conflict – Trump proposed a 20-point peace plan, which he claimed would lead to a “breakthrough”.
Although vague in parts, at the heart of the document is “phase one”, which would see an immediate ceasefire and the release of the remaining 48 hostages and detainees, both dead and alive, within a 72-hour period, which ended at noon on Monday.
In exchange, approximately 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, including 22 children, were to be released.
If the ceasefire holds, the remains of 350 murdered Palestinians currently held by Israel will also be returned. In tandem, the agreement includes a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces to the “yellow line”, which still leaves Israel in control of more than 50 percent of the enclave, but troops leave populated areas such as Gaza City.
This has allowed thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to the destroyed remains of their homes.
The plan also calls for an increase in badly needed aid to the small region, where the UN-backed Global Hunger Monitor has concluded that famine is already looming.
Early in the morning, before Trump’s address, Hamas began transferring the remaining 20 surviving hostages, who were seen being handed over to the Red Cross before being transferred to Israel and taken to hospitals to be reunited with their families.
Shortly afterward, buses filled with Palestinian detainees began leaving Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, where they were reunited with their families in Ramallah.
If this section of the peace agreement is upheld, negotiations would begin for phase two, which should include further withdrawal of Israeli forces, disarmament of Hamas, a transitional authority of technocrats that would take responsibility for running Gaza, and an international “stabilization” force to run security.