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US ceasefire proposal July 3, 2025 for Gaza accepted by Israel and Gaza/Palestine. An end to Gaza/Palestine war July 3, 2025 with US Egypt UAE mediators after months of fighting that have left Gaza in ruins, Iran and proxies in disarray, and leadership in Gaza changing three times. This opens up a path for humanitarian help to the population of Gaza/Palestine, ending hostage crisis, and finding a new path to Palestine/Gaza living in peace with its neighbors, Egypt, Israel, UAE and Gulf States.  It marks the end of another chapter of failures in the wars of the Middle East starting with Afghanistan/Pakistan under Reagan and Soviet leader Brezhnev on opposite sides, then Iraq/Iran interventions under Reagan/Bush/Bush first on one side then on the other, Afghanistan/9/11 under Bush Jr., Syria under Obama and Trump, Iraq/ISIS under DJT, and Afghanistan closure under Biden, Iran/Gaza/Israel under DJT second term. Forty Five Years War is an appropriate term reminiscent of the Thirty Years War in Europe in the 17th century, this one that destroyed Soviets and the American administrations priorities of Reagan to Biden 1980-2025. ...

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Gaza Palestine Peace deal by DJT where all hostages are exchanged for Israel stopping war in Gaza and pulling back to one half of Gaza October 14 2025. Hamas supporters Turkey and Qatar were involved. The talks were held in Sharm-al-Sheikh seaside resort in Egypt and final talks at the villa of Gen. Rashad Intelligence Chief of Egypt. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff for the US got Israel's participation. For Israel the fatigue from the long war would give it a respite. It was achieved by not getting into the smaller details so the Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza. Israel said it will withdraw from half of Gaza and establish its presence in the other half of Gaza as Israel tries to figure out a way to ensure its security and end threats from Gaza Palestinian area. For the world community including the US and European leaders in Egypt including Britain, Spain, Germany, and other leaders this was an opportunity to remove divisions in their countries on the issue of Palestine as the continuation of the war had led to hunger and flattened most of Gaza's buildings. The issues of Palestine and Israel's right to exist without wars and threats, of new settlements, once again are left for another day as the oil rich kingdoms of the Middle East and the Arab countries, US, Israel and Europe fail to open a new chapter for Israel and for Palestine. Most importantly the Palestinian and Israeli leaders exercizing the foresight to bring peace in the ways that have ended strife over territory and control in places like the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland and Britain which have been in conflict from the year 1500. It is striking how little was gained from initial events leading to the war and how little the war had to do with the problems of illegal migration, of cost of living, of infrastructure neglect facing the US, Europe. It is certain that the peace deal will now allow the focus on the problems facing the US and Europe, removing the distraction of this sudden flareup of conflict that never should have happened.  ...

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Israeli rescue mission for 4 hostages in Nuseerat part of Gaza June 10, 2024. 

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The economies of Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt dependent on 12-26% of earnings from abroad on tourism are hit by the war in Gaza. Israeli tourism is also affected with only half of the flights going in. Egypt was a bright spot after the pandemic faded with a strong recovery above that of pre pandemic levels. In 2023 Egypt expected to see 15 million tourists.

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Republicans in Congress led by Speaker Johnson and Senator Lindsay Graham insist that a reform of the asylum and parole system for the US border is a must before an appropriations bill for the government to aid Ukraine and Israel, Gaza humanitarian aid can be passed. At a meeting at the White House Speaker Johnson came to an agreement on immigration reform of the asylum and parole system. A large number of people from Venezuela were admitted to the US in 2023 as the US has no agreement with Venezuela for return of people coming from that country. 2023 migrant entry could surpass 1 million as a result of this influx from Venezuela. This is a huge problem as 7.7 million people have left Venezuela of which 6.5 million are in Latin America, leading to the effort to cross the US border. About 286,000 Venezuelans crossed the border in 2023 by one estimate.

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The last time there was a war with Hamas was in 2006 under prime minister Olmert of the Kadima party. It happened when Olmert was negotiating a peace settlement with Mr. Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and the two sides had come very close differing on refugee resettlement and how much of West Bank in percentage each side would give up.  Olmert was being investigated for financial dealings by prosecutors which led to derailing further negotiations ,and the Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza shutting down peace efforts. A former mayor of Jerusalem from Likud for ten years and prime minister of Israel from Kadima party reflects on his efforts to bring a settlement with the Palestinians which would create the conditions for the two communities peaceful coexistence. NPR's Dana Estrin talked to Ehud Olmert in 2022 in this interview which you can listen to on NPR audio by clicking on article.

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Over 50% of Israelis support Iran war, only 30% oppose. As Israelis see it Iran under religious clerics is the only real threat to Israel in 2025 because of Iran's policy of proxies for attacking Israel in Lebanon and in Gaza, and because of it's development of nuclear weapons and openly threatening Israel. The US involvement in Iranian politics dates from the Dulles and Eisenhower era with the CIA's involvement in the overthrow of the democratically elected Iranian prime minister Mossadegh in 1953. Working with British intelligence and for British oil interests, US oil interests, the US made a serious mistake as seen from today's perspective. The moral is British or French colonial policy stay from it America- George Washington himself would advise. Israel is paying the price and is asked to correct what was done by the British in Iran since 1850's- to bring back a peaceful democracy with the kind of struggles even Greece experienced. The unelected wholly unrepresentative government of the Shah who was put in the place of a democratically elected government was a serious mistake. The British and French colonialism and oil interests of Britain plus American oil companies have led to US getting on the wrong side of the Vietnamese people in the war in Vietnam against the French that ended at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. It had repercussions in the Vietnam war under Kennedy and Johnson. This has happened in the case of Iran where the US has gained so little and lost so much in lives and resources sunk in the ensuing was in Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Yemen. The European Union suffered from the huge migrant flow from Syria with splits in its ranks. The distractions of these 30 years through Reagan and Rumsfeld who supported Hussein in Iraq against Iran in a balancing act is now foolishness, of elder Bush as he diverted attention to a long desert war in Kuwait, of Bush and then Obama in Afghanistan, who wasted enormous resources and impoverished the American people. Leaving legacy wars for Trump and Biden to handle. After Vietnam another failed chapter of Iran in the US for the American people by incompetent leaders who were taken in by French and British colonial and oil interests in wrong directions.   ...

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At the core 66% of people in the US, UK and in Germany, 77% in France, Italy and Spain  in Pew Research in 2024 see the need for big economic changes. Inequality increase are often automatically seen as correlated with deterioration in standard of living. However in practice cost of living concerns and opportunity to do something about it can move in the opposite direction to inequality increases. Cost of living can improve based on gas and electricity prices and access to housing with lower interest rates independent of whether government is or is not intervening in the economy. Some interventions may not work as in the supply side shocks in prices from Covid lockdowns or simply exhaust people's patience without sufficient timely correction. A disquiet index can also move in a different direction from inequality increases when cost of living raises disquiet levels for people, and cultural issues such as transgender in schools create  additional disquiet. Failure to get bipartisanship may leave inequality issues unresolved as happens with one group student loan borrowers stuck in repayment.  In this sense inequality is only one goal and can be elusive if the overall goal of reducing disquiet index are left unresolved. A better quality of life can be achieved in other ways- as with the effort for "a rising tide lifts all boats." This can include the ripple effect of international politics where issues spill over into the US creating cultural disquiet on campuses as happened in 2024 with Israel Gaza conflict. The interplay of local and international starts adding complexity that adds to disquiet index for people in all levels of society.   ...

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World leaders including president Obama attend the funeral of Israel's former president Shimon Peres. He is known for negotiating the Oslo Peace Accords in 1994. He was a protege of prime minister Ben Gurion, and has served as prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister, and been part of the Israel's key events since independence in 1948. President Obama  said the work of Shimon Peres remains unfinished. "Now this work is in the hands of Israel's next generation, in the hands of Israel's next generation and its friends." In the years following the 1994 accords the peace process went astray, and trust has not been restored.

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A look at Israel at 70 by the Economist magazine shows a country that has combined early achievements of socialist governments such as free health care system and good education system with the addition of 1 million immigrants from the collapsing Soviet Union, to build a highly trained technically skilled workforce and international companies.  It says the Israeli Arabs are still poor and unable to integrate. With ultra Orthodox Jews they make up 30% of the population, and many of them who do not work. Infrastructure has suffered from lack of investment and public transport is in poor condition. About 4.5 million Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza remain a continuous source of tension with no settlement in sight. The shift of the capital to Jerusalem is recognized by the U.S. Trump administration, a win for Israel, but leaving the divisive politics of Mr. Netanyahu in place. So that with the growing economy, there are social problems and political division which need to be addressed as much as the economy. A problem left for another administration, another leader from possibly a revived Labor party and another day. ...

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The situation facing 1.8 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip grows increasingly desperate as the economy collapses following the war with Israel. Egypt's new government and Israel say cement was being diverted to build tunnels and have reduced flow of construction materials into Gaza. Unemployment is at 44%, 11 percentage points higher than before the war with Israel in 2014, and youth unemployment at 60%, according to the World Bank's report in May 2015. One reason given for the conflict was that an impasse had been reached and economic conditions were bad with blockade by Israel, the situation following the conflict shows increased isolation of Gaza, not less. As the World Bank report puts it the economy's survival depends on restoring contacts with neighboring countries, which becomes even more difficult following the war.

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Both sides, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Israel, are more entrenched in their positions after the rocket attacks on Israeli cities and the airstrikes by Israel. There is even less prospect for peace talks now than before. And Israel is focussed on Iran with the government of Benjamin Netanyahu seeing support for its position strengthened within Israel. The Obama administration becomes dependent on the goodwill of Egypt's new government of Mohammed Morsi as the sole broker for peace in the Middle East. During the Gaza conflict the Turkish president Erdogan called Israel a terrorist state bringing Israel's relations with Turkey to a new low.

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Friedman on the opportunity for president Morsi to move the Middle East towards a peace settlement between Israel and Palestine and acceptance of Israel in the broader Muslim community. For the U.S. it also means continuing support for the democracy movement in Egypt and the Middle East. For this to happen Israelis have to take the extra step away from the current position of being insecure in their borders and morally secure to a unknown but right direction of moving towards a lasting settlement of problems. This is looking beyond the conflicts with Syria and Iran- which are likely to be resolved by the people of Syria finally asserting themselves and the Iranian people choosing economic improvement over a weapons program.

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Friedman calls Netanyahu the Mubarak of Israel for the way he has not moved forward on a treaty and settlement with the Palestinians, especially he says after Al Jazeera revealed significant concessions by the Palestinians under Mahmoud Abbas. He says Israel should move quickly to reach a settlement with the Palestinians, and as he puts it disentangle itself from the larger Arab story as it unfolds.