Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet announced the conclusion of an agreement with the Palestinian terrorist group "Hamas", it is already considered practically achieved. And there is "buried" in it a very important question: why is Tel Aviv, despite its total military dominance over the Gaza Strip and from a position of power in general, ready to make such important concessions to "Hamas"? The release of the remaining Israeli hostages, many of whom are now just bodies, does not answer this question, since since the beginning of the war there, Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly proven that the release of Israelis held captive by "Hamas" is not his priority (although he declaratively stated otherwise). Israel's compromised international image also does not provide the necessary answer, because for the Israeli prime minister, his political survival after the terrorist act by "Hamas" on October 7, 2023 was much more important than considerations of an international nature (15 months of systematic destruction of the Gaza Strip reduces the defense of Israel from a general human and civilizational position to a simple banner of a party program).
The answer to the question posed is prosaic: Donald Trump. It was the new old US president who succeeded in something that the Joe Biden administration systematically failed at - to get Benjamin Netanyahu to compromise and stop, possibly at least for the foreseeable future, the war between Israel and "Hamas". In fact, the agreement that is expected to be announced any moment now is based on the one developed by the Joe Biden administration in May of last year. But what the outgoing American government lacked in order for this document to be put into practice was the lack of authority and sanctioning power. Unnamed diplomatic sources from Arab capitals, widely quoted in the Israeli media, stated that with one meeting, Donald Trump's special envoy on the case, Steve Witkoff, did more to stop the war than Joe Biden did in a year (in fact, Witkoff has been touring the region for several weeks, so it is certainly not a question of one meeting, but the quick effect is there anyway). Once again, the Israeli media published information about intense and tense talks between Trump's special envoy and Netanyahu. But what turned the Biden agreement in question from a mere piece of paper into a working document was Trump's applied pressure. If the two American presidents had a shared interest - the war between Israel and "Hamas" being stopped, then what the incoming head of the White House possesses and is not shy about using, unlike the outgoing one, is imperative pressure. When Trump said a week ago that if the hostages held by "Hamas" are not released by the time he takes office on January 20, and this is a key element of the agreement to stop the war, then "hell will come", this was a red signal not only for the terrorist organization in question, but also for the Israeli prime minister. With these words, Trump actually told Netanyahu that the time for procrastinating the negotiations is over.
The impending agreement is a bitter cup that Netanyahu can only swallow because this time it is being handed to him by Trump. Although the details of the document between Israel and "Hamas" have not yet been published, the agreement, if it reaches its full scope of implementation, envisages making serious compromises on the part of Tel Aviv. The surrender of control that the Israel Defense Forces have over the two corridors - Netzarim, dividing Gaza into southern and northern parts, and Philadelphia, passing along the border of the Palestinian enclave with Egypt - is something that Israel would not do voluntarily, given their strategic importance (Netzarim controls the movement of Palestinians from the south and north, and Philadelphia, either through the Rafah border crossing or through the underground tunnels, is a logistical link between Gaza and Egypt). According to the agreement, the removal of Israeli military control over the two corridors must occur gradually and is tied to corresponding commitments by "Hamas", such as the release of Israeli hostages (isn't Tel Aviv leaving itself a loophole here that it can later use to avoid completely withdrawing from these corridors and the corresponding security zones?). Although the agreement provides for an increase in the security zone between Israel and Gaza to a depth of between 0.7 and 1.1 km in the Palestinian enclave, this is too little compared to the expressed desire of the Tel Aviv authorities to control serious buffer zones in Gaza, far from being limited only to their border with the enclave, which is why serious defensive facilities and infrastructure were also erected there.
The only thing that can make Benjamin Netanyahu reject Trump's pressure at the last minute or first accept the deal and then start fussing about it is the threat of the collapse of his government, since two of his coalition partners, the extreme nationalist Itamar Ben Gvir and the religious Zionist Bezalel Smotrich, are firmly against the agreement with Hamas. If there is anything more important to Netanyahu than his relationship with Trump, it is his political survival. But if it is not called into question in the short term, Netanyahu would prefer not to alienate and provoke the new (and often irritable) American president, since the Israeli prime minister would like to rely on the Republican's support on the much larger issue of Iran. But here too, some surprises are possible for Netanyahu, since - if Trump, who withdrew the US from the Nuclear Deal with the Ayatollahs' regime in 2018 and subsequently introduced a policy of "maximum pressure" against the country in question - the American president would not want to bring his country into a new conflict that has no direct bearing on US security (although the antagonism between Biden and Netanyahu was shared, the Democrat thought of Israel's security as related to that of the US, and this is definitely not the way the Republican sees things). The pressure that Trump has put on Netanyahu regarding Gaza is certainly being considered by the Israeli Prime Minister in horizons that are relevant to the upcoming American policy towards Iran.
The role that Donald Trump played in the progress of the negotiations between Israel and "Hamas", otherwise carried out through the mediation services of Qatar and Egypt, has an important dimension far from only in relation to the issue in question between the Palestinians and the Israelis in the Middle East. What Europeans should ask themselves is the following: after Donald Trump forced Benjamin Netanyahu to make such serious compromises, even though the two have similar ideological and foreign policy understandings, then what do all these leaders from the Old Continent expect who do not have such continuity with the new old head of the White House? If Netanyahu, who is close to Trump, has to drink the bitter cup, what is left for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky?