In Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Donald Trump reigns supreme. Banners proclaiming “we love Trump” effusively express thanks to the president of the United States.
For the families of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas and the crowds who have supported their fight over two years, the narrative is clear: with the imminent return of the hostages, Trump has done what Benjamin Netanyahu did not.
Or he couldn’t.
For months, the accusations against the Israeli prime minister have been consistent. The hostages’ families and Netanyahu’s political opponents believe he prolonged the war in Gaza for his political survival.
The military campaign appeased its far-right coalition partners, who called for the expansion of the Israeli attack on Gaza and dreamed of the total reoccupation of the territory.
“Netanyahu is not willing to pay the political price of bringing back all the hostages,” opposition leader Yair Lapid charged last December.
But the scenario changed drastically with Trump’s return to the White House in early 2025.
Netanyahu classified Trump as The prime minister has already scored political points in disputes with democratic governments in the United States. He wouldn’t dare do that to Trump. And Trump used that influence when necessary.
In January, the US president exerted decisive pressure on Netanyahu to accept a deal that would bring 30 of the hostages alive and eight dead hostages home. It was Joe Biden’s ceasefire plan, but Trump pressured Netanyahu to accept it.
In June, during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, Trump ordered Israel to call off an imminent airstrike, publishing a
The fighters turned around in mid-air.
Last week, Trump’s influence was again demonstrated by forcing Netanyahu’s September 9 attack on Hamas leaders in Doha.
This included an image of the phone call from the White House Oval Office, which was posted on social media for the world to see.
Trump then announced his ambitious 20-point plan to end the war completely during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.
After Hamas claimed to be ready to negotiate, the American president explicitly ordered Israel to stop bombing Gaza, while at the same time considering the organization designated as terrorist by the US as “ready for lasting peace”.
He then sent Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Cairo to secure a deal, and finally, with the expectation that all 48 remaining hostages would be released in the first phase of the deal.
Netanyahu, for his part, rejects claims that he succumbed to American pressure.
He tried to frame the ceasefire agreement as a milestone of unprecedented strategic coordination, selling it as “one of our great achievements” in a two-year war that has caused devastation and more than 67,000 deaths in Gaza, according to local officials.
“Anyone who says this hostage deal was always on the table is simply not telling the truth,” he said in a televised statement on Friday.
Contrary to previous Hamas demands, Trump’s plan guarantees that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) maintains a presence in about half of the enclave.
Netanyahu presents this as a victory: hostages returned, IDF holding territory, Hamas weakened.
However, it falls short of the “total victory” he promised for two years. The first phase leaves Hamas armed and operational, does not guarantee disarmament or exile of the leadership, and the post-war governance of Gaza remains undefined.
Still, the man who was trapped in a ceasefire may also have gained an escape route from a protracted and unpopular war ahead of Israeli elections, which are scheduled for next year.
According to two Israeli officials, Netanyahu was one of the authors of Trump’s 20-point proposal.
According to these officials, after Israel’s short war with Iran in June, Trump and Netanyahu agreed: “Once Iran was hit, [a guerra em] Gaza had to end.”
As negotiators decamped to Doha for yet another round of failed talks, Netanyahu’s closest confidant, Ron Dermer, worked through parallel channels with the Trump administration and the Gulf states on what eventually became the U.S. ceasefire plan.
“The final plan is full of Dermer’s fingerprints,” assured one of the sources, admitting that, in the final stretch, Trump imposed terms that Netanyahu had to accept, including a possible path to a Palestinian state.
Crucially, Netanyahu appeared to structure a deal that includes his favored escape route. Trump’s grandiose peace plan turned out to be gradual and conditional – granting the Israeli leader political leeway with his hardline coalition.
The full withdrawal of the IDF depends on the disarmament of Hamas, according to the agreement, a deliberately ambiguous trigger that, according to Netanyahu, preserves Israel’s freedom to resume fighting, while officials from the Palestinian group claim to have guarantees from the US that the war will not resume.
As veteran Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea wrote Friday in Yedioth Ahronoth, the agreement “has more holes than Swiss cheese” and “more willingness to agree than instructions for implementation.”
This ambiguity is what keeps Netanyahu’s coalition intact, at least temporarily.
Despite the , right-wing ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich signaled that they will remain at the allied base, reassured by Netanyahu’s assurances that “the war is not over” and that Israel reserves the right to resume fighting if Hamas does not disarm.
Netanyahu may have been pressured to end the war, but he was given enough wiggle room to assert that he did not do so.
His decision was also shaped by the looming political calendar. The next elections in Israel are officially scheduled for October 2026, but it looks increasingly unlikely that they will last that long.
An Israeli source told CNN that “several months ago, Netanyahu realized that the war had become a burden and did not want to go to the elections with hostages still imprisoned, serving as a daily reminder of the failure of October 7th.”
Netanyahu’s main challenge in the next election will be responsibility for the deadliest day in Israel’s history, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were kidnapped to Gaza.
Two years ago, the prime minister seemed to be politically finished, given the catastrophic failure that occurred under his watch. The majority of Israelis supported his resignation, while weekly protests called for elections.
Trump gave Netanyahu a new narrative for political redemption.
The end of the war will provide the Israeli leader with relief from daily headlines about casualties in the Israel Defense Forces, overstretched reservist forces, growing international isolation and severe economic losses – a heavy burden for election campaigns.
And, as Trump repeatedly highlights, the ceasefire is extremely popular. Although detailed polls on the deal’s electoral impact are pending, previous surveys suggest that 60% to 70% of Israelis support it.
“Bibi [Netanyahu] He told me: ‘I don’t believe it. Everybody likes me now,'” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday, recounting a phone call with the prime minister.
“Most importantly, they are loving Israel again,” he added.
Netanyahu’s campaign is already taking shape: the war is over, the hostages are home, Iran and its allies are degraded, and with Trump at his side, he will seek to expand regional normalization.
The prime minister is aware of Trump’s popularity in Israel – far greater than his own – and sources say he intends to make him central to his election campaign.
In an extraordinary move, Netanyahu invited Kushner and Witkoff to the Israeli cabinet meeting on Thursday at which the ceasefire agreement was approved.
On Monday, Trump himself arrives in Israel to take part in the celebrations. Netanyahu will likely orchestrate every moment for maximum political impact and leverage the American’s popularity directly into the election.
US pressure may have forced Netanyahu to accept the terms he spent months avoiding, but by making history out of Trump – the Israel-loving savior negotiator – Netanyahu will attempt to perform political alchemy, converting the deal into political gold.
This could also divert attention from the prime minister’s long corruption trial, which Trump, in fact, called for to be shelved.
Whether the US president’s support can rewrite Netanyahu’s legacy as the prime minister who presided over Israel’s worst security failure and longest war will become a litmus test of Israeli voters’ memory.
