WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed peacemaker who has campaigned for a Nobel Prize, finally got a camera-ready diplomatic victory on Monday as world leaders flew to Egypt for the signing of the ceasefire and hostage-release deal he brokered between Israel and Hamas.
But if lasting peace is to take root, analysts and diplomats say, Trump will have to maintain pressure on the man whose support he’ll need in the next phases of his plan: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
US presidents from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden have found the strong-willed Israeli leader difficult to work with, and even Trump administration officials have been frustrated by some Israeli military strikes they see as undermining US policy.
But this month Trump managed to push Netanyahu into accepting his framework for a broader peace deal while persuading other Middle Eastern countries to convince Hamas to return all the Israeli hostages, its key leverage in the war.
The work could get harder from here, however.
