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| By The Free Press |
It’s Tuesday, October 14. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Can Zohran Mamdani really win over Jewish voters? Does a chatbot have a right to free expression? Plus: Join Jonathan Haidt and Bari Weiss live in New York City. And more.
But first: Victor Davis Hanson, Aaron MacLean, Eli Lake, and others on a dramatic day in the Middle East.
It’s been a mesmerizing 24 hours in the Middle East. Consider all that has happened since Monday morning:
Around this time yesterday, the last of the living hostages in Gaza came home.
Trump was welcomed as a hero in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. In his speech to Israeli lawmakers—the fourth by a U.S. president—he heralded the “historic dawn of a new Middle East” before going off script to call for Israeli president Isaac Herzog to pardon Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, while Hamas appeared to breach part of the ceasefire agreement by returning the bodies of only four dead hostages, instead of the 28 they promised Israel.
Trump flew from Israel to Sharm El-Sheikh, where he met with world leaders and inked a deal for peace. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put the old feuds and bitter hatreds behind us,” Trump said.
Our contributors have been doing everything they can to help you make sense of these historic events as they’re happening, from Matti Friedman on the release of the hostages and Michael Oren on how three real-estate moguls succeeded in delivering a peace deal that had eluded veteran diplomats for years, to Matthew Continetti on why Trump deserved his victory lap and Amit Segal on the Middle East’s morning after. And on our livestream yesterday, Rafaela Siewert spoke to everyone from regional analysts to a hostage family. Watch it here.
Today, we’re bringing you more on what just happened. How did we get here? What comes next? And what truths have the historic events of recent days revealed?
We begin with Aaron MacLean’s look at what he sees as the recipe for Trump’s strategic success: The president gave war a chance, supporting Israel categorically and sending American bombers to help cripple Iran’s nuclear program. Critics, including many on the MAGA right, said Trump’s hawkishness would lead to World War III. Instead, it allowed him to push through a peace deal where others had failed.
How did he pull it off? MacLean argues that he took “a page from Seinfeld’s George Costanza” and essentially did “the opposite of whatever the Biden team might have done.” Read the whole thing here:
Meanwhile, Victor Davis Hanson lays out his 10 reasons why Trump succeeded in bringing about a peace deal where other administrations have failed. For one thing, Victor argues, “Trump dealt with enemies, allies, and neutrals from a position of strength, comparative advantage, and national ascendance, unlike the appeasing and anemic Biden years or the apologetics of Obama.” Read his piece here:
Finally, Eli Lake checks in with the people who are upset with the ceasefire. And sure enough, it’s the same crowd that’s been demanding a ceasefire since the moment Israel launched its war against Hamas following the terror group’s horrifying attack on Israeli civilians two years ago.
“The Palestine solidarity movement in the West claimed to be primarily concerned with the welfare of Palestinians,” Eli writes. “And yet, at the moment that Israel has pulled back its forces and when the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East claims to have enough food to feed Gaza for the next three months, there is either silence or exasperation from these so-called peace advocates.” Read his piece to find out why:
—The Editors
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