The Real Trump Factor in the Gaza Deal

Oct 17, 2025

Also published in New York Times
U.S. President Trump walks with Israeli President Herzog and Prime Minister Netanyahu after arriving in Israel - source: The White House
About the Authors
Dana Stroul
Dana Stroul

Dana Stroul is Director of Research and Shelly and Michael Kassen Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Articles & Testimony

The price of today’s breakthrough may be tomorrow’s turbulence, as the president and his advisors press their thumbs on the scales of Israel’s electoral and legal processes.

Praise for President Trump’s diplomacy in brokering a cease-fire in Gaza has mostly focused on how he persuaded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to accept a deal. Many assume that Trump threatened to withdraw U.S. support from Israel, or otherwise pressured the Israeli leader into capitulating. But there is a more convincing explanation for Mr. Trump’s success. Far from merely menacing Mr. Netanyahu with consequences, the American president’s key intervention was to give a political lifeline to the deeply unpopular Israeli leader. The secret of Mr. Trump’s success with Mr. Netanyahu was offering carrots on domestic politics—not sticks on foreign policy. There were, of course, important external factors that laid the groundwork for the deal...

Read the full article on the New York Times website.

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Topics

Peace Process U.S. Policy

Regions & Countries

Israel