Prime Minister Netanyahu explained the new U.S.-Israel-Lebanon agreement, explaining how the deal is designed to strengthen trilateral ties and lead to the dismantling of Hezbollah.

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To the Western mind, addicted to the fantasy that all conflicts are simply misunderstandings that dialogue can solve, this will seem like an offer Hamas cannot refuse.

By Gregg Roman, Middle East Forum

President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza conflict is not a peace proposal; it is a declaration of war on strategic delusion.

To the architects of decline in Washington and Brussels, it will appear to be a reasonable offer of reconstruction, aid, and autonomy. They will wring their hands in frustration when it fails, but they miss the point entirely.

The plan’s true genius lies not in its potential for success, but in its predetermined failure. It is a final, clarifying test designed to unmask Israel’s enemies, expose their patrons, and provide justificationfor the only policy that can bring a lasting peace to the region.

That policy is grounded in a simple, historically undeniable truth: Conflicts do not end through negotiation or compromise when one side is an implacable, ideological foe.

Lasting peace is not the product of a shared understanding; it is imposed upon a defeated enemy whose will to fight is broken. The path to making Japan and Germany peaceful democracies after World War II required their unconditional surrender and societal transformation.

This is the necessary, if brutal, reality that a generation of Western policymakers has refused to accept.

On its face, Trump’s proposal presents Hamas with a golden bridge to surrender. It offers a ceasefire, a massive prisoner exchange, amnesty for fighters who disarm, and a multibillion-dollar international effort to rebuild Gaza.

It is an off-ramp from a war Hamas started and cannot win, a superficially attractive alternative to its own destruction.

To the Western mind, addicted to the fantasy that all conflicts are simply misunderstandings that dialogue can solve, this will seem like an offer Hamas cannot refuse.

But this is the failure of imagination that led to the October 7, 2023, massacre. Hamas is not a rational actor pursuing negotiable political goals; it is an ideological death cult, a totalitarian movement whose entire identity is predicated on a genocidal rejection of Israel’s existence.

While its leaders now claim they will review the plan in “good faith,” the rejectionist axis has already shown its hand.

Its allies like Islamic Jihad have denounced the proposal, and Iran’s proxies have called it a “plot.” The Trump plan demands that Hamas disarm, renounce its power, and accept a reality of peaceful coexistence.

For Hamas, this is not a compromise; it is an act of suicide. Their rejection is a certainty, and it is this certainty that gives the plan its true value.

When Hamas says no, it will place its primary patron, Qatar, in an impossible position. For years, the Qataris have played a double game, presenting themselves to the West as indispensable mediators while simultaneously acting as the chief financial patrons and ideological protectors of Hamas and the global Muslim Brotherhood.

With a broad coalition of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers publicly welcoming the American effort, the pressure on Qatar to deliver a compliant Hamas is immense.

Its failure to do so will be a global humiliation, exposing it as either unwilling or unable to control its proxy. This is the moment to finally break the Hamas-Qatar axis.

Hamas’s “no” will be the most clarifying moment in this conflict since the massacre itself. It will strip away the last excuse for the West’s moral cowardice.

It will prove, once and for all, that the conflict persists not for a lack of Israeli concessions—which even opposition leader Yair Lapid now supports—but because of a Palestinian commitment to Israel’s destruction.

When Hamas rejects this final, generous offer of surrender, it will provide Israel with the moral clarity and the international legitimacy to deliver the only alternative.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to “finish the job” will no longer be a threat; it will be a necessity, and one with Trump’s “full backing.”

This plan is not about peace processing; it is about ending the peace process, a strategic fraud that has rewarded Palestinian rejectionism for thirty years.

By forcing Hamas to reject a path to life, the Trump plan paves the way for the group’s necessary demise.

It is the final act in a theater of the absurd, and its failure will be the curtain-raiser for a new and more realistic order—one built not on the shifting sands of diplomatic delusion, but on the bedrock of an Israeli victory.

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In an effort to earn trust within the international community, Abbas expressed his willingness to work with Trump, Saudi Arabia, and other global partners “to fulfill the promise of peace.”

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has offered to work with US President Donald Trump to broker a comprehensive peace deal with Israel, praising the American leader for brokering a ceasefire between the Jewish state and Iran and calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

In a letter sent to Trump, Abbas expressed his “deep gratitude and appreciation for [Trump’s] successful efforts in reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Iran,” the official Palestinian Authority (PA) news agency WAFA reported.

After 12 days of conflict between the two Middle Eastern adversaries, Trump announced a “complete and total” ceasefire on Monday, just hours after Iran launched missile strikes on the Al Udeid US airbase in Qatar in retaliation for American attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.

The US joined Israel’s airstrike campaign against the Islamist regime by launching a large-scale military strike against Tehran, destroying three key nuclear enrichment facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow site.

Although the fragile ceasefire appears to have since held, Tehran initially broke it within minutes, with Israeli officials reporting that three Iranian missiles were launched within the first three hours of the truce.

In his letter to Trump, Abbas called the ceasefire a “necessary and important step to defuse the crises plaguing the world, which will have a positive impact on the security and stability of the region.” He then turned his attention to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“A ceasefire in Gaza would constitute an additional step to [Trump’s] crucial efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace between the Palestinians, the Israelis, and the entire world,” the Palestinian leader wrote.

In an effort to earn trust within the international community, Abbas expressed his willingness to work with Trump, Saudi Arabia, and other global partners “to fulfill the promise of peace.”

The Palestinian leader said he was ready “to immediately negotiate and implement a comprehensive peace agreement within a clear and binding timeframe that ends the occupation and achieves security and stability for all, a just and lasting peace.”

Although Trump attempted a peace deal with the PA during his first term, he ultimately bypassed it and instead pursued the Abraham Accords — a series of historic US-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries.

“With you, we can achieve what seemed impossible: a recognized, free, sovereign, and secure Palestine; a recognized and secure Israel; and a region that enjoys peace, prosperity, and integration,” Abbas wrote in his letter.

Given the PA’s long-standing lack of credibility and widely known support for terrorism against Israel, Abbas has been making promises of change as he seeks to secure international trust and position the PA to play a leading role in the Gaza Strip once the current Israel-Hamas war ends.

The PA, which has long been riddled with accusations of corruption, has also maintained for years a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis.

Under this policy, the PA Martyr’s Fund makes official payments to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the families of “martyrs” killed in attacks on Israelis, and injured Palestinian terrorists.

Reports estimate that approximately 8 percent of the PA’s budget is allocated to paying stipends to convicted terrorists and their families.

Earlier this year, Abbas announced plans to reform the system, but the PA has continued issuing payments, with top officials stating they will not deduct any of the funds.

Abbas, who was elected to a four-year term in 2005, has also promised to hold elections soon — the first the PA will hold since then.

Even with his commitment to long-promised administrative reforms, the PA lacks public support among Palestinians, with only 40 percent backing its return to govern the Gaza Strip after the war.

Abbas has also promised the demilitarization of his rival Hamas, while condemning the terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — an attack he had previously celebrated.

In the past, Abbas praised Hamas for achieving “important goals” with the Oct. 7 onslaught, describing the attack — the deadliest single-day massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust — as one that “shook the foundations of the Israeli entity.”

Other PA officials, including Mahmoud al-Habbash, Abbas’s adviser on religious and Islamic affairs, have similarly praised Hamas’s atrocities, describing them as “legitimate resistance.”

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A decisive victory over Hamas will usher in a wave of Arab nations joining the Abraham Accords, says Israel’s Strategic Affairs minister.

By World Israel News Staff

A senior Israeli official said the ongoing war between Israel, Hamas, and Iran’s regional proxies would be over by next year, and that more Muslim and Arab countries would join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with the Jewish State.

Speaking at the Jewish News Syndicate conference in Jerusalem, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer declared that after more than 18 months of war, Israel would soon enter an era of prosperity and peace.

“Twelve months from now, the seven-front war that began on October 7 will be over. Israel will have won. And I think you will see many peace agreements, that either have been forged or will be forged in the coming years of President Trump’s presidency,” Dermer said.

“There are many countries that will want to make peace with Israel. But the key to that is victory,” he added.

“In the Middle East, when you win, when you’re strong, that’s what attracts others.”

Notably, Dermer is the first government official to provide an expected end date for the war.

Previously, members of the coalition have said that the fighting will continue until Israel achieves a decisive, total victory over the Hamas terror group.

Dermer stressed that Israel is currently weighing options for post-war governance in Gaza, which will see de-radicalization of the population, along with the ouster of Hamas from power.

The minister sniped at critics who say Israel has not done enough to plan for the day after the fighting, saying that “just because Israel doesn’t put out a plan every five minutes doesn’t mean we’re not dealing with it.”

Dermer cited Saudi Arabia as a society that had moved away from radical Islamic extremism in recent years, arguing it could serve as a model for Gaza.

“Saudi Arabia today has much greater degrees of freedom in its society,” he said.

“It’s not a democracy by any stretch. But look at the status of women in Saudi Arabia compared to what it was once.”

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The former prime minister told the BBC that he had exclaimed, ‘Sign it and let’s change history!’ to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who refused.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Sixteen years after presenting a secret map to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that conceded 94% of Judea and Samaria in exchange for a peace agreement, former prime minister Ehud Olmert has revealed it to the BBC.

In an interview to be shown as part of the British broadcaster’s upcoming series called “Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October,” Olmert said that he met with Abbas in Jerusalem on September 16, 2008, showed him the map and implored him to approve it immediately.

“Sign it! Sign it, and let’s change history!” he recalled saying.

“This is the first time that I expose this map to the media,” he noted to the director, Norma Percy.

While according to Olmert, Abbas had responded by saying that this was a “very serious” proposal, the Palestinian leader never got back to him about it.

Rafiq al-Husseini, Abbas’ then-chief of staff, said in the documentary that the Palestinian delegation had laughed off the plan in the ride back to Ramallah, because they “knew this wasn’t going anywhere,” since Olmert “was a lame duck,” having already told the public that he was going to resign amidst a corruption investigation against him.

The diagram envisioned Israel annexing only 4.9% of the heartland of the country that had been liberated in the 1967 Six Day War, encompassing only a few main settlement blocs.

The Palestinians would receive equivalent areas in pre-1967 Israel to make up the difference by adding land abutting the borders of both Gaza and Judea and Samaria.

Under Olmert’s proposal a whopping 58,000 Jews would have been evacuated from all the other villages and towns in the territory.

This was over seven times the number of Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip who were forced out of their homes in the 2005 Disengagement in a process that had torn the country apart, and whose resettlement had barely begun, even three years later.

There was a tunnel or road marked off to connect the Gaza Strip to the main PA territory in Judea and Samaria, although the coastal enclave was already controlled by the Hamas terror organization.

In total negation of Israel’s official and long-held position, Jerusalem was to be divided, with each party claiming parts of it as its capital.

A “trusteeship committee” consisting of Israel, the PA, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the U.S. were to oversee the administration of the “holy basin” of the Old City and its religious sites.

Olmert said he had told Abbas, “For the next 50 years, you won’t find a single Israeli leader who will offer you what I’m offering now.”

Although there has been for decades a Jewish “peace camp” in Israel that was prepared to give up a large part of Judea and Samaria, either with or without parts of Jerusalem, in order to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led terrorist invasion in which they slaughtered 1,200 and took 251 people hostage, this leftist voice has been silenced.

In a January survey by Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), 64% of the Jews polled opposed the creation of a Palestinian state “under any condition,” and a third supported Israeli annexation of the Gaza Strip.

Another poll, taken right before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met U.S. President Donald Trump early this month, showed even greater opposition, with 71% opposing a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria and almost 70% saying they want to extend Israeli sovereignty over this territory.

Last July, the Israeli parliament overwhelmingly voted to reject Palestinian statehood in any form.

“The Israeli Knesset opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state on any piece of land west of the Jordan River,” the resolution reads. “The existence of a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel will pose an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, will further extend the Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict and be a source of destabilization for the entire region.”

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The former president says Russia would have never invaded Ukraine under his watch. 

By World Israel News Staff

Former President Donald Trump last week offered to be the mediator for peace between Russia and Ukraine, and doubled down on his claim that the war would not have happened if he was still president.

Trump said on Truth Social that the Nord Stream pipelines had been sabotaged and “could lead to major escalation, or War!”

“U.S. ‘Leadership’ should remain ‘cool, calm, and dry’ on the SABOTAGE of the Nord Stream Pipelines. This is a big event that should not entail a big solution, at least not yet,” he wrote.

He then offered to “head up” a group to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

“Do not make matters worse with the pipeline blowup. Be strategic, be smart (brilliant!), get a negotiated deal done NOW,” Trump wrote. “Both sides need and want it. The entire World is at stake. I will head up group???”

Conservative commentator Jesse Kelly tweeted Trump’s post and added: “I’m not naive enough to think Biden would even DREAM of allowing this to happen, but America would let Trump do this if we had leaders who actually love the country. This is a no-brainer. Trump’s specialty.”

Trump has in the past called for the two sides to negotiate. Two months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Trump said the sides should “figure out” a solution “now — not later — when everyone will be DEAD!”

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Al Khalifa said Bahrain views peace with Israel “as an essential step for broader relations to benefit the countries and peoples in the region.”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Following a historic direct flight from Tel Aviv to Manama, Israeli and Bahraini officials signed the first-ever peace agreement between the Jewish state and the Gulf nation.

This marks the fourth peace agreement between Israel and an Arab country since Israel’s establishment in 1948 and comes just weeks after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates.

The full text of the agreement, which Bahrain referred to as a “joint communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic, peaceful, and friendly relations,” was not released to the public, but includes eight bilateral agreements between the nations.

The agreement was signed by Meir Ben-Shabbat, Israel’s National Security adviser, and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, who signed the Abraham Accords at a White House ceremony last month.

According to a summary released by the Prime Minister’s office, Israel and Bahrain will cooperate in the fields of agriculture, civil aviation, and communications. Additionally, there will be cooperation between each nation’s chamber of commerce and finance ministry.

Several officials spoke after the agreement was signed, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who helped broker the deal. “This is truly a remarkable accomplishment,” he said.

“We started the day as friends and we’re concluding it as family members — members of the family of Abraham,” said Ben-Shabbat.

“Today, we put in place the foundations through which we can reach this goal, establishing a practical framework to advance both our bilateral cooperation and our ongoing partnership our countries enjoy with the United States of America,” said Al-Zayani.

“My hope is that this visit marks another step forward on the road to a truly peaceful, secure, stable, and thriving Middle East, one in which all states, races and faiths resolve differences through dialogue and develop for our children a new reality of coexistence and prosperity,” he said.

Bahraini Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa spoke to Ben-Shabbat at his office after the agreement. During their meeting, Al Khalifa said Bahrain views peace with Israel “as an essential step for broader relations to benefit the countries and peoples in the region.”

It’s unclear if the agreement will need to be approved by the Israeli Knesset. The UAE-Israel peace deal was approved by the Knesset earlier this week.

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Knesset to vote on approval Thursday, but Netanyahu will reveal the hidden sections of UAE peace deal next week.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to reveal the secret details of the peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates and will only do so next week, after it has been voted on the Knesset, Kan News reported Wednesday.

On Monday, the cabinet approved the peace agreement, which is due to be voted on by Israel’s parliament on Thursday, but Netanyahu will only discuss the confidential paragraphs next week with the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

It is not known if two key quid pro quo issues closely connected to the peace deal are mentioned in the accord. UAE leaders have said that one of the conditions under which they agreed to normalize relations with Israel is that Netanyahu suspend his plans to impose sovereignty on parts of Judea and Samaria.

Another contentious issue is the expected sale of advanced American F-35 stealth bombers to the Emirates, a move initially opposed by Netanyahu, who apparently acquiesced to U.S. pressure in order to get the agreement signed.

The historic Abraham Accords, including peace deals with the Gulf Arab states of the UAE and Bahrain, were signed at a White House ceremony hosted by President Donald Trump on September 15.

The agreement with Bahrain has yet to be finalized and will be voted on at a later date.

Last week, the chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Zvi Hauser of the Derech Eretz faction, demanded that in order to carry out parliamentary oversight of the process, the subcommittee on intelligence and secret services must receive a report on the secret and classified details of the UAE agreement.

Netanyahu agreed but set next Tuesday to testify to the committee, several days after the official and final approval of the agreement in the Knesset plenum.

Hauser expressed his frustration at Netanyahu’s refusal to cooperate.

“I do not understand why things should become crooked when they can be done straight,” Hauser told the Maariv newspaper. “The agreement with the Emirates is an important, worthy, and good agreement. Like any agreement it has classified aspects, but the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is the place to talk about them, expose them, and criticize them in plenary.”

Hauser said Netanyahu should have first brought the agreement to his committee for review and only then to the plenum.

“I can already say that I support the agreement, even if we have not yet discussed and been presented with the same classified clauses. A hearing is scheduled for the 20th of the month, but it is a pity it was done that way,” Hauser said, given that the parliamentary oversight of the agreement will be at a stage where it can no longer influence or change it, if required.

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President invites Péter Szijjártó, who recently visited Israel, to be sole EU rep at historic signing.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó is the only EU minister invited by President Donald Trump who will attend the signing ceremony of the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the White House this week, Hungary’s MTI news agency reported Sunday.

Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Máté Paczolay said Szijjártó  would hold bilateral talks in Washington including a meeting with senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner, who played a significant role in developing Trump’s Middle East peace plan and brokering the agreements to be signed between the two Gulf nations and the Jewish state.

Szijjártó posted on his Facebook page that Hungary continues to support the efforts for peace in the region. He praised the White House roadmap for stabilizing the region, saying it has produced two peace agreements between Arab states and Israel and proves to be the best peace plan to date that promises the most chances for peace in the Middle East.

Hungary’s Foreign Ministry said that country continues to advocate for a fair solution for the countries in the region.

While the Palestinians have assailed the peace deals as a “stab in the back” by the UAE and Bahrain, European powerhouses like France, Germany and the UK have praised the deal in which the two Gulf nations will become the third and fourth Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.

Last year, Hungary opened a diplomatic trade mission in Jerusalem, becoming the first European country in decades to do so.

Szijjarto told Netanyahu at the time that Hungary will not follow the European Commission’s policy of labeling items that are produced in Judea and Samaria.

“We do not support the list of companies in the settlements to be announced by the high representative of Human Rights of the United Nations,” he said, “We [support] tighter, better and more dynamic cooperation between Israel and the European Union.”

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Pressure building on Netanyahu to reveal the details of the agreement with the UAE: “There is no reason to hide.”

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Right-wing groups are pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday to reveal the details of the peace agreement that is expected to be signed with the United Arab Emirates this week at the White House, Walla News reported.

Non-parliamentary right-wing movements demanded that government ministers give the public details of the agreement, which was not presented to the government for approval and was been classified and with the details exclusively known to those in the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Do any of the decision makers in Israel know what is in the agreement with the United Arab Emirates? What are you going to sign? Is there anyone who can ensure that the agreement does not freeze construction in settlements or consent to a Palestinian state?” the organization My Israel tweeted, tagging eight prominent Knesset members in the tweet.

The editor of the right-leaning Makor Rishon newspaper, Hagai Segal, tweeted, “If the agreements with the Emirates and Bahrain are so wonderful, there is no reason to hide them from the government, the Knesset and especially from the public,” with the tweet getting the support of far-right Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich.

Senior officials involved in working on the agreement argue that there is no legal obligation to bring the agreements to the Knesset before signing, the report said.

The demand to disclose the agreements with the Gulf states and bring them to the Knesset for approval also got support from the left-wing opposition. Meretz Party chairman Nitzan Horowitz said after that reports of the U.S. selling advanced weapons to the UAE as part of the deal showed that the agreement should first be brought to Israel’s parliament for approval.

“The State of Israel is a democratic state, so the prime minister must act transparently and bring to the Knesset all the behind-the-scenes agreements,” Horowitz said. “Netanyahu’s lies regarding the sale of the advanced aircraft to the Emirates have been exposed to all.”

Netanyahu will depart for Washington Sunday and will attend the historic signing ceremony Tuesday at the White House under the auspices of President Donald Trump. Israel will establish diplomatic relations with the UAE and Bahrain.

“Tonight I will leave for Washington to sign the beginning of these agreements in order to set this historic change in motion,” Netanyahu tweeted at the cabinet meeting held before he left. “This is going to be a different kind of peace. This will be a warm peace, economic peace in addition to the diplomatic peace, also peace between peoples.”

“We now have two historic peace agreements, with two Arab countries, which were established in one month. I am certain that we all welcome the new era. We are at the threshold of a new era,” Netanyahu said.

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The deal has filled Colombians with hope and optimism for the arduous work ahead implementing a 297-page accord that took four grueling years to negotiate.

After a half-century of combat that spilled blood across this South American nation, Colombians have embarked on a new, but difficult path to settle their political differences with the signing of a historic peace accord between the government and leftist rebels.

The first test after Monday’s signing is a weekend referendum in which voters are being asked to ratify or reject the deal. If it passes, as expected, Colombia will move on to the thornier and still uncertain task of reconciliation.

President Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londono, top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), formally signed the agreement before a crowd of 2,500 foreign dignitaries and special guests, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Many in the audience, all dressed in white, had tears in their eyes as Santos removed from his lapel a pin shaped like a white dove that he has been wearing for years and handed it over to his former adversary, who fastened it to his own shirt.

It was one of many symbolic gestures during the 90-minute ceremony overlooking the colonial ramparts of Cartagena that filled Colombians with hope and optimism for the arduous work ahead implementing a 297-page accord that took four grueling years to negotiate.

Laying Down of Arms and Reconciliation

If the accord is accepted by Colombian voters in Sunday’s referendum, as polls say it will, the FARC’s estimated 7,000 fighters would have to turn over their weapons gradually to a team of United Nations-sponsored observers within six months.

A much tougher challenge will be reconciliation, a process that will require rebels and state actors who want to avoid jail to confess their war crimes committed during a 52-year conflict marred by brutalities on both sides.

In Brussels, the European Union announced Tuesday that it has suspended its sanctions against the FARC, which has been on the bloc’s “terrorist list” since 2002. The sanction have allowed the EU to freeze the assets of people, groups and entities linked to the FARC and stop Europeans making funds or economic resources available to it.

Longer term, the two sides have drafted an ambitious agenda to hasten the development of Colombia’s long-neglected countryside and rid it of illegal coca crops that starting in the 1980s strengthened the FARC — and some say morally corrupted it — while other insurgencies across Latin America fell to the wayside.

Londono, best known by his alias Timochenko, called Santos “a courageous partner” and proclaimed there was no turning back on the FARC’s decision to abandon Colombia’s jungles.

“Let no one doubt that we are going into politics without weapons,” he said before ending his speech with a simple but loudly applauded appeal for forgiveness

“I apologize for all the pain that we have caused,” he said.

Santos, who for years was the FARC’s top military opponent, was equally emphatic that he would honor his promise to promote pluralism and open up Colombia’s traditionally elite-driven political system.

“As head of state of the fatherland we all love, I want to welcome you to democracy,” he said. Earlier, he led the crowd in chants of “No more war! No more war! No more war!”

Country-Wide Celebrations

Across the country, Colombians celebrated with a host of activities, from peace concerts to a street party in the capital, Bogota, where the signing ceremony was broadcast live on a giant screen.

The signing was greeted with wild cheers followed by calls for Timochenko to be president from about 1,000 FARC rebels in the Yari Plains, a remote area of southern Colombia where the group recently concluded its last congress as a guerrilla army by endorsing the deal.

But there were also sporadic protests, including one in Cartagena led by conservative former President Alvaro Uribe, whose decade-long, US-backed military offensive forced the FARC to the negotiating table. Shouting “Santos is a coward,” the few hundred Uribe supporters vowed that if they gain power when the president steps down in 2018 they will undo an accord they say is harbinger of a Cuba-style leftist dictatorship.

The stiff domestic opposition, which will make implementation even tougher, contrasts with almost universal acclaim abroad for the accord. On Monday, European Union foreign policy coordinator Federica Mogherini said that with the signing of the peace agreement, the EU would suspend the FARC from its list of terrorist organizations.

The US has yet to follow suit, but Kerry said he is open to reconsidering its status.

“We clearly are ready to review and make judgments as the facts come in,” he told reporters. “We don’t want to leave people on the list if they don’t belong.”

Deep Rooted Distrust Coupled with Hope

Colombians’ distrust of the FARC runs deep. Many families have been touched by rebel kidnappings and it will take years to heal the wounds from a conflict that claimed 220,000 lives and drove 8 million people from their homes.

The rebels are equally skeptical of the government on which they will now depend for protection, a fact underscored by Timochenko’s startled look when a low flyover by three fighter jets unexpectedly interrupted his speech.

“This time they came to salute peace instead of unload bombs,” he joked upon resuming.

Timochenko took over as the FARC’s commander in 2011 after an aerial attack killed his predecessor shortly after he authorized a secret backchannel dialogue with the government.

For all of the challenges ahead, though, many Colombians who thought peace would never come were carried away with emotion.

“This is something I waited for my whole life — that I dreamed of every day,” said Leon Valencia, a former guerrilla who is one of the most respected experts on Colombia’s conflict. “It’s like when you’re waiting for a child that is finally born, or seeing an old lover or when your favorite team scores a goal.”

By: AP

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