For the first time in modern history, and perhaps the past few thousand years, we may have actual peace in the Middle East. Glenn Beck discusses the signing of President Trump’s historic peace deal, which will hopefully bring an end to the Israel/Hamas conflict in Gaza, and the freeing of the remaining 20 hostages.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let me start here: For the first time in living memory, the guns have gone quiet in Gaza. Hostages, that have been held now for over two years have just walked free. And for the very first time, not in decades, but perhaps a millennia or two: The descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have -- have signed something that might resemble more than just a ceasefire. You have to understand, before we start, how significant and how impossible it is to reach this point! This is not like anything we've ever seen before.

The conflict did not begin in 1948. It didn't begin with the British mandates and the creation of the state of Israel. The story really begins with the -- the ancient people of Israel and the sands of Canaan, where the people of Israel and the people called the Philistines, clashed over the same spot of earth called Gaza.

The Bible records Gaza as one of the five cities of the Philistines. And is this the place, Gaza is the place where the Philistines gathered their strength.

It was in Gaza that Samson, the judge of Israel was betrayed, captured, blinded, and paraded through the streets, as the Philistines mocked him. Much like you saw on October 7th. It was in Gaza that he brought the temple down on them. You know, one man against the empire. History has a very long memory in that land. We call it the Gaza Strip today. But it has seen conquers come and go. The Egyptians. The Babylonians. The Greeks, the on the mans, and the British.

And yet, somehow or another, the one rivalry, that is from 2000, 3,000 years ago, remains. The one between the children of Israel, and those who dwell along the sea.

That's an important thing. Palestinians of the ancient world, in Biblical context, are -- are different than the Palestinians. They were the group. They were not Semitic. They weren't Jewish. And they concentrated on the coast of Israel, Gaza.

The modern Palestinian identity came, you know, a millennia later, and that was shaped by the Arab, Islamic, and -- and historic developments in that area. It's not directly connected to the Philistines. However, Philistine and Palestinian both mean people that dwell on the coast. The word Hamas is an acronym, which means, you know, in their language. The Islamic resistance movement. But in Hebrew, Hamas means something altogether different. It means violence.

And this is in Hebrew, in Genesis 6:11. The earth was filled with Hamas. Violence, corruption, wickedness. It was because of Hamas, that the rains came, and Noah had to build the ark because of Hamas. So when you hear the word "Hamas," understand what it means to the Israeli ear, compared, you know, to the Palestinian ear.

It's not just an enemy. It's a Biblical echo, a spiritual warning from deep, deep time. So for 75 years, they have been trying to make peace between these ancient adversaries. Everybody has tried to do it. In my lifetime, the Camp David awards, or Accords, were in 1978. The Oslo Accords, in 1993. Endless road maps, summits, UN resolutions, and nothing! Every single one of them hailed as historic. And each one declared a new chapter. And every one of them failed, and it's not because the diplomats lack skill. But because too many on one side, the entire Arab world didn't believe Israel had a right to exist, and everyone was looking for a political solution. Then comes Donald Trump!

Donald Trump didn't approach this, you know, as a professor of Middle East studies.

He didn't approach this with the hundred years of expertise from the State Department.

In fact, he looked at the State Department expertise, and went, you guys aren't really experts of anything. You haven't solved anything.

And you keep trying the same thing. What are you doing?

He took a business approach. He knew all of the players, because of business. He knew all of the big players.

And so he got in with all of the players, and found out, what do you really want? And what they really want is stability. If you look at what's being built in the Middle East, they are these -- these incredible modern cities. Incredible modern cities.

They want prosperity. The Middle East does. Hamas doesn't!

He saw a region, Donald Trump did. He saw a region that was addicted to USAID.

Endless negotiation.

And so he just tore up the whole rule book. And he recognized Jerusalem, first thing as the capital of Israel.

A move that every single president before has been told by the State Department, you can't do that. It will cause war. And, you know what, it didn't.

He moved the embassy.

He then walked away from the Iran Deal. And he told the world that America is no longer going to apologize for standing with the only democracy in the Middle East. And that's where all of the anti-Semitic stuff comes. Because now, see, Israel is controlling our foreign policy! Israel is controlling Donald Trump. Donald Trump is doing the bidding of the Jews!

No. Nope. No, he didn't.

No, he wasn't being controlled. And, no, they weren't controlling him. It was actually seemingly quite the opposite. Because he did something extraordinary. He took the entire region, and brought them together!

First, he did it with the Abrahamic -- Abraham Accords. That is the first genuine realignment of the region, in a generation, or maybe two.

And it wasn't about ideology. It was all about survival, prosperity. And the shared fear of Iran's growing shadow!

When we drop the bombs on Iran, Americans, and people in the West, and people who have been educated in our universities, and have been indoctrinated with all of this garbage, they looked at that and said, "Oh, my gosh, look at. He's doing Israel's bidding."


No, he was actually doing Israel's bidding. He was doing Saudi Arabia's bidding. He was doing a bidding of Egypt. Everyone in the Middle East. Everyone in the Middle East. Hates Iran. They know how dangerous Iran is. They wanted somebody to put Iran in its place. So when Donald Trump did, the Middle East, the Arab world, celebrated. Not obviously not all of it, but a lot of it. The ones that are now at the table. He did something else: He proved himself to be an honest broker, and not doing the bidding of just Israel. And I would love to hear all of the people who are now standing up and saying, "See, we are just a puppet."

I would love to hear your explanation of this. When Israel went after Qatar, which I don't have any love at all for Qatar. But they went after Qatar. And that was going to blow this whole thing up.

What happened? Donald Trump went to Benjamin Netanyahu, and said, "You need to apologize to Qatar."

Israel and Netanyahu is not going to apologize. They ended up apologizing to Qatar. "That won't happen again."

That gave Donald Trump the -- the -- the image in the Middle East of not being the little boy toy, but the other way around. He has some control of what Israel is going to do. He can tell them, "Knock it off."

Then when everybody came to the table, the Middle East all came to the table and said, "Okay we'll handle Hamas. You handle Israel."

So they got Hamas to the table and said, "You're going to take this, and we're going to guarantee the peace." And Donald Trump went to Benjamin Netanyahu. Benjamin Netanyahu said, "We have to finish the job. We have to finish them off."

And Donald Trump said, "No, you're going to take this deal now."

And Benjamin Netanyahu said, "No, we have to finish them off." And he said, "I don't think you hear me: You're going to take this deal." That's how this happened. That's a miracle. He didn't try to make them friends, he tried to make them partners. They all want prosperity. And now, we are -- we're looking at the fruits of the labor that started with the Abrahamic Accords. The Arab states signed it to enforce peace rather than to sabotage it. For the first time in 4,000 years! The blood-soaked sands of Gaza whisper something today, that has been forgotten for 4,000 years. And that is hope.

If it hollows, even if it holds for a year, five years, ten years, it means centuries of hatred has been overtaken by something stronger than hate.

And even if we just start with survival, that's good!

It means that the children of Abraham, which is both the Arab and the Jew, the descendents of Abraham, long divided by faith and pride, have decided, choose life over death, trying to prove you're right!

It means the Biblical land of Gaza, where Samson fell, where violence has filled the earth, might finally learn the meaning of peace. But if it doesn't, and the rockets return and the lies reawaken, and this will just be another tombstone in the desert of broken promises. But the Bible says, "Blessed are the peacemakers. The Lord hates the hands that shed innocent blood." So if this holds, if this holds, if courage triumphs over chaos -- let's remember that peace is not the absence of war, it's the presence of righteousness. And righteousness, true, moral clarity demands that we call evil by its name. And we stand with truth, even when it's costly. And we defend the innocent, even when the world looks away. And now, it is our job, as long as this holds, to rebuild. I am so happy to say, "We are not being asked to rebuild. Not our money."

The Middle Eastern money is coming in now, to rebuild the region. As it should be. Men haven't suddenly become good, but for once, maybe they're choosing life over death or survival. But perhaps they've remembered and seen God's warning and chosen mercy over their rage.