Trump’s plea to drop the Bibi charges may just be a path to Gaza ceasefire

The wannabe American dictator is a spineless, many-headed hydra that recently added another set of people – the naturalised – to be criminalised by the state, making Martin Niemöller’s “First they came” poem closer to reality.

There have been several things going on this past week in the US: Congress passed the Big Ugly Bill, Americans are going on 4 July holidays and SCOTUS’s ruling that bars injunctions from being applied nationwide (so now when people’s constitutional rights are infringed, we’ll all need lawyers).

Also, Trump pushed for a Gaza ceasefire this week, to which Israel has allegedly agreed and Hamas is now considering. He has stated this desire before and it is usually just empty words. This is especially true given the fact that Trump just recently greenlit an Israel war on Iran and then had the US bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities. Furthermore, since taking office, the wannabe dictator has approved $14 billion in armament sales to Israel.

However, only 42 per cent of Americans approve of Trump, the lowest rating of his second term, with the Big Ugly Bill and the US involvement in the Israel-Iran War weighing on him. The dictator knows that he needs something that will make him look good. So, he tells the justice system of Israel to “Let Bibi go” and drop the corruption charges on the criminal and orchestrator of genocide (of course, Israel only is charging on internal crimes).

Some commentators attributed this to a sort of ‘brothers-in-arms’ approach of Trump, since he, a criminal leader, saw another in distress and wanted to assist as a campaign tactic.

Yet the American wannabe dictator has little loyalty to Bibi or anyone for that matter. His behavior today will likely be the opposite tomorrow, and his cultists will love him all the more for it.

However, he knows that a Gaza cease will make him look good to everyone. The neocons will say that Trump knew it was the right time for Israel to end its war on Gaza because its objectives were met; AIPAC Dems like Hakeem, Jefferies and Chuck Schumer will agree. Every day Trump supporters will celebrate a ceasefire mostly because it would be a Trump achievement and lesser so because they generally aren’t too fond of war. Progressives will say that the wannabe dictator did what Biden couldn’t. If, somehow, he gets a wider and lasting peace (which is unlikely given Trump’s lack of diplomatic skills beyond short-term deals), it would be part of Trump’s legacy. All this would make him look good.

There is a strong possibility that his demand on Israel to drop charges of Netanyahu is to secure a Gaza ceasefire. Trump understands criminal motivations well and intuitively knows that Bibi needs the Gaza genocide to continue to stay out of jail. If criminal charges were dropped, then Trump thinks Bibi would agree to a ceasefire.

If this assertion about Trump’s motives is accurate, at first pass, it may reflect simplistic thinking on his part: Netanyahu faces major opposition in Israel, with 70 per cent of Israelis not trusting him and in an election his party may lose.

Yet after Israel’s attack on Iran, opposition leaders rallied behind him and his popularity among the public has surged, opening up the door for an electoral win. Therefore, the dropping of criminal charges alone probably wouldn’t bring Bibi to the negotiating table, but only sustained pressure from Trump would. But, without jailtime looming for Netanyahu and stronger polling, it could open up the possibility for Gaza peace.

Trump came into office claiming he would end the Ukraine War on his first day in office. He failed miserably due to his combative, transactional approach with Volodymyr Zelensky. An amateur in diplomacy, the wannabe dictator tried to cut side deals on peace (like with the Taliban) rather than bringing in both warring parties and their backers to a summit and discussing peace. A peace in Ukraine would have made the narcissist look good in his own reflection.

The temporary Gaza ceasefire that US envoy Steve Witkoff helped devise in January 2025 certainly made the wannabe dictator look good – on that front – for a few months. Yet it collapsed abysmally in March and the genocide and deliberate starvation of Gazans rose to an unbearable level. IDF commanders have given orders for soldiers to shoot at Gazans seeking food, killing about 600 so far.

One can only hope that this time around, the dictator’s presumed ploy for Gaza peace will succeed. If it does, it could end one of the worst genocides since World War II, allowing men, women and children of Gaza to resume their lives and access food without the threat of raining bullets.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.