It does not matter what happens next; President Donald Trump really does deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. His achievement will stand whether renewed hostilities break out in Gaza, or Benjamin Netanyahu joins Bono and Qatar’s Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to sing about peace onstage in Khan Younis. Compelling the release of all living hostages held by Hamas in return for a ceasefire and tolerable concessions is as close as one gets to a miracle in the business of diplomacy. Trump, along with Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Marco Rubio, and their teams, deserve the world’s admiration.
Barely a week ago, Israel appeared trapped. It had three options in Gaza, each of them unattractive. It could level what was left of the place, probably causing the deaths of many of the remaining hostages, and finally defeat Hamas on the battlefield in a conventional sense while signing up for further isolation and endless trouble in whatever came next. It could attempt to wash its hands of Gaza somehow, the least likely choice, inasmuch as the presence of the hostages would perpetually deny Israel the freedom to move on. A third path, perhaps the worst, seemed the most probable: an endless rope-a-dope in which Hamas would dribble out limited concessions and groups of hostages here and there as it played for time.
