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Attorney Marc Zell, Chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, spoke to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, about Israel, the US, Donald Trump, Gaza and the hostages.

Att. Zell says that after the US elections, “I learned that the President is serious about making his promises come true. In particular, he cancelled the infamous executive order 14115 that Biden issued in February of 2024, basically making it sanctionable on any Israeli, no matter where you live in Judea and Samaria, or like the Ben Haim family in Netivot. If you oppose the two-state solution or if you oppose giving humanitarian aid to Gaza, without any physical act or violence whatsoever, they can impose sanctions on you and can freeze your assets in the US. More importantly what the banks did in Israel is they froze all these people's assets, and of course prohibited them from traveling to the US.”

Considering if this action is because of his support for Jewish communities wherever and Israeli rights, or just because he's against the former administration, Att. Zell says he thinks, “Donald Trump is a man of principles and he believes in the freedom of speech, the freedom of expression, the freedom of religion, this executive order trampled all of those rights. That's why we had American citizens and American organizations, both in the US and here in Israel, who filed lawsuits in Texas and in Washington DC challenging the constitutionality and legality of this executive order. I think he understood that this was just wrong. This was an improper extension of the sanctions powered by the President, which is very extensive to stifle free speech, on an issue that's of great concern to all of us.”

On possible pressure that President Trump might be putting on Israel regarding concessions to stop fighting and the agreement to the hostage deal, Att. Zell believes that, “as Jews we are always complaining, it's kind of a genetic trade of ours and throughout his campaign Trump said he was going to bring peace to the Middle East, he was going to bring peace to the Ukraine. At the same time he said that that Hamas is an inimical force and needs to be destroyed. Not only did he say it, but the current Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it, the vice president has said it, the Republican leadership has said it. It couldn't be any clearer. What he tried to do, and he sent his envoy Witkoff over here, was to get a ceasefire agreement in place, so it would give a starting point for the process and the release of some 33 hostages. We've gotten seven already, hopefully in the next day or so another one and that is what he wanted, to show the world at his inauguration. It was extremely important for him to show the world.”

Zell compares Trump’s move to that of Ronald Reagan, “when he entered the White House in 1981 with the American Iranian hostage, but in the long run he understands that the ceasefire is very fragile and is very likely to collapse. If it collapses, he and those around him are very clear on what needs to happen and that is to for Israel to finish the job that it started in October 2023.”

“The decision to free up the heavy weapons transfer to Israel is extremely important. If we're going to move against Iran at some point, we're going to need those. It's indispensable. But today's or yesterday's declaration about the possibility of moving Gazans from Gaza into Egypt and Jordan is just remarkable. I mean, no world leader has ever raised that possibility and again you might why is he doing this, is it to give Israel some kind of benefit or whatever, or is he concerned about the people in Gaza. I mean that's a very common sensical approach. We're not allowed to even talk about it. It not politically correct, people say transfer, you know God forbid. I mean they would bring another international court of justice case against us, but he's raising it as a distinct possibility," states Att. Zell.

He clarifies, “I mean Gaza after all is a very unique situation. Usually when there's a war, the refugees, the people that are ordinary civilians, that are caught up in a war zone, they can flee, they can cross a border or go to another place where the fighting is not happening. In Gaza that doesn't exist. They can't come into Israel for obvious reasons and the natural place for them to go is to Egypt, but that border is blocked and the Egyptians don't want them. Jordan, which is a Palestinian state, de facto, won't accept them, nor will any other Arab state.”

“But,” Att. Zell emphasizes in conclusion, “now there's a difference; Donald Trump is President of the United States and the world changed on January 20th. Everybody, both in our region and around the world, is reassessing their foreign policy and their relationship to the United States, in light of that fact.”