Trump’s Changes In Strategy Put Lasting Gaza Ceasefire Within Reach

Two years into the war between Israel and Hamas, President Donald Trump’s team is adapting their approach to the conflict — potentially giving them the strongest chance yet for a lasting ceasefire.

Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are headed to Egypt to join truce talks Wednesday after talking strategy with Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday, said a White House official granted anonymity to discuss the meeting.

Trump has laid the groundwork for the moment by squeezing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and showing new deference to Arab allies who are expected to coax Hamas to halt the fighting.

Since the spring, Trump has largely given Israel free rein to carry out its campaign against Hamas. But after Israel bombed Hamas leaders in Qatar last month, Trump changed course, soliciting the views of Arab and Muslim states and pushing Netanyahu to end the war.

“We are closer to a deal than ever before because President Trump decided to leave Netanyahu no room for maneuver,” said an Israeli adviser familiar with the negotiations, granted anonymity to discuss diplomatic dynamics. “Netanyahu has nowhere else to turn and needs him both internationally and domestically for any slim chance of political survival.”

Many of the same sticking points for Hamas remain, such as where the Israel Defense Forces will withdraw to in Gaza, whether Hamas can deliver all of the remaining hostages including those not held by the group, when prisoners will be released from Israel and the channels through which humanitarian assistance will be delivered.

Still, the group is hopeful, said Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian-American businessman who has at times mediated between Hamas and the Trump administration.

“On the Hamas side — I met them on Saturday — there was optimism,” he told the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which includes POLITICO. “They were pleased with the president’s reaction.”

Trump’s Gaza diplomacy has evolved beyond the public-facing and highly performative unilateralism of his first term, marked by a growing reliance on regional partners and greater patience for substantive, behind-the-scenes diplomacy. He’s also used the Israeli political calendar to his advantage. Netanyahu will need Trump’s support in a contest that could take place as soon as March.

While safeguarding Israel’s right to defend itself, Trump has strengthened ties with Arab partners, enlisting them to help get Hamas back to the negotiating table and amp up the pressure on Netanyahu.

“From a strength standpoint, Israel has never been in a stronger position. They wiped out Hezbollah in Lebanon, obliterated Hamas in Gaza and convinced the U.S. to strike Iran. But diplomatically, they’ve never been as isolated,” said one person involved in the diplomacy who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “European leaders are calling for Palestinian statehood. Arab leaders who signed onto the Abraham Accords are saying [Netanyahu] is unhinged. And Trump is making him apologize to the Qataris in his office.”

Trump has leaned on no Arab nation more than Qatar, one of three Gulf states he visited in May, to assist in his efforts to help settle the war in Gaza. After criticizing last month’s Israeli missile strikes against Hamas officials who were in Doha for peace talks, Trump directed Netanyahu to call Qatar’s prime minister from the Oval Office last Monday to read an apology drafted by the White House with input from Qatar, according to three people familiar with the call and granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive conversation.

A powerful Qatari interlocutor and close ally of the country’s prime minister was in the Oval Office during the call to ensure that Netanyahu didn’t deviate publicly from the White House-crafted version of events, the people said.

A short time later, Trump announced that Netanyahu had agreed to the 20-point peace plan aimed at facilitating an exchange of hostages, the end of the war and the temporary transfer of Gaza from Hamas to an international trusteeship.

Trump leaned on Qatar to gather Egyptian and Saudi officials, among others, to engage with Hamas and urge the organization to agree to the White House peace plan.

“Trump working with Arab partners, especially Qatar, has helped get things to this point,” the person involved in the diplomacy said. “He’s changed the dynamics of what individual diplomacy looks like.”

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani will join the negotiations in Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday “at a critical stage of the talks,” said his spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari.

Trump, who accepted the Qataris’ gift of a $400 million 747 jet earlier this year that is being retrofitted to be flown as Air Force One, signed an executive order last week on the same day as Netanyahu’s visit to create a NATO-like security guarantee for Qatar, pledging that the U.S. would help defend it in the event of an attack.

“One of the biggest accomplishments of President Trump is to get the Arab world involved in dealing with the Palestinian issue,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “People in the Mideast respond to the strong horse. When he took on Iran, he got a lot of credit in the Arab world. Israel believes he's the best president they've had in a long time. So this combination has driven us to where we were today.”

Republican allies on Capitol Hill pointed to Trump’s first-term work on the Abraham Accords, under which several Arab nations normalized relations with Israel, to argue that his multilateralism in the Middle East hasn’t appeared overnight. But they acknowledged that his prioritization of the region could pay major dividends now in his still unfinished work to resolve the Gaza war and decades of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

“When was the last time we had a president that actually had all of these other countries in the Middle East actually turning towards one of these terrorist organizations like Hamas and saying, ‘You need to accept this peace agreement. You need to stop killing people’?” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said Tuesday.

Joe Gould of POLITICO and Tim Rohn of WELT contributed to this report.