Praising Israel, Hitler Brings Peace to Middle East. Churlish Elliott Abrams Refuses to Credit Biden for Peace Deal. Exciting Governor’s Races. And More

What a remarkable day it was.

While Israel and the (civilized) world rejoiced that all the hostages still alive came home, President Trump delivered “a ringing endorsement of Israel and a US pledge for peace” before Israel’s Knesset. Here is what Trump said.

“The Hostages Return Home and the Lies Fall Apart” is the headline on Eli Lake’s The Free Press story.  “For the ‘ceasefire now’ crowd, the end of the fighting has been a bit of a drag.” Also at The Free Press: “Trump Deserves His Middle East Victory Lap,” by Matthew Continetti. “The president has triumphed in the Middle East by flipping the script in the most Trumpian way imaginable,” Continetti argues. Batya Ungar-Sargon writes that President Trump worked a Mideast miracle with his two-sided “America First” doctrine.

It was a great day for those who feared that the United States’s leadership on the international stage was a thing of the past. New York Post cover: “Leader of the Free World.” But a cartoon at the U.K. Telegraph captured the dilemma of Trump haters. Two Washingtonians bend over another lying supine on the ground. “I was wrong,” says one of the upright Washingtonians. “It DID kill him to say something nice about President Trump.”

Former Secretary of State under former President Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, chose to credit the peace plan to Biden and his administration. Biden himself, who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, was more gracious. The former president might even realize that most people would agree with U.K. Spectator writer Jonathan Sacerdoti (“Thank God for Donald Trump”) that “Biden would never have authorized ‘Midnight Hammer’,” the strike on Iran’s nuclear sites that was a huge step in reaching the peace agreement.

Biden boosters are trying to say that Biden had a plan that would have delivered peace some time ago, but meany Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thwarted it. Nobody better to debunk this than foreign policy guru Elliott Abrams in the spunky Free Beacon:

The truth is that the war ended because Israel and the United States exercised power—political, diplomatic, and military. In June, Israel bombed the Iranian nuclear sites and eliminated many of its top scientists and generals. President Trump followed days later with devastating strikes on the largest Iranian nuclear sites. Israel’s assault on Gaza City, Hamas’s last stronghold, began in late August and taught Hamas that holding hostages would not prevent such an assault. Then on Sept. 9, Israel struck at Hamas leaders in Doha, scaring the Qataris into begging for protection from Trump. He offered it—but it is no coincidence that this was the moment when the Qataris began to pressure Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and to release all the living hostages on day one. It was Qatari diplomatic pressure that brought Turkey to push Hamas for the same concessions….

The facts are plain to see for those not motivated by hatred of Netanyahu and of Trump, or at least by political rivalry with either of them. Israel devastated the military power of Hezbollah; Netanyahu and Trump devastated the military power of Iran; with Trump’s approval, Israel began to conquer Gaza City; and the Israeli attack in Doha created a diplomatic opening when the Qataris concluded that the war must end, and they were willing to give their own ultimatum to Hamas.

It wasn’t just the guns that were silent yesterday. Top Democrats have posted nothing about the end of the Gaza war, Townhall’s Matt Vespa observes. But does it matter? Who cares? Even CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was forced to apologize for her “atrocious” words on Hamas and the hostages. Here is what Amanpour said:

And I think for sure, people who start to talk to the hostages who have only just been released, will find that it will take a long, long time for them to recover physically, but also mentally. It’s been a terrible, terrible two years for them, because not only are they there — you know, they’re probably being treated better than the average Gazan, because they are the pawns and the chips that Hamas had. Now, Hamas has given up all of its leverage, by the way, by giving them all up. So that is a victory for the Israeli side.

Hate Marches On. Fraser Myers writes that the ceasefire in Gaza has done nothing to placate the rage of the anti-Israel bigots. Looking to what it apparently hoped would be the future, the National Teachers Association, the country’s largest and most influential teachers’ union, sent a map of the Middle East that erases Israel to its 3 million members.

Could the ceasefire affect New York’s mayoral race? U.K. Telegraph columnist David Christopher Kaufman suggests that the Israel-Hamas ceasefire could upset the election bid of current frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani. Kaufman suggests that the race, which has been dominated by genocide charges might return to more normal issues such as the economy and education. Mamdani has issued a rather unsatisfactory statement, but his wife is mourning a Hamas terrorist, and his party has condemned the ceasefire. Indicted New York AG Letitia James apparently has no doubts about Mamdani—she will headline a rally for him. Yoni Weinberg writes in The Tablet that the election of Mamdani would pose an interesting dilemma:

Faced with rising antisemitism and a radical would-be mayor, New York’s Jewish artists confront a once unthinkable question: Is it time to flee?

Heard about the partial government shutdown? Yeah, it’s still going on, but not getting as much attention as one might have expected. President Trump took a major pressure point off the table over the weekend, announcing he would shift money around to ensure military members don’t miss a paycheck on Wednesday.” GOP Senator Tom Emmer is turning the tables on his colleagues across the aisle. The Senate votes again tonight.

Can She Win Some? A new poll has the Virginia governor’s race neck and neck, with current AG Jason Miyares leading assassination fantasist Jay Jones. This isn’t some fly-by-night poll. It was done by Trafalgar, which has an excellent record for accuracy. Meanwhile, Democrats have spent a record amount of money to win the New Jersey gubernatorial race, but the race is tied. This race got all shook up when Rep. Mikie Sherrill told her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, “you killed tens of thousands of people” because of his medical publishing business (the New York Times describes Sherrill’s words as “more nuanced”).

Columnist Liz Peek suggests that if Ciattarelli wins, it would give the GOP a blueprint for the midterms.

No Antifa Here. Indeed, not only are blue cities such as Chicago not crime-ridden hellholes, but you don’t have to worry about Antifa—it’s imaginary, according to some Democratic leaders. One Antifa denier is blue jeans heir and intellectual giant Rep. Dan Goldman.

Blue Blazes. There were anti-police riots the other day in blue Boston. Fox Digital has the story:

The president of a union that represents Boston police officers said that people who took part in a recent street takeover in the city were “hell-bent” on attacking law enforcement officials.

According to the Boston Police Department, over 100 people were involved in the takeover that involved street racing just after 2 a.m. on October 5. Officers found more than 100 people trying to attack police cruisers with fireworks, cones, poles and other items….

“What happened last weekend got out of control, it went through four different communities, ended up here at a couple of locations in Boston. And each location that they went to in this past incident, it appears as though they got more aggressive,” he said. “And when they ended up in the downtown South End section of Boston, that pretty much in our opinion looked premeditated.”

Before I Go. A Strange New Respect Award for Marjorie Taylor Greene. … Career Advice: New CBS boss Bari Weiss made the outrageous request that CBS employees tell her what they do in their jobs, but the Writers Guild of America, which represents many CBS employees, is urging them to resist and refuse to reply to Weiss’s memo. Ms. Must is betting on  The Disruptor.