By Joseph Frager, JNS
This year will go down in history as the year Israel re-asserted itself and Trump regained the presidency.
At the beginning of 2024, I compared then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s developing comeback to President Andrew Jackson’s ascension to office 200 years earlier. Jackson lost his bid for the presidency under dubious circumstances in 1824 but won the election with 55% of the popular vote just four years later in 1828.
Jackson was the only president in U.S. history to pay off all of America’s interest-bearing debt.
The main story of 2024 was Trump’s landslide victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election. However, the Middle East was also in the spotlight as Israel continued to fight its enemies on many fronts.
After the atrocities of the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Middle East has been forever changed. Israel, which had spent 30 years on peace-making, went on the offensive and with good reason. This year will go down in history as the year Israel re-asserted itself and proved that it is the most powerful nation in the region.
Here are a few highlights of 2024:
On March 12, Trump clinched the Republican Party’s nomination for president. This was a historic achievement in its own right.
On April 13, Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 missiles and drones. This was an act of war.
On April 19, Israel retaliated by destroying Iran’s S-300 air defenses. This was a limited response due to the restrictions the Biden administration placed on Israel. However, it enabled Israel to enter Rafah on May 14. The Biden administration held up Israel’s ability to go in until that point, and Harris continued to voice her objections. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to walk a tightrope with the Biden team.
The Rafah operation proved to be one of the most critical steps in further degrading Hamas. Militarily, it was essential, and, on June 8, it led to the daring rescue of four hostages: Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv.
On June 27, President Joe Biden debated Trump in their first (and ultimately, only) presidential debate. Biden’s poor performance changed history forever.
On July 13, Israel eliminated Mohammed Deif, the overall commander of the Qassam Brigades and one of the principal architects of Oct. 7. Under his control, the Qassam Brigades were responsible for killing many Israelis since the 1990s. On the same day, Trump was shot by Thomas Matthew Crooks while at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
On July 21, Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
On July 31, Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’s political wing, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb in his hotel room while in Tehran.
On Aug. 27, Israel recovered Bedouin hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a father of 11, who was taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
On Aug. 31, Israel found six hostages: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alex Lobanov, 32; and Carmel Gat, 40. They had been murdered in a terror tunnel by Hamas just two or three days earlier.
On Sept. 27, Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who had killed many Israelis as well as Americans in his 30-year reign of terror, in a targeted airstrike.
On Oct. 1, Iran again attacked Israel, this time with 180 ballistic missiles. This was a clear escalation. Israel could have used this opportunity to once and for all wipe out Iran’s nuclear capability. Again, the Biden administration did not let Israel do this. Only military targets were hit in Israel’s retaliatory Oct. 26 strike against Iran. Since then, the Iranian regime has reportedly ramped up its uranium enrichment in defiance of international concerns.
On Oct. 16, Israel Defense Forces located and killed Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the attacks and atrocities on Oct. 7. This is one of the turning points in the war against Hamas.
On Nov. 5, Trump was elected to become the 47th president of the United States.
On Dec. 8, the house of Assad fell after a 60-year rule in Syria with ex-President Bashar Assad fleeing to Iran.
Trump will be sworn in a few short weeks and will have his hands full as Iran, Hamas, Ukraine and the hostage crisis are active problems. I am optimistic he will solve these intractable issues soon after taking office.
