President Donald Trump’s coming Middle East trip is the capstone on five weeks of diplomacy that shifted into high gear at a moment when the prospects for peace seemed doomed.
After Israel bombed Doha in early September, the Qataris, who were the leading mediators between Israel and Hamas, wanted to pull out of the peace process, said a senior White House official granted anonymity to describe the diplomatic efforts.
Trump, who has a longstanding relationship with the Qataris, issued a surprisingly sharp rebuke of the Israeli attack and would soon offer an unprecedented security guarantee to back his promise that nothing like that would happen again.
Trump extended his public olive branch in tandem with his administration’s private outreach to Qatar and other Arab countries.
In those discussions, US officials made the case that the Doha attack offered an opportunity to put new pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The president became much more pointed and direct, and there was a heightened urgency for a peace agreement after the Doha strike,” the senior White House official said. “It allowed the president to put maximum pressure on Israel, which he did. And it really did force Israel into a position to submit to peace.”
Trump’s increased pressure on Israel during the last five weeks — which included pushing Netanyahu to call and apologize to Qatar from the Oval Office — underscores how the president has shifted his position on the Gaza war since taking office. In a matter of months, he went from suggesting that Gaza would be cleared out to make way for high-priced real estate and giving Israel the green light to raze the territory, to demanding the Israel Defense Forces withdraw and release thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 20 Israeli hostages.
“The Israelis’ botched strike against Qatar was the turning point,” said a person close to the White House granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “President Trump was able to use it as leverage, not only getting Bibi to apologize to the Qatar PM, but also applying pressure on him to end the war.”
The 20-point peace plan still helps Israel achieve many of its objectives. The remaining hostages are set to return home and the plan includes a mandate for Gaza to be deradicalized and ruled by a governing body free of Hamas – two critical elements in Israel’s requests. But, the plan also gives Hamas terrorists amnesty and Israel won’t have control of the Gaza Strip.
Trump, at the end of the month, met with Arab and Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and promised he would not let Israel annex the West Bank.
“That was another really key moment in that room when legitimate discussions about details of what a peace plan would look like took place,” the senior White House official said.
Trump has said an “eternal peace” could be at hand but the mood inside the White House is more tempered as key officials recognize that any truce is fragile.
The president does not intend to be present when the Israeli hostages are released, which is certain to be an emotional moment. The state of the hostages could reignite tensions in the already fragile peace deal, but the two-year captivity has left some with a sober outlook on the realities of what’s to come.
“This deal crystallized 10 days ago,” said a former State department official who served during Trump’s first term and was granted anonymity to discuss the peace deal. “Ten days is not enough time to transform human beings on the edge of starvation who’ve been kept underground for two years into healthy looking human beings.”
Trump is expected to speak to the Knesset in Israel on Monday after a quick stop in Egypt. His visit comes as both critics and supporters in Israel hail his efforts to bring the hostages home and secure an end to the two-year war but the administration and Trump allies stress that a lot can still go wrong.
“Hostages are the only instant photo of politically gratifying opportunity here,” said Jonathan Conricus, former IDF spokesperson and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defending Democracy: “After that, it’s going to be a long time of negotiations and military activity and spins and many tedious, detail oriented things, which I’m not entirely sure that the president wants to be part of. And nation building is a messy and resource intense affair.”
