Trump’s Knesset Speech: Israel Won the War — Now Let’s Win the Peace

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called to make triumphant and affectionate speeches at the Knesset. Not to mention receiving adulatory praise from a news media that actually reports news:

Today’s Jerusalem Post pic.twitter.com/N6eyjewusX

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) October 13, 2025

And sometimes, the peacemaker is so blessed that they can have the audacity to use a speech at the Knesset to strong-arm Israeli president Isaac Herzog to pardon Benjamin Netanyahu. “Mr. President,” Trump said, “why don’t you give him a pardon?”

MUST WATCH 🔴

CRAZY VIDEO OF TRUMP GOING OFF SCRIPT AND REQUESTS A PARDON FOR NETANYAHU pic.twitter.com/OK3AEDRaeP

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 13, 2025

Trump admitted that he ad-libbed that request, but scoffed that it was controversial. “Cigars and champagne,” Trump shrugged at the allegations of corruption. “Who the hell cares about that?” On the day of victory … probably not many. Whether Herzog attempts to fulfill Trump’s wish in the light of the day after the celebrations is an entirely different question, of course. Technically, the office can’t grant pardons until after the end of legal proceedings, so the request may be awkward in more than one way. If so inclined, Herzog could request that prosecutors suspend the case in order to facilitate a pardon, perhaps. 

In any other context, a visiting US president making this request would generate some outrage over interfering in the legal and political process of an ally. Today, however, Trump basked in the love of the victory he mainly authored, while Netanyahu received support for his determination to see an end to the Iranian encirclement strategy once and for all. No one in Israel is keeping score — today, anyway.

Trump’s main thrust in his Knesset speech focused on the future of the region. Israel won the war, Trump declared — and now it must win the peace. Trump pledged support for an effort to come to terms with Iran, claiming that the mullahs are ready to deal after getting utterly humiliated in their Twelve-Day War:

He says it would be great if a peace deal could be hammered out between Iran and Israel. “Would you be happy with that? Wouldn’t it be nice?” he asks Netanyahu. “Because I think they want to. I think they’re tired.”

Trump says Iran is not restarting their nuclear program. “The last thing they want to do is start digging holes again in mountains that just got blown up.”

“They want to survive, OK?” he says.

He says his team “can get that deal done easy, but first we have to get Russia done,” presumably a reference to Trump’s efforts to secure a peace deal in the war in Ukraine.

In fact, Hamas demonstrated to regimes that Islamism is a dead end, and ultimately self-destructive, Trump argued:

“The Middle East is finally ready to embrace its extraordinary potential,” he says.

Extremism, jihadism, and antisemitism have a been a “disaster,” he says. “They’ve totally backfired.”

They have delivered “failure and death,” he says, and have not weakened Israel.

The nations that decided to make peace “are now among the most successful in the region. They’re getting along with Israel and they’re doing great.”

Is Iran ready to dispense with these “disasters,” though? Nothing they’ve said publicly suggests it. The Taliban are going even deeper into Islamism, with predictably disastrous results, but they are not exactly in a rush to open up Afghanistan or join the Abraham Accords. Nevertheless, Trump said, the widespread adoption of his peace plan makes the result clear:

He says that the entire region “has endorsed the plan that Gaza has been demilitarized, Hamas will be disarmed, and Israel’s security will no longer be threatened in any way, shape or form.”

Israel has “won all that it can by force of arms,” he says. “You’ve won.”

Now it’s time to translate battlefield victories into peace and prosperity for the entire region, he says.

That much is arguably true. The IDF could have completed a full conquest of Gaza if Hamas didn’t capitulate, but all they would have gained was another decades-long occupation, complete with unending insurgencies and “intifadas” in both Gaza and the West Bank. This is the best of all outcomes for Israel — the remaining hostages returned, a ceasefire in place on their terms rather than Hamas’, and a unified region ready to eject Hamas from their Gaza tunnels and take over Gaza if all goes to Trump’s plan. If it doesn’t, the IDF remains in position for the alternative, which is a war without Israeli hostages as shields for terrorists. 

Even if Trump’s speech exhibited some victory giddiness — and he clearly had a great time indulging in it — he’s not wrong about the moment. Thanks to Trump and Netanyahu, the entire strategic situation has drastically changed over the last two years, and especially the last few months. The US has made clear that we intend to stay muscularly engaged, Israel has made its military and intelligence superiority clear, and the Abraham Accords demonstrate the potential for growth in a region long stunted by Islamists and anti-Semites. 

The moment for change has arrived. Whether the malefactors of the region respond is up to them, but their risks are far greater than they were on October 6, 2023 … and they all know it now. 

Here’s the full speech from Trump. He has since decamped to Cairo Sharm el-Sheikh [corrected — Ed] for more celebration, and then will return home to deal with the Schumer Shutdown. I doubt the Democrats understand that strategic environment, post-victory over Hamas, than the Iranian mullahs understand theirs. 

Editor’s note: Donald Trump has restored credibility to American power, and has single-handedly changed the world by destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program. He has become the greatest peacemaker in recent world history by understanding that strength brings peace, not weakness and appeasement. And the Protection Racket Media and their progressive-elite masters will do everything they can to suppress and obfuscate that obvious truth.

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