President Donald Trump’s peace deal in Gaza could mark the beginning of a new era for the Middle East, but Iran remains the driving force behind instability in the region, Foundation for Defense of Democracies Senior Director Behnam Ben Taleblu warned on Newsmax Tuesday.
“The arsonist behind many of the fires in the Middle East, be it directed against Israel or America, remains the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Ben Taleblu said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.”
“Finding a way to nest this larger Gaza ceasefire into a maximum pressure policy against the regime in Tehran is going to be key to achieving lasting peace and security in the Middle East,” he added.
Still, the agreement marks a “new chapter for the Middle East,” Ben Taleblu said, while questioning whether “Arab and Muslim leaders [will] take it, and what are the building blocks to move from ceasefire to peace in the region?”
He cautioned that Israel’s battlefield victories cannot automatically translate into political progress.
“I share skepticism that a lot of these ceasefires or the military wins of Israel can immediately be turned into a political win, given again the hostility and the ideologies that are at play here,” he said.
Ben Taleblu praised both Israel and the United States for showing that violent extremism can be defeated.
“Something very, very important has been done by Israel and by America, which is the discrediting of these violent, extremist terrorist ideologies and actually showing the world that, yes, you can actually fight back,” he said.
That, he added, could help some nations “engage in deconfliction, if not normalization, which would lead to a better, brighter, and more prosperous Middle East.”
While several Arab and Muslim nations have expressed interest in deeper cooperation, Ben Taleblu noted that progress will not come easily.
“One would have hoped that Indonesia, given some of the initial reporting a few days ago, would have been the first to actually do this, given the alleged trip that was supposed to take place to Israel, but nonetheless, hope springs eternal here,” he said.
Ruthie Blum, editor at the Jewish News Syndicate, agreed the moment is historic but also urged caution against optimism.
“We’ve all been weeping since yesterday,” she said, describing the emotional reaction to the release of hostages.
Still, it’s “premature” to view the agreement as a lasting one, as “we’re still dealing with religious fanatics and global jihad,” said Blum.
“Hamas is just one tiny part of that.”
Blum added that preventing Hamas from rebuilding is critical.
“The main thing is not to let Hamas again rebuild and get its hands on the aid,” she said, noting the group has already violated parts of the deal by failing to return the bodies of several hostages.
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