People react as they watch the hostage release live stream at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Oct. 13. Photographer: Chris McGrath\/Getty Images <\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump soaked in praise and outlined a vision for broader Middle East peace during a one-day tour of Israel and Egypt to mark the success of US-led mediation efforts to end fighting in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Now comes the even harder part.<\/p>\n
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Speaking in the resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, Trump signed a Gaza agreement that he said had taken 3,000 years to reach. He then stood before more than a dozen leaders he\u2019d gathered to the spot and gave a campaign-style speech, thrashing his predecessor Joe Biden and even some of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re friends of mine, you\u2019re great people,\u201d Trump told the fellow leaders lined up behind him. \u201cI have a couple I don\u2019t like in particular but I\u2019ll \u2014 I won\u2019t tell you who.\u201d<\/p>\n
Setting aside Trump\u2019s tone, even his critics and political opponents agreed it was a well-deserved recognition for a significant achievement, given he\u2019d reached a peace deal that had proved elusive for other leaders present and for his predecessor, Biden. Fragile as the peace may be, Trump got Hamas to release the remaining hostages it held and persuaded Israel to stop its ruinous military campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The extraordinary gathering could in some ways be interpreted as a balm to any bruised ego Trump may have been nursing after he failed to win a Nobel Peace Prize last week that he had publicly lobbied for. At one point during the celebration on Monday, a jubilant Trump made light of the timing. \u201cOh, Norway, ay yai yai,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat happened, Norway?\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump was the center of attention, turning normally busy leaders from more than 20 nations and multilateral organizations into spectators, after persuading them all to travel to join a very short summit.<\/p>\n
Israeli hostage Evyatar David arrives at Beilinson hospital near Tel Aviv, on Oct. 13.Photographer: Kobi Wolf\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n
Beneath the surface-level imagery of the flags from around the world and the strained smiles of some of Trump\u2019s peers, the goals he set out are formidable. As important as it was to get the deal for the release of the remaining hostages and Israel to halt its assault on Hamas, the next steps are likely to be more challenging.<\/p>\n
In his speech at Israel\u2019s parliament in Jerusalem, Trump proclaimed \u201cthe historic dawn of a new Middle East\u201d and mused that getting a peace agreement with Iran -\u2013 a nation that Israel fought in a 12-day war in June before the US struck it with a dozen bunker-buster bombs \u2013- will be \u201ceasy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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WATCH: President Donald Trump addressed the Israeli parliament on Monday, calling it \u201cthe historic dawn of a new Middle East.\u201dSource: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
\u201cThe president has long been prone to hyperbole, and we saw it come out today,\u201d said Jonathan Panikoff, of the Atlantic Council\u2019s Middle East Program. \u201cThe challenges of a broader peace deal are incredibly difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump became the fourth US president to address Israel\u2019s Knesset, and the first since George W. Bush in 2008. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced Trump by calling him \u201cthe greatest friend that the state of Israel has ever had in the White House.\u201d Tens of thousands of people gathered in recent days in Tel Aviv\u2019s Hostage Square to cheer Trump, celebrating the hostage release and American support for Israel.<\/p>\n
Trump in his speech in Israel seven times cited the Abraham Accords, the landmark agreements from his first term that normalized diplomatic relationships between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Trump has long wanted to expand the accords to more nations, a goal actively pursued between Israel and Saudi Arabia before the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n
Underscoring the lasting tensions that will be difficult to shake, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at one point balked at joining the summit in Egypt over the possible attendance of Netanyahu, whose government Erdogan has accused of genocide. In the end, Netanyahu didn\u2019t attend because of a Jewish holiday.<\/p>\n
Trump repeatedly gushed over Erdogan during and after Monday\u2019s summit, framing their interactions along the lines of his long self-professed deal-making prowess.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t get along with the weak ones. I get along with the tough ones. I don\u2019t know what that is, but Erdogan has been great with me,\u201d the president told reporters aboard Air Force One en route back to Washington. \u201cYou know, when NATO has a problem with Erdogan, which they often do, they call me to talk to him, and I\u2019ve never failed in working it out like immediately,\u201d<\/p>\n
The ceremony on Monday was to mark a watershed moment of de-escalation between Israel and Hamas. Yet the path for implementing some of the most difficult points of Trump\u2019s 20-point plan for peace in Gaza \u2013- like disarming Hamas \u2013 remained unclear on Monday, even as Trump predicted that they will happen.<\/p>\n
Trump also cast doubt on another point \u2013 having former British Prime Minister Tony Blair serve on the \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d that Trump will lead. Trump on Sunday said that he needs to see if Blair is acceptable to everyone \u2013- even though his name was included in the plan announced by the White House two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
WATCH: Trump meets with world leaders in Egypt.Source: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
Trump won\u2019t need to wait long before he again faces a challenge that so far has resisted his dealmaking abilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is scheduled to visit the White House on Friday as Trump seeks an end to the nation\u2019s war with Russia.<\/p>\n
Trump promised during the 2024 campaign to bring the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to a swift close. But peace requires agreement implementation and follow-through that goes beyond initial ceasefires and lofty declarations, said Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just do that by making statements that are attention-grabbing,\u201d he said. \u201cYou actually need to do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.<\/p>\n
(Updates with history of US presidential addresses at Knesset, Netanyahu comment in 11th paragraph.)<\/p>\n
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\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People react as they watch the hostage release live stream at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Oct.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":304752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3638,69,99,50,32307,6602,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-304751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","13":"tag-tel-aviv","14":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115376955388363062","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}