On one of the most pivotal days for world peace in decades, 20 hostages were released in a momentous agreement shaped by American diplomacy under President Trump, as highlighted on The Sean Hannity Show. Sean underscores how Trump's coalition-building efforts with both Muslim and non-Muslim nations were instrumental, forging peace where decades of efforts had failed. Guest experts like Newt Gingrich and Nathan Sales emphasize Trump's unique ability to unite reluctant Arab nations, take decisive action against Iranian nuclear threats, and effectively isolate Hamas. This episode frames the event as a testament to American global leadership and a breakthrough for Israeli security, showcasing the human impact of reunited families and lasting regional alliances. The significance lies in creating a foundation for lasting peace and redefining U.S. influence in the Middle East.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hour two Sean Hannity Show, 800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, uh Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the big news of the day.
Uh today is one of the most important days in world peace in 50 years, maybe a hundred, uh, watching these hostages get released, uh, seeing these countries that many of these countries that have been so resistant over the decades to ever get involved in any part of the peace process, and that goes fundamentally to the coalition that Donald Trump was able to build.
I keep going back to my four main points.
Only Trump could convince a coalition of neighboring Arab countries to join in these peace efforts after decades of wanting basically nothing to do with being part of the solution here with uh only a perspective that he can bring, former speaker of the House, really in his heart of hearts, he is a professor historian, uh Newt Gingrich is with us.
Um Diana get your thoughts on all of this.
Well, you know, Clista and I watched both the Knesset and then Sharmel Sheikh.
And I have to say that first of all, this put this clearly puts him in the same league as Roosevelt or Churchill.
Uh and in some ways, uh like Lincoln and Jefferson, in that he's now a world figure.
Uh and to see him assemble, and that's what he did.
He assembled all those countries, both uh Muslim and non-Muslim, to come to Sharmel Sheikh uh and to operate together.
I mean, if you watch the body language, uh I tweeted a while ago that this was sort of the most amazing photo op I've ever seen, where he stood there and leader after leader after leader came up to get a f picture with him.
Um this is a level of personal impact that even Ronald Reagan, who was extraordinary and who did ultimately defeat the Soviet Empire.
I'm not sure Reagan ever had quite the world presence uh that Trump is now developing.
And it's uh it is a presence based on achievement, based on the fact that uh over a long period of time he has accumulated a network of genuine friends who know him and trust him.
And uh, you know, we'll have to wait and see how it works out with Hamas, but he has certainly isolated Hamas in a way that is pretty remarkable.
It really is remarkable.
Uh look, maybe maybe the president's right.
Maybe maybe the easy part will be the real rebuilding part.
I think keeping together the coalition is going to be the hard part or demilitarizing Gaza is going to be the hard part, and the same with Hezbollah in in the north out of Lebanon, although the president seemed optimistic uh that the new leader there is committed towards de-radicalizing that part of the world.
Um I I think one of the key components, and correct me if you think I'm wrong, because you would know better than me, is after the president gave 50 days to the Iranians that they had to dismantle the nuclear facilities or make a peace deal.
And they refused to do so.
They would they just shut the door in Israel's face and the president's face.
On day 51, Israel went in there, took out their ballistic missile systems, their air defense systems, which paved the way for President Trump to go in there and take out the nuclear sites.
Um I don't think we can really underestimate the impact of all of that on this day being able to happen, because in my view, I think with without that happening, peace through strength personified.
Um, I'm not sure.
I think taking out those sites opened the door for a lot of these Arab countries now, because they they were scared to death of Iran as much as Israel was.
That you know, they were you know forming alliances that nobody knew about to fight against Iranian hegemony, and they didn't want a nuclear-armed Iran.
Well, look, I think that's part of part of it is frankly just the psychological effect of being able to launch aircraft from Missouri, have them fly almost halfway around the world, and with enormous precision, take out the Iranian nuclear program and then fly home.
If you're if you're a leader anywhere in the world, you look at that and you know there's no other country that could do that.
And as he announced uh at the Knesset, or he referred to it, they're buying twenty-six of the next generation, uh, which is going to follow the B Two, uh, and uh this next generation will be even more capable, uh more stealthy and carry even more weapons.
So uh he's just communicating that we will retain our global reach and that we are pre we don't want to use it, but when we have to, we will use it with devastating effect.
What about the fact that there and and we saw something that was pretty remarkable.
The first person that pointed it out was after the announcement that this deal had been reached and I actually ended up having President Trump on the TV show that night and we played it here on radio.
You know, Trey Yank says it's the first time in all the years he's been covering Israel that both the people in Gaza and the people of Israel were celebrating simultaneously.
He'd never seen that before.
What is your reaction you know to that because you know one of my I think one of the reasons that some of the neighboring states have been so reluctant and resistant to bringing in or absorbing some of the population of the Palestinians has been that they are radicalized from a very young age.
You know, we have played the cartoons that young kids watch on T V and we've we've shown the school books, the math books, you know, you have ten Jews, you kill seven, how many are left to kill?
I mean pretty much that's what it's saying.
And they've been resisted.
Um but we saw a very different reaction this time.
What does that tell you?
Well first of all peop people need to understand this is very hard in a free society where we we really don't like to use force.
But the fact is uh the president had concluded that until the population of Gaza uh was sufficiently reduced in capability that they just desperately wanted peace that they were fed up with what Hamas had done to them that this would never be solvable.
And of course by by weakening Hamas this this decisively they've actually created a space where local Arab families many of them hundreds of years old have begun to emerge and are openly contesting Hamas in terms of being able to run Gaza and so the other thing to remember is when you start bringing in Jordan,
Saudi Arabia, uh Ghadar, um Egypt, these are countries that have very very good police, very good secret police, and a great capacity uh to go in there and to uh hunt down and stop any kind of ha armed Hamas effort.
So I think what you're gonna see in part is uh Hamas may either disarm or disappear but it's very unlikely uh in the w world that's going to exist as they go through reconstruction that Hamas is going to be able to be an effective force.
Having been to Israel numerous times and having been there during points of of conflict when exchanges were going on and having visited border cities like Sterot in you know which oversee which overlooks Gaza you can see it with the naked eye you know a town that when I was last there maybe in what 2015 or so had been hit with 10,000 rockets in 10 years.
And you know kids played in on underground bunker playgrounds and I'd been in some of the terror tunnel networks that they had built out at that point.
And you know it it just was to me becoming unsustainable.
I was using the phrase that the missile defense systems that the Israelis were using now were becoming a bit of a band-aid.
It's that they can no longer withstand this onslaught especially as the rockets get bigger and more lethal and more powerful I mean the Iranians for example when they were attacking Tel Aviv were using two thousand pound ballistic missiles and now they were moving towards four thousand pound ballistic missiles inflicting real real damage in Tel Aviv and other places for those few missiles that were able to sneak through.
Well look I think the the objective reality was that had Hamas not precipitated total war that there was going to be a long period of continuing attrition and I think that uh in an ironic way uh the great tragedy of the Hamas attack the the the hostages the the people who were killed the babies who were killed actually triggered a final decision that it was simply unacceptable to have this kind of a neighbor.
And so the I think the Israeli people were totally unified in uh going after it.
And in Netanyahu, as the president said in his speech to Knesset.
In Netanyahu, they had somebody tough enough and strong enough to to wage war, no matter what other countries, what the Europeans, for example, who aren't at risk.
So they all piously decided they would recognize a non-existent Palestinian state.
And I think Netanyahu understood this was a historic one time moment because in Trump, he had an ally actually willing to wage war, if that's what it took, and actually willing to support Israel in waging war, and neither Netanyahu nor Trump cared about world opinion because they knew in the long run what mattered was success.
And now the Israel, in many ways, and I think many regards, they had won this war.
It was a matter of them just finishing it up.
And and Donald Trump threw a lifeline to the region.
Well, I I think I think the cost of the next phase was going to be pretty horrendous.
And I think that by stepping in, Trump created an in an environment uh where and and and I have to give some real credit uh to to uh to Jared, because Jared really uh Kushner uh started this process with a speech to APAC in two thousand sixteen,
and the very first trip Trump took after he got elected uh in two thousand sixteen was to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, where the king had brought together fifty-four Muslim countries uh to meet with the American president.
And so in many ways, Trump had been laying the framework for this for many years, and uh the Biden administration with its left-wing incompetence and its complete misunderstanding of the importance of being prepared to use force uh undid some of what Trump did.
But within weeks of Trump becoming president again, uh all those networks have been rebuilt.
These are his personal friends, they trust in him, they understand the importance of using force when necessary.
And you now have this extraordinary scene at Sharm al Sheikh.
I mean, if you looked at all the flags that were there, you looked at you know leaders that were there from all over the place from from Indonesia from Turkey.
I mean, this was an extraordinary bringing together of a potential alliance for peace in the Middle East and for the reconstruction of Gaza.
You know, that's our hope.
Quick break more with former Speaker of the House, New King Rich, then uh your calls coming up, and we'll play some of the highlights of President Trump uh from this historic day.
These hostages now, after two plus years released, uh the remains still of many need to be uh handed over.
Apparently Hamas terrorists are don't know where they all are.
We'll update you on that and much more.
Also, we'll check in with Ambassador Nathan Sells, who served as the first uh first Trump administration ambassador at large for counterterrorism and acting under Secretary of State will get his take on this historic day.
We'll have full coverage tonight, nine Eastern on Hannity as well as we continue.
We continue now.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich weighs in on what has been an incredibly historical day.
You know, I I have a hard time understanding the mindset of you know these the the rise in anti-Semitism that we have seen worldwide in the halls of Congress on college campuses, you know, on the airwaves, etc.
I'm not sure what what Americans really expected Israel to do.
Um it seems like there is a total lack of awareness about how many hundreds of thousands of rockets over the years have been fired from all directions into Israel and the impact that it has had on that that small country of less than 10 million people.
Um I have a hard time understanding what part of what happened on October 7th people didn't understand.
I mean, you know, 2,000 people were murdered, all these people kidnapped and then rapes and beheadings and everything else that took place.
Uh, but based on their population size versus ours, it's it's 40,000 dead Americans in a day, and then people are saying, well, Israel's committing genocide.
What what do they expect Israel to do?
What what would we do?
What would we expect our government to do?
Well, remember that there is a segment of the American left, which doesn't think Israel should exist.
So their attitude is anything Hamas did was legitimate because Israel shouldn't be allowed to exist.
And in fact, you'll notice many of the people who are saying peace now, now that they have peace are mad because their idea of peace now is the elimination of Israel.
And in fact, this peace is actually going to make Israel more secure than it's ever been.
So it's the exact opposite of what the left-wingers wanted.
And that's why in places like Columbia University, uh there's not the level of joy you would expect, because it turned out the peace now actually meant to wipe out Israel.
Well, they said they were proclaiming they wanted an end to the war and an end to the fighting and an end to the death.
Well, now they've got it.
And you're right.
I think the silence among many of these people is deafening.
Yes.
They didn't actually mean what they were saying.
What they wanted was an end to Israel.
Well, how am I supposed to know that?
Well, by watching them.
That's a good point.
Just observe them.
Uh anyway, Speaker Gingrich, we always appreciate you on this historic day.
Thank you for being with us.
Um, it is a historic day.
And some of the best, most uh incredible moments were the videos that were put out by the families being reunited uh with their their loved ones after two plus years, pretty incredible.
Um we saw this miracle live, 20 live hostages returning to their families.
It was pretty amazing.
A little over two years ago, October 7th.
You know, it's um President Trump has been able to negotiate this peace deal, uh putting together this coalition that we were discussing with New Kingrich.
And as as Christians, you know, those of us have been standing faithful with the Jewish people as they were fighting for their very survival this whole time and for peace and democracy and through their faithfulness, often in the face of great adversity, they were instrumental in in literally you know helping the people of Israel in their greatest time and need.
They were fighting for their survival, make no doubt about it.
Uh all right.
Now we're gonna in the last hour today, because most of you were asleep as all these events were on folding.
I, of course, was awake.
I couldn't, I didn't want to miss it.
I wanted to see these hostages released, and seeing the reaction of the families was unbelievable to me.
And, you know, I mean, imagine a loved one, you know, for two years missing their their loved ones and not knowing if they would ever live if they'd live or die if they'd ever see them again.
I mean, it was just so historic.
But again, I go back to the fundamentals here.
What are the fundamentals?
How do we get to this point?
We got to this point.
I think Donald Trump was uniquely qualified to do it.
I mean, you have this idiot Wink and Tony Blinken.
He's actually trying to take credit for this, as I discussed in the first hour.
And well, we set the found you didn't do anything.
You did nothing.
Anyway, but it was President Trump's relationship with Israel that that caused them they they could have obliterated Gaza at this point.
They could have.
But President Trump negotiated with them and said, no, that's not the best option.
We want long-term peace.
President Trump, and I was there on the trip to the Gulf states.
President Trump, he convinced the coalition of neighboring Arab countries to join in these peace efforts.
Remember, for decades and decades, they wanted nothing to do with being part of the solution.
And it was President Trump that forged these alliances with all these countries because they respected him.
And then you can't, you know, you can't underestimate the impact of Donald Trump taking out the Iranian nuclear sites.
That was huge.
And it played a big part in this because the when Hamas was told take the deal, or we you will be obliterated.
Hamas heard him loud and clear.
You can do it the easy way, or you can we'll do it the hard way.
Whatever you want.
And that's peace through strength.
Anyway, we want to get some reaction.
Nathan Sales, former ambassador, served in the first Trump administration, ambassador at large for counterterrorism, acting under Secretary of State.
He played a key role in the maximum pressure campaign against the Iranian regime and its terror proxies.
You might remember that's when he took out Solomani and Baghdadi and beat the ISIS Caliphate.
Uh Nathan Sales, welcome back to the program, Ambassador.
Hey, Sean, thanks for having me.
Let's get your overall reaction to today.
It's a great day.
Uh to see the 20 lists come out now, not at some point in the future, and all of them at once, not dribs and drabs.
It's a great day for Israel.
But I've also got to say it's a great day for America because none of this happens without American leadership.
Uh can together the Arab leaders and Muslims on the one side and Israel on the other to forge a ceasefire deal that's good for all parties.
And you know, Hamas finds itself completely isolated now.
It's chief benefactor, Iran.
Uh it its capabilities to threaten Israel are in tatters because of Israel's relentless campaign against Iran and us finishing off the Iranian nuclear program over the summer under Trump's leadership.
So this is this is a great day for the hostage families.
But let's also take a victory lap as Americans because it was American leadership that made this all possible.
It really is, and I think in many ways, especially after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, um, and then after President Trump's successful military effort against the Iranian nuclear sites, uh coupled with his ability to forge these relationships with countries that have been so resistant.
Why do you think these Arab countries have been so reluctant to ever be a part of the peace process?
I would argue in my mind, one of the reasons what was because they too feared Iran.
They didn't want a nuclear armed Iran.
And I think this now created a window of opportunity for the rest of the Middle East to side with the United States, and I think the president re-established America's role in the world as the leader of the free world.
I think that's exactly right.
The untold story of the past two years was how quietly many of the Arab states were still cooperating on security matters with their Israeli counterparts.
They weren't doing it for the headlines, but they were doing it just like they had before, and in some cases, even intensifying it.
And the reason for that cooperation, forget about what you read from the diplomats or the criticisms of Israel at the UN.
What really matters is those working-level relationships between spies and spies, soldiers and soldiers.
And the reason why those relationships were deepening was because everybody in the region shares a common interest in preventing Iran from becoming a regional hegemon.
The worst case scenario is that Iran that's backed by the threat of nuclear weapons.
Um Israel doesn't want that, but the Saudis don't want that either, and neither do the Qataris.
And so I think it was the genius of the first Trump administration to recognize that common shared set of interests across the religion that transcends language.
And that was the insight that opened the door to the Abraham Accords, the relations between Israel and other Arab countries in the region.
And my hope, now that Hamas is as isolated as it has ever been, now that there is a ceasefire in Gaza, hopefully that will open the door.
That'll be the the key that opens the banish accords.
Well, I hope so.
It looks like and and I think that was the untold story in his first term.
He never got credit for it, that he had created intelligence sharing alliances with the with the U.S. and Israel and Jordan and Egypt and the Saudis and the Emirates all against Iranian hegemony.
So I think your analysis is spot on.
Uh Ambassador Nathan Sales, we appreciate your thank you, sir, for being with us.
Uh we're gonna play each aspect of what happened today in the early morning.
Most people were sleeping, and uh because I think it's so historic, you're gonna want to hear it.
Um in the meantime, let's get to our busy phones.
Uh Dan is in Connecticut.
Dan the man, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Hey, Sean, it's good to talk to you.
Uh finally got through.
Um it's an honor.
Um, I was calling I was in Israel.
I went there uh I went there like twenty something years ago, but I went there just for the first time in a long time earlier this year.
And um I just wanted to reiterate what I've heard you saying.
They they I can say from experience they love Trump over there.
Um definitely I definitely saw some MAGA hats over there in coffee shops, which is you know, awesome to see that.
Um so I don't know, I'm just thrilled that these people are finally home.
And um I don't know.
I just it still feels to me I just like there's I don't know.
Hopefully I'm so thrilled these people are home, but I just I still want like these Hamas guys, they gotta it still feels like there's unfinished business with them.
I don't know.
So listen, I mean, it's like a cancer.
If you leave a couple of cancer cells, the cancer is gonna grow and it's gonna come back.
And it's gotta be something that we are forever vigilant and monitoring and watching, and and now the world is an opportunity.
The uh what we're going to need in this next step is critical, and that is we're we're going to have to make sure that Gaza can no longer be a militarized zone, and that has to be ple policed by these countries, coalition partners now that are involved in this.
It's not gonna be U.S. troops on the ground in Gaza.
That's not gonna happen.
And it's really gonna be up to these countries now to do their part.
And I suspect they're probably sick and tired of the radicalism on their own, and you root that cancer out, and I'm telling you, there is no telling.
I mean, it could be the golden age for the entire Middle East, not just for Israel.
That's our hope.
Uh appreciate the call, Dan.
Thank you.
Charlotte, Florida, my free state.
What's up, uh, Charlotte?
How are you?
I'm fine.
Sean, um, I just wanted to say my heart is broken.
Okay, tell me why.
I'm sorry, it's it's hard for me to talk for Trump.
Everything he does.
He's criticized for it.
He's and I just finished watching Hamas videos.
I would urge everyone to please watch both sides.
Please, don't just watch CNN, watch Fox News, watch both sides.
I do.
So I know that people they're ignorant.
They are just ignorant.
They haven't gotten the whole story.
And um, as for Trump, I wish there was some way that we could let him know.
You know, look, there's there's always gonna be the political battles that ensue in life.
But you know, take you know, let not your heart be troubled, because the world is now a safer place.
And there were many critics, many people out there that that didn't understand the importance of taking out Iran's nuclear sites.
Donald Trump did.
There were those of us that were criticized for encouraging the president when he had this window of opportunity to do so.
The thought of a nuclear-armed Iran would have would have made for a world that was so unsafe, it would be incalculable.
I think when you take that rigid, you know, convert or die uh mentality and you couple it with those weapons of mass destruction and the threat of you know, death to Israel, death to America.
I think that they mean what they say.
I take them at their word.
So the good news is Donald Trump got re-elected.
That's why everything was on the line in this past election.
Everything will be on the line in the midterm.
One year from now, you will hear urgency in my voice, just like you heard before the 2024 elections, and that is do not let these radical Democrats get back in power.
Anyway, Charlotte, God bless you.
Let not your heart be troubled.
Um today's a good day.
We should celebrate the good days.
All right, quick break, right back to the phones.
800 941 Sean is her number if you want to be a part of the program.
If you're asleep, like most people in the country are asleep as all these events were unfolding.
We're gonna play it for you.
Um, considering this historic day, uh now, hopefully the beginning of a lasting peace in the Middle East.
We'll have all of the details on the other side as we continue.
And more of your calls, 800-941-SHAWN.
Straight ahead.
Final hour roundup is next.
You do not want to miss it.
And stay tuned for the final hour free for all on the Sean Hannity show.
Brad in Alabama.
What's up, Brad?
How are you?
Hey, Mr. Sean.
Thank you for allowing me to um convey my uh uh comments on your show, and I just want to follow up on something you said.
today is a historic day for world peace.
And how do we achieve long-term peace?
Something you said in my idea, and it came to me in an epiphany, so to speak, is we need to build a brand-new United Nations in Gaza, do away with the name Gaza, call it City of Peace, have a new United Nations there because there will be trillions of dollars that are going to be flowing in to the Middle East.
Every architect, every engineer, every country would want to be part of of a brand new United Nations a brand new United Nations for peace in a country that's going to be known now as a country of peace.
United nations in New York is what 80 years old it's not functional.
and infrastructure that it would is really in many ways the envy of the world.
