The US president long refused to use his influence over the prime minister. Last month, that appeared to change
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fter nearly nine months in office, Donald Trump seems to have had enough of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, undermining his ambition to establish himself as a global peacemaker. Over the past few weeks, the US president finally decided to use his leverage to force Netanyahu to accept a new ceasefire and stop two years of genocidal war in Gaza.
On Thursday, Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, including an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory. It’s unclear what guarantees the US gave to Hamas and Arab mediators to ensure that Netanyahu would not resume the war after the hostage-prisoner swap – if negotiations on later stages of the deal are stalled. That’s what happened earlier this year, when Netanyahu accepted a truce that took effect in January, but then refused to move into the second phase of negotiations with Hamas, and violated the ceasefire after two months.
Back in March, Trump was still enamored with his preposterous idea for the US to take control of Gaza and turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”, displacing 2 million Palestinians. He showed little interest in pressuring Netanyahu to negotiate with Hamas to extend the ceasefire. But in recent weeks, Trump has become personally invested in ending the Gaza war – and his ego might be the one thing that keeps him engaged in preserving a peace agreement that essentially carries his name.
