"Giant Of Jewish History"

On Monday, Israeli Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana called Trump a "giant of Jewish history". Now, I've been though a couple of Old Testament surveys and Fr Schmitz's Bible in a Year, and the only comparable non-Jew I can think of who would get that designation is Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who conquered Babylon and issued a decree permitting the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, ending the Babylonian exile. In fact, Ohana said this:

Mr. President, you stand before the people of Israel not as another American president, but as a giant of Jewish history — one for whom we must look back, two and a half millennia into the mists of time to find a parallel, in Cyrus the Great.

In other words, I think it's a real mistake to underestimate Trump. And reading analyses of how Trump brought about the Hamas agreement, I keep thinking about the business school article I've mentioned here several times that makes the point that Trump prefers to negotiate with parties that have no alternative. This appears to be what he did with Hamas:

Egypt and Qatar told [Hamas leader Khalil Al-]Hayya the deal was his last chance to end the war, according to the officials. They pressed Hamas to understand that holding the hostages was becoming a strategic liability, giving Israel a source of legitimacy to keep fighting.

The next day, joined by Turkey, they warned him that if Hamas didn’t approve the plan it would be stripped of all political and diplomatic cover; Qatar and Turkey would no longer host the group’s political leadership, and Egypt would stop pressing for Hamas to have a say in Gaza’s postwar governance, the officials said.

It was enough to get Hamas to agree to release all its hostages in Gaza and sign on to the first part of Trump’s peace deal, giving up what had been its most important bargaining chip to keep a seat at the table. While modifying its acceptance with heavy caveats that reflected its concerns about the deal, Hamas had given Trump an opportunity to declare victory and set the stage for a hostage release early this week.

But Tump was able to limit Hamas's options though a series of small steps, none of them obvious by themselves:

Trump narrowed Hamas's options by eliminating both their diplomatic wiggle room and military alternatives through decisive American action. His administration launched strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, completely upending the regional balance that had favored Iran and its proxies. Israel had already done serious damage by taking apart Hezbollah's leadership and financial network, which led to the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the emergence of a new Syrian government hostile to Iran.

Trump's strikes forced every player in the region to rethink their strategies. He showed he was willing to use military power to protect American interests, something the Biden administration never demonstrated. Joint U.S. and Israeli resolve against terrorism pushed regional stakeholders to their breaking point, leaving Hamas without any meaningful support.

The stereotype of Trump is that he's impulsive and ego-driven, but what we see in cases like the Gaza agreement is that he works from a long-term plan in which he clearly understands the advantages and disadvantages of each side. This ias the same Trump who was defeated in 2020 but fought his way back to re-election in 2024.

So what are we to make of his current domestic opponents? His main domestic issues right now are the shutdown and the anti-ICE protests. It's hard to avoid thinking he has a plan and a strategy for giving his opponents no options. I've go to think we'll see some indications soon.

I'm not sure what league Trump is playing in here. Some people say Reagan, some say FDR, some say Lincoln, but Speaker Ohana is thinking on a different scale, millennia. He may have a point.