Mark Levin: Trump Showed He Could Be George S. Patton

Monday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” network weekend host and radio talker Mark Levin reacted to the apparent peace deal between Hamas and Israel stemming from Hamas’ October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel.

Levin likened Trump to World War II-era U.S. Army Gen. George S. Patton.

LEVIN: Well, the first thing that had to happen was military action, power, because that’s a rough neighborhood and talk goes so far, but they’ve been talking there for centuries. So, finally, Israel decided under their great prime minister that they weren’t going to put up with this anymore. There would be no premature ceasefires. And something happened that we’ve never seen before, ever in the Middle East.

You had this tiny little country defeat Hezbollah and Lebanon. Twelve days they defeated Iran. They were defeating Hamas and held them surrounded. We’ve never seen anything like this.

Once Biden was out of office, they were getting the arms from Trump. They were getting the support from Trump 100 percent. Israel demonstrated in the Jews there that they could defend themselves and destroy these terrorist entities and so forth.

And the truth of the matter is this: Donald Trump came in, took out those nuclear sites. That was crucial. That was crucial for our protection, Israel’s protection, the region’s protections, the world’s protection.

And the Arabs saw that, the Muslims saw that. They all saw it. And they started to shake and they were very nervous. And they knew Trump meant business.

Why? Because the Democrats were opposed to it. The media were opposed to it. Our neanderthal isolationists were opposed to it. Probably some of his advisers were opposed to it.

So, he demonstrated when he wanted to be, he could be George S. Patton. And that’s exactly what he did. And he gave them warnings and he gave others warnings.

And I think they decided then and the president said it wasn’t about Israel hitting Qatar. It was when he hit those sites, they decided we better saddle up to this guy. We better listen to what he has to say. He wants to talk about peace. He doesn’t want to pursue the military.

You had a tremendous partnership with Netanyahu and with Trump. These are two truly unique statesmen. The thing about Donald Trump is this. He means what he says, he’s a — he is a statesman. And not only does he mean what he says, he’s steps ahead.

I’m looking at the group that he’s with in Egypt and I’m thinking to myself, he’s created a mini United Nations right there with these people. He’s gone around the United Nations. But I will say this, a word of caution, Sean. The only way peace holds in the Middle East is if they go after terrorism.

Now, who are the terrorists? The terrorists are the Islamist jihadis. Where are they? They’re in Arab and Muslim countries.

So, unless the Arab and Muslim countries control the terrorists within their borders, some of them are afraid of them, some of them acquiesce to them, some of them fund them, and we can’t pretend otherwise. There will not be a lasting peace.

We’re not defunding our counterterrorism activity. The world’s not doing that. We didn’t say, “Great, we have peace, so therefore what we will do is defund all of our efforts to protect ourselves from terrorists.” No.

The same thing goes on in the Middle East. So, I think Donald Trump is uniquely positioned with all those folks from these Muslim American countries. It’s not Israel that’ll break the peace. It’s Israel that will defend itself. It’s the Islamists and the jihadis.

One other thing Trump actually reminds me of Israel, I’ll tell you why. Israel only attacks as a counterattack. It doesn’t attack first. It attacks when it’s attacked.

Donald Trump is a nice guy, but if you attack him, he’s a counter puncher. It’s the same thing. So, I am still concerned about Hamas. I don’t quite understand phase two yet. Hamas is in there killing people right now as we speak. Hamas is saying they refuse to disarm.

So, now it’s the work of the Arab countries and the Muslim countries who said they would do something about it. Israel did its part. It’s lost its soldiers. It was prepared to destroy Hamas. Now it’s going to take Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and the other countries to disarm them and to demilitarize Gaza.

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