With hostage deal, Netanyahu is going all in on Trump

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-hostage-deal-netanyahu-is-going-all-in-on-trump/?utm_source=The+Weekend+Edition&utm_campaign=weekend-edition-2025-01-19&utm_medium=email

Israel can do what it takes to win, but Trump, it appears, wants it to show it is willing to try a ceasefire, publicly and clearly. When Hamas inevitably tries to rearm or launch a rocket, Israel will have its excuse to return to fighting, perhaps better prepared and with better intelligence penetration of the Hamas ranks than on October 8, 2023.

And in the meantime, it will have handed Trump his political win in the form of a ceasefire, and won his backing for a more intensive fight against Hamas.

If that’s the basic dynamic, it explains much of Netanyahu’s and Hamas’s actions over the past two weeks.