EDITORIAL: Trump merits accolades for remarkable accomplishment

The initial phase of President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan moved forward Monday as Hamas released 20 hostages who had been held since its barbaric attack of Oct. 7, 2023. The terror group also returned the bodies of four slain captives, while Israel completed a pullback of forces after a ceasefire went into effect Friday.

Mr. Trump spoke to the Israeli parliament and attended a ceremony in an Egyptian resort town to mark the historic occasion. But the looming question as the process proceeds remains: Will the peace be sustainable?

The president insisted that the deal will “hold.” History tells a more complicated tale. Hamas must still agree to disarm and repudiate its devotion to death and destruction. Will the group accept being pushed out of Gaza governance in the future? Still, Mr. Trump deserves all the accolades he has received from across the globe for moving things this far. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi even announced he’ll award Mr. Trump his state’s highest civilian honor for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

None of this would have been possible had Mr. Trump followed the formula preferred by his predecessor, Joe Biden, who opted to publicly rebuke and pressure Israel as a means of currying favor with the radical progressives now dominating the Democratic Party. That only alienated the Israeli leadership and exacerbated tensions. Mr. Trump, instead, put most of the heat on Hamas and its enabler Iran, even carrying out a daring and successful airstrike against Iran’s nuclear program.

The results speak for themselves. Iran has been exposed, its proxies overwhelmed. As a result, “the balance of power in the Middle East has shifted significantly,” the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, “creating the conditions for a breakthrough.” Hamas had little choice but to accept the terms offered by Mr. Trump.

Hamas also faced intense pressure to stand down from regional interests, including Turkey. While the terrorists banked that exploiting useful leftist idiots and civilian casualties would swing international opinion against Israel, they had once again grossly miscalculated.

Egypt and Qatar “pressed Hamas to understand that holding the hostages was becoming a strategic liability,” the Journal reported, “giving Israel a source of legitimacy to keep fighting.” Once Mr. Trump “got Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly agree to end the war, Hamas was cornered as the lone holdout.”

The result is hope and optimism rising from the ashes of conflict. It is truly a remarkable accomplishment for Mr. Trump and his foreign policy team.