This week, I'm sending the Update in two parts. As President Trump is heading to the Middle East this coming week, I wanted to highlight America's recent and unprecendeted actions in the Middle East. Part two will cover other goings on.

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It's been 580 days too many. President Trump confirms 3 more hostages have been executed. Israeli officials confirm only 21 hostages are alive. There are another 3 hostages with serious doubts about whether they are still alive. The war in Gaza could end today if Hamas would release the hostages, lay down its arms, and surrender.

>The United States, UK, Canada, EU, and Russia must increase the pressure on Hamas and its allies in Iran, Qatar and Turkey to ensure the terror group releases the 59 hostages, including 5 Americans. https://stories.bringthemhomenow.net/about-them 

How do you think President Trump’s upcoming Middle East trip is being viewed in the Middle East? He is the first sitting president in 20 yrs to visit Qatar, where he recently struck a $5.5 billion deal to build a Trump Golf Club; also this week, the administration announced plans to fast-track deals with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Qatar hosts the largest US air base in the region, while maintaining open relationships with the Taliban, Hamas, and Iranian proxies. The President will not be visiting Israel. He announced a surprise cease-fire deal with the Houthis, yes it was a surprise to Israeli officials, especially as he did it without demanding they stop attacking Israel. He has declared that the US is in negotiations to stop Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) developing nuclear weapons. Will the US stick to their demand for the complete dismantling of the IRI nuclear program?  Iran has declared its desire to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.  The problem with the last Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) was it didn't address IRI’s support for terrorism, supplying missiles and rockets to the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah. It didn't address why Iran has a domestic nuclear energy program when they have so much oil. Iran-sponsored Hezbollah still controls ports in Lebanon where Iranian weapons are received. The Iran-backed Houthis are in a huge dessert area hiding in caves and tunnels, their weapons distributed among various mobile tribes. Iran’s supply route to the Houthis runs through Hudaydah (Yemen) and Oman.  The Trump administration has also removed troops from the Syrian-Iraq border where they were preventing Iranian weapons being smuggled to terrorists in Syria. There are reports that President Trump is likely to sign a nuclear deal with the Saudis without demanding normalization with Israel.  Trump announced an arbitrary deadline of May 15 for the resumption of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas while making no effort to help bring one about. He seems determined to tie Israel’s hands with regard to Iran, and overlook Israel’s security interests in order to focus on his own near-term “wins” and deals. Is the U.S. abandoning Israel as a strategic ally or will it support Israel to neutralize the Iranian threat?  As per MEF, a decisive and coordinated approach involving diplomatic, economic, and military actions is critical to counter both the Houthi menace and Iranian expansionism.