The last steps in turning swords into plowshares are inherently the most difficult.
Although Hamas and Israel called off the killing and exchanged prisoners, they have yet to agree to the lasting peace that President Trump proclaimed, perhaps prematurely, to Israel’s parliament Monday.
The situation is still fluid. Nonetheless, it is lifesaving progress, and Trump can be justly proud.
“If the implementation of all the stages of this peace plan rebuilds a pathway for Israeli-Palestinian peace, that would be worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe even two,” wrote the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who has doggedly chronicled Middle East conflict for decades.
It might “actually inspire Trump to make peace in America as well,” he added wistfully.
As a wise and candid adviser would tell Trump, if he allowed himself to have one, the Nobel committee considers nominees in their totality.
Start by apologizing
If he’s to earn the prestigious prize that he craves so openly, there are clearly some things he needs to do, at home and abroad.
The first is to apologize for the ungracious slur that his spokesman, Steven Cheung, posted on social media after the prize was awarded to Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela.
The committee, he said, “proved they place politics over peace.”
Next, and perhaps more importantly, is to consider why Machado is the latest of many unelected citizens to become Nobel laureates.
As the citation said, it was for her “tireless work” to promote democracy in Venezuela and move the country “from dictatorship to democracy.”
Machado, the leader of the opposition to the tyrant Nicolas Maduro, was barred from running against him in the 2024 election he stole and is in hiding from his wrath.
In honoring her, the Nobel Committee, whether intentionally or not, sent a message to Trump at a time when he is spoiling for war with Venezuela and has ordered our military to illegally destroy boats in the Caribbean, killing at least 27 civilians accused by the Trump administration of smuggling drugs.
Most cocaine and other illegal drugs are smuggled to the U.S. elsewhere — by air, land or ocean. Venezuela’s crime cartels are Trump’s pretext for testing how far Congress and world opinion will tolerate his violations of international law.
The picture of tyranny
Nor can the Nobel Committee turn eyes away from how systematically Trump is destroying democracy within the United States. He has prostituted the Department of Justice into an engine of vengeance, indicting people on tissue-thin grounds that career DOJ attorneys rejected. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer was not exaggerating when he remarked, “This is what tyranny looks like.”
Like tyrants everywhere past and present, Trump demands unquestioning submission from his party in Congress. If Republican politicians like Lindsey Graham were real friends rather than spineless followers, they would cut him down to size, and in doing so, enhance his stature as a peacemaker.
Above all, they would coach him to stop attacking cities governed by Democrats that have not asked for and do not need the National Guard to keep the peace. So long as he keeps it up, it will be feared by many as preparing for another coup to remain in power contrary to the Constitution. The Nobel Committee can’t overlook that either.
His abusive use of tariffs far beyond the legitimate needs of the national economy is inconsistent with the world statesmanship that the committee expects.
Machismo bellicosity
And his insistence on renaming the Defense Department the “Department of War” projects a machismo bellicosity that hardly comports with the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize. For now, it is a “secondary title,” but he means to make it permanent.
All of the other 31 NATO nations title their militaries with some form of the word “defense.” So does Israel. Even Russia eschews the word “war.” Trump’s official notice in the Federal Register says it “sharpens the Department’s focus on our own national interest and our adversaries’ focus on our willingness and availability to wage war to secure what is ours.” It is doubtful such words play well at Oslo.
Peace Prize nominees traditionally let others campaign for them. While still a Florida senator, Marco Rubio — now Trump’s secretary of state — warmly endorsed Machado’s nomination. So did Sen. Rick Scott and six other Republican lawmakers, including then-Rep. Michael Waltz, who is now Trump’s ambassador to the U.N. Their letter spoke of Machado’s “unyielding dedication to the pursuit of peace and democratic ideals.”
It is unseemly for a nominee to covet the award so openly as Trump has.
A highly decorated Navy pilot named Duke Cunningham — who later became a congressman and then a convict found guilty of bribes — was said to have asked how to apply for the military’s ultimate distinction, the Medal of Honor.
“You don’t apply for it,” a superior replied. “You die for it.”
You don’t apply for the Nobel Peace Prize. You live for it. How you live is the crux. For Trump, the tenuous truce in Gaza is a positive step. But he has so many lessons to learn.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
