Hopes that Hamas will voluntarily disarm, that international forces will deploy in the Strip, and that a process of building a Palestinian government in which Hamas does not participate will begin, are false hopes.
Prof. Eyal Zisser | Oct 12 , 2025
Photon by Eran Kaplan / IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia
A deal between Israel and Hamas is a done deal, and even if last-minute obstacles appear on the way to achieving it, it will come about. Why? Because President Donald Trump wants it, and in matters concerning Israel and its future his will and opinion carry decisive weight.
Much can be said about Trump, but he knows how to recognize when a deal can and should be closed, and that ability has led him to conclude that now is the time to free the hostages and end the war. That conclusion matches the mood of the Israeli public, but it is also aligned with our vital interests. This was understood long ago by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, a figure we have not seen since.
Ben-Gurion made many historic decisions in his life, but two proved above all the most important. One was to establish a state at any cost, despite internal and international opposition and despite knowing that this would lead to war with the Arab states. The second, no less important, was to end the war. Not because we had achieved all our objectives, far from it, but because, as he put it, there is a time and season for everything, and Ben-Gurion understood that war is not an end in itself. Israel must turn to a more important task: absorbing mass immigration and building a society, a nation and a state, and, he explained, leave the rest to future generations.
Like Ben-Gurion, Trump, for his own reasons, understands the necessity of bringing the war to an end. But Trump is known for his disdain of minutiae and for believing that endless debate among experts or, worse, lawyers will never produce an agreement.
So, shrewdly and even brilliantly, he put on the table an offer that cannot be refused: immediate, unconditional and complete release of all hostages and missing persons, something the Israeli public longs for, in exchange for a final and absolute end to the war, something the world wants and something Trump now identifies as a supreme interest for both himself and Israel.
When that happens, everything else will become secondary, not urgent and not pressing, and can be addressed in a step-by-step fashion. Sometimes in Israel’s interest and sometimes for humanitarian reasons — questions such as the scope and timing of an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which Palestinian prisoners will be released as part of the deal, how to allow civilian aid into Gaza, and the critical question of what will happen in the Strip after the fact.
What Trump proposes is an important opportunity for Israel that could save it from itself and from the dead end in which we have been stuck for months. But it requires eyes wide open and protection of our security interests, with Trump’s help and, if necessary, despite Trump.
What will happen in Gaza should be learned from what happened a year ago in Lebanon. Then, too, we accepted a flawed agreement that was plainly never intended to be honored by the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Hezbollah continues to refuse to disarm and acts freely to rebuild its strength, while Israel has been content with pinpoint actions that do not change the situation at its root.
Gaza is not Lebanon. Hamas was dealt a crushing blow, unlike Hezbollah, which preserved much of its capability. The geography of the Strip is entirely different from Lebanon’s. Still, we must learn lessons from what happened in Lebanon.
Hopes that the Hamas terrorist organization will voluntarily disarm, that international forces will deploy in the Strip, and that a process of Palestinian governance building will begin from which Hamas will be excluded — all these are false hopes. Therefore Israel must ensure that it retains freedom of action. Not by unnecessary additional ground maneuvering in the Strip, but by decisive action against any attempt by Hamas to rebuild its army, its rockets, its battalions and its divisions.
And of course, ensure that no house, street or neighborhood in the Strip is reconstructed while Hamas remains in control. Restoring Israel’s strength, at home and abroad, is the crucial mission before us today, and if in addition we can advance regional peace, there is no greater victory than that.
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