Less than a month ago, received wisdom was that Donald Trump was so angered by the Israeli bombing of Hamas negotiators in Qatar that he had forced Binyamin Netanyahu to agree to a peace deal. The first stage of that deal was a ceasefire, which took effect, and the Israeli prime minister appeared humbled.
But was he?
Remember that before the 10 October ceasefire, the far-right parties in Netanyahu’s government saw a clear future for Israel. The war would continue until Hamas had been eliminated, and Gaza would then be cleared of Palestinians. Where they would go was far from clear, but there was talk from Netanyahu’s people of the “international community” picking up the pieces.
