President Donald Trump bypassed the Israelis to negotiate with Hamas directly to release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander. Photo-illustration by Nora Berman/Getty Images
Contributing Columnist
Sruli Fruchter
May 12, 2025
The 20-year-old Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander is home, after 584 days in captivity — and it’s all thanks to President Donald Trump.
Last week, the United States took the unprecedented move of sidestepping Israel to negotiate directly with Hamas for the release of the remaining hostages. The terror group promoted Alexander’s freedom as a goodwill gesture to Trump.
This points to a haunting reality: Alexander is only free because Trump excluded Israel from his plans. Apparently even the U.S. sees Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an obstacle in bringing the hostages home.
Which means it is now undeniable that only Trump can bring the hostages home. It is bittersweet to realize that he is a more successful advocate for the hostages than Netanyahu. I do not like nor trust him. His rampaging attacks on American democracy, deplorable morals and political misdeeds sicken me.
He cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of anyone except himself. His cozying up to the Houthis, Iran and Qatar — including accepting a luxury jet from the latter — is not about seeking peace, but about his own gain. There is a reason that Alexander, the last surviving American hostage, is the only one whose liberty he negotiated for.
But when it comes to the hostages, Netanyahu is a liability, not an asset. Trump is the only person in the world with real authority to bypass Netanyahu — and the one person that Netanyahu cannot say no to.
In 18 months of war, Netanyahu has never truly prioritized the hostages. This is not an opinion but a verifiable fact. His actions, statements and political allies all confirm this. Just last week, he reaffirmed that “victory over our enemies” remains his supreme goal — not the return of the now-58 hostages who remain in Gaza, only some 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Netanyahu’s priorities lie in appeasing his far-right coalition, who see Israeli compromise as capitulation, to preserve his own political power. The hostages be damned.
Netanyahu has steamrolled anyone who sought to halt his forever war in Gaza: former defense minister Yoav Gallant, outgoing Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and hostage families themselves. Israel recently called up tens of thousands of reservists to continue its aim of the now meaningless slogan “total victory.”
The Israeli government “has not given us the feeling that it’s doing everything to bring him back,” Israeli-American Ruby Chen, whose son Itay’s body is still held in Gaza, told me during a podcast interview in March. “It’s a subjective feeling. But I think that the majority of the hostage families feel that.”
“What was the first action that they did collectively? They got on a plane and flew to Washington, D.C. to meet President Trump,” Chen said, speaking about a group of hostages freed during a ceasefire earlier this year. “Why didn’t they get on a minibus to Jerusalem to meet the Prime Minister?”
The answer is obvious.
The hostages knew that Trump, not Netanyahu, was the reason they were free at all: in January, the incoming Trump administration joined with former President Joe Biden to successfully strong-arm Netanyahu into accepting a phased ceasefire deal that saw Hamas release 25 living hostages and eight deceased.
The deal crumbled when Israel halted negotiations for a second phase, and promptly resumed its military operations in Gaza in March. But after Biden pushed unsuccessfully for such a ceasefire months before Trump’s intercession, it’s clear why there was any respite at all.
We see that Trump’s method of indefatigable negotiation — and willingness to threaten whoever stands in his way — is effective.
When it comes to Hamas, who blew up its fair share of deals by rejecting negotiations, changing its demands and treating hostages as human currency, Trump promised them that “all hell will break loose.” He also saw past Netanyahu’s disingenuous promises and empty slogans. “Israel is prolonging the war,” Steve Witkoff, the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, reportedly told hostage families, “even though we do not see where further progress can be made.” Trump is willing to skirt political niceties and call Netanyahu out directly when it personally benefits him.
Trump is an opportunist, and right now is a politically expedient opportunity for him to look good by doing what Netanyahu has failed to do: bring Israeli citizens home and end the war. Between Russia and Ukraine, an Iran nuclear deal and the war in Gaza, Trump is seeking big wins to crown himself as a “peacemaker.”
Now that the last living American citizen is out of Gaza, there must be continued advocacy for Trump to free all of the remaining hostages. Trump’s remarks after Alexander’s release felt promising: “We hope that we’re going to have other hostages released.”
Jews and Israelis advocating for the hostages’ release have used everything at their disposal: protests, international pressure, media, diplomacy, and more. Encouraging Trump to either keep bypassing Netanyahu, or take an even firmer stand in negotiating with him, is the only option we have left.
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