The Confederates Return: From the Knesset to the Summit

In the Knesset, Donald Trump stood before Israeli lawmakers and declared “a historic dawn of a new Middle East.” Benjamin Netanyahu followed him to the podium, hailing “victory,” and together they basked in the glow of mutual praise — a conqueror and his protégé congratulating one another while Gaza lay in ruins.

The tone was unmistakable: the war had been won, history had turned, and power had once again written its own justification. Trump spoke of peace as the fruit of force; Netanyahu spoke of destiny as if destruction itself were divine proof. The applause that followed was thunderous — an echo of self-satisfaction that seemed to fill not only the Knesset chamber but the entire moral vacuum of our age.

Two men, two governments, one alliance — united not by justice but by triumph. And yet, the Qur’an has told this story before.

The Boast of the Confederates

Fourteen centuries ago, the Prophet ﷺ and his companions faced a siege in Madinah. The Quraysh, Ghatafān, and other tribes — the Confederates (al-Ahzāb) — gathered in a vast coalition to wipe out the believers. It was the greatest army Arabia had ever seen, and it came boasting of its unity and power.

﴿إِذْ جَاؤُوكُم مِّن فَوْقِكُمْ وَمِنْ أَسْفَلَ مِنكُمْ وَإِذْ زَاغَتِ الْأَبْصَارُ وَبَلَغَتِ الْقُلُوبُ الْحَنَاجِرَ وَتَظُنُّونَ بِاللَّهِ الظُّنُونَا﴾

“When they came upon you from above you and from below you, and when eyes grew wild and hearts reached the throats…” (33:10)

Around the trench they dug, the Muslims watched a world closing in. The Confederates congratulated each other for their brilliance, their strategy, their numbers. They believed victory was inevitable — that faith had finally met its match in force.

﴿وَرَدَّ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِغَيْظِهِمْ لَمْ يَنَالُوا خَيْرًا وَكَفَى اللَّهُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ الْقِتَالَ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ قَوِيًّا عَزِيزًا﴾

“Allah repelled those who disbelieved, in their rage, not having obtained any good. And Allah spared the believers from fighting. And Allah is ever Powerful and Mighty.” (33:25)

The coalition broke apart. Their unity dissolved. Their pride became their punishment.

Modern Confederates

What took place in the Knesset was the same performance — the Confederates of our time patting each other on the back, believing they have mastered fate through firepower.

They speak of “the dawn of peace,” yet peace built on rubble and corpses is not peace at all — it is the arrogance of victors mistaking silence for stability.

Trump and Netanyahu’s speeches were not mere politics; they were theology — a sermon of supremacy, where worldly might is mistaken for divine mandate. The Qur’an’s warning cuts straight through this illusion: power that praises itself has already begun to rot.

The Hypocrites Within

But in the time of al-Ahzāb, the external siege was not the only test. Inside Madinah, there were others — those who called themselves believers but whose hearts had already surrendered to fear and convenience.

﴿وَإِذْ يَقُولُ الْمُنَافِقُونَ وَالَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ مَّا وَعَدَنَا اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ إِلَّا غُرُورًا﴾

“And when the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is disease said, ‘Allah and His Messenger promised us nothing but delusion.’” (33:12)

﴿وَيَسْتَأْذِنُ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمُ النَّبِيَّ يَقُولُونَ إِنَّ بُيُوتَنَا عَوْرَةٌ وَمَا هِيَ بِعَوْرَةٍ إِن يُرِيدُونَ إِلَّا فِرَارًا﴾

“A faction of them asked the Prophet’s permission, saying, ‘Our houses are exposed,’ though they were not exposed; they only wished to flee.” (33:13)

They doubted the Prophet ﷺ, spread panic, and sought excuses to withdraw. They looked at the confederate armies and concluded that power lay with them — not with God. Their faith was conditional, their loyalty pragmatic.

They were the summit delegates of their time — fluent in diplomacy, cautious in conviction, and convinced that survival mattered more than truth.

The 2025 Summit in Egypt

While the modern Confederates cheered in the Knesset, their counterparts gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh, where presidents, prime ministers, and envoys met for the 2025 Gaza Peace Summit. The cameras panned across handshakes and smiles; the language was polished, the setting luxurious.

But beneath the diplomacy lay the same hypocrisy the Qur’an described — the politics of self-preservation dressed up as moral concern.

• They spoke of reconstruction but refused to speak of justice.
• They issued statements of peace while ensuring that the machinery of occupation remained untouched.
• They claimed neutrality but were enslaved by dependence.

Like the hypocrites of Madinah, they said, “Our houses are exposed” — our economies, our alliances, our reputations — and so they stood aside while others suffered. They preferred safety over sincerity, applause over accountability.

The Qur’an calls this the disease of the heart — not disbelief, but disbelief masquerading as pragmatism.

Two Fronts in Every Age

In every age, believers face two fronts:

• The external Confederates, proud in their power and united by oppression;
• And the internal hypocrites, timid, calculating, and complicit.

One wields weapons; the other wields excuses. Both serve the same illusion — that power defines truth.

But as al-Ahzāb reminds us, the wind of history does not obey the orders of kings, parliaments, or summits. It blows when Allah wills — and when it blows, arrogance collapses, alliances fracture, and every mask is torn away.

When the Wind Returns

The Prophet ﷺ and his companions dug the trench in hunger and fear, yet from that trench emerged the revelation of a timeless law: that power without justice is weakness in disguise, and that the smug alliances of tyrants are already destined to fail.

The Confederates of today — whether boasting in the Knesset or negotiating in Egyptian resorts — cannot see the pattern they are repeating. Their speeches and summits are the same performance of self-congratulation that the Qur’an recorded long ago.

﴿وَرَدَّ اللَّهُ الْذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِغَيْظِهِمْ لَمْ يَنَالُوا خَيْرًا وَكَفَى اللَّهُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ الْقِتَالَ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ قَوِيًّا عَزِيزًا﴾

“Allah repelled those who disbelieved, in their rage, not having obtained any good. And Allah spared the believers from fighting. And Allah is ever Powerful and Mighty.” (33:25)

That wind will return — but this time, it will not come from the sky. It will rise from the streets and hearts of the Ummah: from those who refuse to bow to occupation, from those who speak when silence is demanded, from those who see through the charade of diplomacy and the deceit of dependence.

It will be the wind of imaan — not a whisper of patience, but the surge of a people’s will: disciplined, principled, and unyielding. The believers’ strength will not be in their weaponry, but in their unity and political clarity — the force of a collective conscience that no army can suppress and no summit can contain.

That is the wind that will change the direction of history — the will of the Ummah itself, awakened and unstoppable.