The Trump administration’s assault on America’s constitutional, legal, and normative order is so extensive and fear-inducing that many otherwise-sober observers find it hard to admit the things the president does right. And although they may grudgingly acknowledge his gifts as a demagogue or political manipulator, they cannot grant him any aspect of the statesman. In this they are wrong, and the first steps toward peace in Gaza show why—he has achieved a remarkable success and deserves full credit for it.
The logic of this dreadful war, which began with the massacres, rapes, and kidnappings of October 7, 2023—launched by Hamas but abetted by many others in Gaza who surged through the holes in the fence and cheered the truckloads of brutalized Israelis coming back—always pointed in the direction of some kind of cease-fire. Like many parties to aggressive war, Hamas has had to change its theory of victory. It began with the hope of catalyzing a war that would destroy the state of Israel, with Hezbollah, Iran, and others promptly joining in the assault, but when that support failed to materialize, it switched its aim to fatally weakening the Jewish state by bleeding it, exacerbating its domestic
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