Former US President Donald Trump is once again in the international headlines. They claim that they are close to ending the long and bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas. Trump said on his social media platform “Truth Social” on Wednesday evening that he would soon go to the Middle East to welcome the hostages held for two years along with the announcement of a ceasefire.
This step is not just a diplomatic success for Trump, but is part of his long-standing goal to prove himself as a “deal maker” and “peacemaker”. Interestingly, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner will be announced just hours before his expected visit, and Trump has already openly expressed his desire to receive it.
However, Trump’s proposed “peace deal” currently looks like a temporary ceasefire. Peace efforts in the Middle East have had a checkered history, and this time too many uncertainties remain. If Hamas releases its remaining 20 surviving hostages this week, it will be considered a major success, but it also remains to be seen whether Israel is ready to withdraw its forces from Gaza City.
Aaron David Miller, senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The New York Times, “If this ceasefire and hostage release agreement succeeds, it will be possible only because of Trump’s pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu. No American president has ever taken such a tough stance on an Israeli prime minister.”
Trump is best known for the Abraham Accords in his first term, under which diplomatic relations were established between Israel and several Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Then Saudi Arabia was also on the verge of joining these agreements, due to which Hamas, worried, launched a major attack on 7 October 2023.
Israel’s reaction after this attack was extremely violent. 90% of Gaza’s homes were destroyed, and more than 60,000 Palestinian civilians died. Meanwhile, Israel’s image at the international level was also deeply damaged.
Netanyahu claimed to have eliminated Hamas’s top leadership, but the devastation in Gaza shocked the world. This time the Trump administration appeared to be successful in gaining control over Netanyahu. Even when Netanyahu attacked Hamas negotiators in Qatar, Trump asked him to apologize and those photos were made public.
Although many questions still remain, will Hamas give up its weapons? Will Israel completely withdraw from Gaza? And will the Palestinian Authority have any role? History shows that achieving “lasting peace” in the region has been extremely difficult.
If the deal holds, Trump could join the ranks of four US presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, who received the Nobel Peace Prize. But at the moment it is too early to say whether this ceasefire will prove to be permanent or whether the land of the Middle East will again witness a new conflict.