
When a deal was sealed in Cairo last week to set the stage for President Trump’s speech at the Israeli Knesset and summit in Sharm El Shaikh a few days later, the first step on the document signed by all the parties that day started with: “President Trump announces the end of the war in the Gaza Strip.” On his way over to the region, Trump was asked on Air Force One how he responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel intends to continue the war. Trump was unequivocal: “The war is over. The war is over! Do you understand that?” When he arrived in Egypt, where he was joined by many of the key leaders from Europe and the Middle East, the peace summit was framed as the signing of an “agreement to end the war in Gaza.”
Sense a pattern? An American declaration that the war was finally over was the key ingredient to reaching an elusive agreement, and it removed the final obstacle that Netanyahu had continued to put in the way of a deal for many months now. Even though the overall framework for this agreement had been in place arguably since the fall of 2023, and certainly since the spring of 2024 under Joe Biden, Netanyahu’s repeated refusal to end the war, and America’s refusal to get him to accept it under both administrations, led to failed negotiations over and over again. Now this seems to have finally changed.
This op-ed was published by The New Republic on October 15, 2025. To read more click here.