This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or Bibi, at the White House on Feb. 4, the first foreign leader to meet in person with Trump at the White House since he was inaugurated.

The Trump-Bibi meeting is occurring right after the first American hostage was released this weekend by the Hamas terrorist group.

They were freed as part of the current Israel-Hamas deal, which mandates the release of 33 so-called "humanitarian hostages" during its first 42-day ceasefire phase.

The great news is that more of the 251 Israelis and foreigners are being released, those who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, when roughly 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists stormed into Israel, slaughtering 1,200-plus innocent civilians – including babies, kids, teens and elderly.

The tragic news is that, first, as Hamas' innocent hostages are gradually released, Israel is going to release some 1,904 Palestinian prisoners, including more than 100 serving life sentences for deadly terror attacks!

Further tragedy is found in the fact that Hamas finally got its way: The brutal barbarians abducted 251 innocent civilians not only to protect their own hides (as they cowardly live like rats in holes under Gaza) but ultimately as bargaining chips to get their terrorist friends and minions freed from Israeli captivity. That is why with each of the hostage releases, Hamas murderers have paraded them through streets and across pro-Hamas theatrical stages (with signs like, "Nazi Zionism will not win") for their own propaganda purposes. Repulsive!

While I'm ecstatic for the family and friends of the released hostages, I grieve as the terrorists around the world now realize that even Israel and America can be forced to the terrorist bargaining tables when you kidnap their people.

Do we not think the Hamas' hostage-for-prisoners swaps will spur on more terrorist abductions of innocent civilians in the future in Israel and elsewhere around the world?

Obviously, chief among the Trump-Bibi meeting at the White House this week is discussing and answering questions: Where do Israel and America go from here? How do they continue to destroy Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis (and the other Iranian proxies in the region) and yet prevent another Oct. 7th from ever happening again? How do Israel and America bring about a lasting Middle East peace?

I'll never forget when President Trump was speaking onboard Air Force One during his first term.

He compared one of the world's greatest territorial disputes – Israel vs. Palestine – to a business deal. He said, "I love doing deals." He added, "They say peace between Israel and the Palestinians is the toughest – the toughest of any deal."

He's right. There's no doubt, if Trump endeavors to "do a deal" in the Middle East during his second term, he will definitely encounter one of the (if not "the") greatest geographical strongholds in the entire world.

The truth is, Palestinian Arabs and other Islamic leaders have always been deadlocked with Israel over the Holy Land – since their very inception.

His enemies accuse Prime Minister Netanyahu and other conservatives of fighting against the peace process, but what peace process are they referring to? There's never been peace or a process that has worked well, despite political agreement after agreement that have been drafted.

For those who want to understand the history of the region, I encourage readers to go to YouTube and check out the five-minute video history summarizing the 4,000 years of upheaval in the Holy Land and its most sacred city, Jerusalem.

Tel Aviv became the temporary seat of government until the State of Israel moved it to Jerusalem in December 1949. Despite the shift in location, the U.S. Embassy was built in Tel Aviv in 1966. At the same time, believe it or not, the U.S. consulate has had a presence in West Jerusalem since 1844. Yes, you read that year correctly. (It is further interesting to note that other countries – like Britain and France – have their consulates in East Jerusalem.)

The new U.S. Embassy officially moved in 2018 under President Trump's direction on the site of the U.S. consulate. We are the first country to open an embassy in Jerusalem since before 1980, while 86 countries continue today to have their embassies in Tel Aviv.

The U.S. recognized Israel as a sovereign state in 1948, and it has promised to move its embassy there for more than 20 years. In 2018, President Trump fulfilled what three previous administrations promised to do but never did.

By doing so, the president fulfilled what Congress set out to do over two decades ago when a bilateral majority vote passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which formally recognized the sacred city as the country's capital and called for the U.S. Embassy to be moved there from Tel Aviv by 1999. Yes, 25 years ago was the deadline for Washington to move our embassy – just another broken promise from the swamp!

The Washington Post explained the 2-decade-old majority decision: "Support for the bill was overwhelming. Itpassed the Senate by a 93 to 5 vote, with four Republicans and one Democrat voting no. It passed the House 374 to 37, with 153 Democrats joining most of the new Republican majority that had swept into power in 1994."

What's crazy is this: Israel is the only country in the world not allowed to choose its own capital, at least in its enemies' eyes around the world. But one of Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the country's undivided capital.

As a response, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, declaring it a violation of international law. However, that hasn't ever stopped Israel from occupying and fighting for its capital, which is also why Netanyahu has always encouraged other countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem just as he did President Trump and our former presidents.

So, most Palestinian territory was granted back in 1948 by the United Nations, but Israel rejected those demarcation lines from the outset, ultimately winning back sovereignty over such areas as the West Bank, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War.

It wasn't until the disastrous 1993 Oslo Accords, which culminated with President Clinton pushing for the awkward handshake between Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, that things went from bad to worse.

The Oslo Accords granted limited autonomy to Palestine by further dividing territorial governance, but in the end the "peace treaty" did nothing but divide and escalate the tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. Many Israelis and others despised Rabin for yielding land they believed was divinely granted to them. Rabin was assassinated just two years later. And massive walls would eventually be erected and increased security measures taken everywhere to stop the steady stream of terrorism from areas governed by the Palestinian Authority or others like Hamas.

Critics often love to point out that the disputed area called the Golan Heights (also sometimes referred to as "The thumb of Israel," being only 44 miles north to south and 27 miles east to west, was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. But what they fail in explaining is that it was technically a "recapture," at least from Israel's point of view, because the land had been theirs in history past going back to Old Testament times.

As Briticanna.com documents from the earliest point of Hebrew history: "The area's name is from the biblical city of refuge Golan inBashan (Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 20:8)."

Wikipedia even elaborated: "According to the Bible, an Amorite Kingdom in Bashan was conquered by Israelites during the reign of King Og. Throughout the Old Testament period, the Golan was 'the focus of a power struggle between the Kings of Israel and the Aramaeans who were based near modern-day Damascus.' The Itureans, an Arab or Aramaic people, settled there in the second century B.C. and remained until the end of the Byzantine period. Organized Jewish settlement in the region came to an end in 636 when it was conquered by Arabs under Umar ibn al-Khattāb. In the 16th century, the Golan was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and was part of the Vilayet of Damascus until it was transferred to French control in 1918. When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Republic."

With the recent fall of the Assad regime, Syrian control of any aspect of the Golan Heights at this point only complicates the issue and compounds the problem, especially with so much instability and so many international powers at work and war in and outside that war-torn country.

Trump tweeted during his first term as president, "After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!"

So, how does President Trump hope to engage his art of the deal and heal the Israeli-Palestinian divide?

The Times of Israel reported, "U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he would use the momentum of the freshly agreed upon Gaza ceasefire deal to expand the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-backed agreements struck during his first term that normalized Israel's relations with several Arab countries."

"With this deal in place, my National Security team, through the efforts of Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"We will continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords," he added, referring to the agreements that normalized Israel's ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.

Historically, the U.S. has been Israel's strongest ally outside the Middle East, and Israel has been the strongest ally of the U.S. in the Middle East. And it needs to stay that way.

One thing I know for sure is that we all can make a powerful contribution toward achieving peace – it's something my wife, Gena, and I often come back to when we see the mess in the Middle East: Follow what the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) commands: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May they prosper who love you.'" (Psalm 122:6)