The January ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which brought a pause to the 15 months of death and destruction following Hamas’ October 2023 terror attack against Israel and Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza, has collapsed. President Donald Trump reportedly gave Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the green light to tank the agreement he and his team helped negotiate and resume the war. 

Trump’s decision to follow Netanyahu’s lead is wrong. Continuing to enable this war will result in more violence and further U.S. entanglement in the region. Ending support for the war now may be Washington’s last chance to get out and pull the region back from the brink. 

Netanyahu abrogated the original three-phase ceasefire deal with Hamas. Instead of proceeding to the second phase of the agreement meant to negotiate a permanent end to the war, Netanyahu stalled and introduced new terms that were unsurprisingly rejected by Hamas. Israel then halted the entry of food, medicine, and other supplies to Gaza, cut off electricity to the enclave, announced it would not withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor on the border with Egypt, and has now returned to war.  

Netanyahu is avoiding negotiations over a permanent end to the war—something his extremist coalition partners have threatened to collapse the government over—and is focused on preserving his own power. Before resuming the conflict, Netanyahu sidelined the security chiefs who had been leading negotiations with Hamas and tapped his personal confidant, Ron Dermer, to lead them instead, giving him more control over the negotiating process. He has increasingly clashed with the military and intelligence establishments in Israel, who for months have argued that Israel has achieved all it can militarily in Gaza and that he is prolonging the war for political reasons—something echoed by American officials. 

Netanyahu insists the war will end only when Hamas no longer exerts political or military power in Gaza and the hostages are released. But Israel’s strategy is not working. Despite unprecedented levels of violence and the ruination of Gaza, Hamas has not been eliminated—it remains the dominant political and military force inside the enclave, in part because it feeds off popular grievances to recruit and advance its own objectives. Nor has military action been successful in securing the release of the hostages: Only eight hostages were rescued by Israeli soldiers, while more than 130 were secured pursuant to negotiations with Hamas. More than three dozen hostages died in captivity in Gaza, some killed by Hamas and others by Israeli airstrikes. 

It's not just that Netanyahu has no theory of victory in Gaza; he has no exit strategy either. This appears to be deliberate—throughout the war, Netanyahu has been clear that his intention is to retain open-ended Israeli control over the enclave, ruling out any post-war role for Hamas or the Palestinian Authority as a nonstarter. Netanyahu recently embraced Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza and expel the Palestinians to neighboring countries without the right to return to their homes. Coupled with the moral depravity of this proposal is the fact that Arab states have been adamant in their opposition. These countries are spearheading a counterproposal to Trump’s plan, but so long as Israel feels it has the support of the United States to reject Palestinian self-determination or sovereignty in any form, these proposals will go nowhere. 

Netanyahu’s Gaza policy and American support for it are a prescription for endless war and further unrest. 

Outside of Gaza, the prospects of regional escalation are growing. Israel is positioning itself for military action on multiple fronts. 

In the West Bank, the Israeli military is engaged in its most expansive operation in two decades as calls for annexation rise in Israel and the United States, which further jeopardizes a two-state solution. In Lebanon, a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is holding, but is tested regularly—particularly given Israel’s refusal to fully withdraw from the country’s south—and still has the potential to drag the United States directly into the fray. In Syria, Netanyahu recently demanded the “complete demilitarization of southern Syria,” and is threatening further military action in the country, which could lead to conflict with the new government and further destabilization in Damascus. (This jeopardizes the safety of roughly 2,000 US troops inside Syria, who deserve to be withdrawn regardless.) In Yemen, the Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. Washington recently carried out sweeping airstrikes against the group, which risks prolonging a costly and ineffective U.S. military effort to deter them. 

Most concerning is Israel’s continued push for war with Iran—specifically, with the United States leading the charge. U.S. intelligence has been raising the alarm that Israel is likely to strike Iran in the coming months, aiming to take advantage of Tehran’s regional setbacks. This comes as Iran is accelerating its production of near-weapons-grade uranium, bringing Tehran closer to developing a nuclear weapon than at any point in the country’s history. Iran, Israel, and the United States appear to be on a collision course with few offramps. Complicating negotiations between Washington and Iran over the country’s nuclear program are mixed messages from Trump over his desire to strike a deal and rising pressure from hardliners inside Tehran. Israeli or American military action against Iran would shrink—if not eliminate altogether—the limited window for Trump’s stated intention to engage in negotiations with Tehran. It would also further incentivize Tehran to make a sprint for the bomb as a deterrent against further Israeli or American action. This should be avoided at all costs. 

Israel’s decision to re-enter Gaza—or a further decision to escalate on any of these other fronts—directly impacts the United States. By providing Netanyahu the weaponry and diplomatic cover that enables his policies, Washington has made itself an active party to these conflicts. By embracing Israel’s maximalist ambitions in the occupied Palestinian territories and the broader region, Washington is committing itself to perpetual conflict and entrapping itself in the Middle East.

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For the past 17 months, Netanyahu has set the tone of American Middle East policy, leading the Biden administration to support actions it claimed to oppose. Now, Trump appears to be setting himself up for the same fate, passively talking about the war as if Washington is not neck-deep in this conflict—a rhetorical stance Netanyahu will almost certainly exploit to create new realities on the ground. 

By ceding the initiative to Netanyahu, Washington has locked itself into a cycle of policies contrary to American interests. American support for Israeli policy has pushed the Middle East to the brink of region-wide war on several occasions since the war in Gaza began, resulting in an enduring U.S. war footing in the region in pursuit of no plausible political or military objectives. American troops in the Middle East have come under fire repeatedly, and Washington has spent billions of taxpayer dollars on Israeli and U.S. military operations, all failing to achieve their goals while producing new problems in their wake. Indefinitely subsidizing Israel’s unrealistic aspirations is strategically imprudent for the United States. 

Now is not the time for passivity. Washington needs to pursue real policy change. The window of opportunity for Washington to change course is closing. Netanyahu already played his hand. If Trump wants to avoid further U.S. entanglement in the Middle East and to put American interests first, he should play his.