President Donald Trump celebrated the release of the final 20 Israeli hostages from Hamas dungeons on Monday, telling Israel‘s Knesset that “after two harrowing years of darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families.” Referring to the repatriation of the remains of hostages who died in Gaza, Trump added, “28 more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in this sacred soil for all of time.”

This peace and end to the hostage ordeal is indeed a glorious moment that all should admit was secured by deft and forceful American diplomacy by the Trump administration.

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Just a few weeks after taking ownership of efforts to end Israel’s war with Hamas and see Israeli citizens returned home, Trump has got it done. He has accomplished what Former President Joe Biden could not. He did so not by punishing and scorning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Biden did, but by both reassuring him that the United States was a staunch ally and by putting pressure on him to accept an end to the war. This, on one side of the ledger, he combined on the other with wrangling America’s Sunni Arab partners to put unprecedented pressure on Hamas to surrender its hostages. Hamas was offered a choice between this deal or annihilation. It would have been nice if the terrorists had received both, but one can’t have it all.

Trump celebrated on Monday, saying, “The Arab and Muslim world came together to press Hamas to set the hostages free.” He offered hope that these nations would now join the Abraham Accords and establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel.

This point must be emphasized: Trump has accomplished something of global significance and a profound strategic and moral worth. Anyone caviling at this is not arguing in good faith.

TRUMP CELEBRATES ‘GOLDEN AGE’ OF ISRAEL AND MIDDLE EAST

The president is derided by bien pensants as a clown and as dangerous, but in fewer than ten months since reentering office, Trump has ended a war and freed innocents held at death’s door while they and their families were pushed toward despair.

Trump has also achieved the possibility that was unthinkable only a short time ago, that the Middle East might in the foreseeable future be defined not by perpetual chaos but by prosperous cooperation. Trump does not yet have a Nobel Peace Prize, but history will praise what he has just done.

It will think less of Trump’s domestic political opponents of past and present. As he made history on Monday, one of the most absurd Nobel Peace Prize laureates of all, Barack Obama, was pontificating about saving democracy and posting about his latest podcast appearance. Biden did not comment on the historic agreement. Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign challenger, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, continued flogging her book but grudgingly congratulated Trump while associating herself with those who baselessly claim that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Trump’s deal hugely benefits Israel. After two years and one week of war, the Jewish nation has been made whole again with its people. The agreement will bolster Israel’s diplomatic standing, reinforcing its regional strength. Hamas has been gutted, losing many thousands of commanders and rank-and-file terrorists, and vast reserves of armaments, funds, and facilities. The new agreement demonstrates the terrorist group’s isolation politically, even from key supporters Qatar and Turkey.

The region’s leading terrorist sponsor, Iran, is quiet after devastating U.S.-Israeli attacks on its nuclear program, and the disemboweling of its primary proxy, the Lebanese Hezbollah.

Trump will have to live up to his pledge to ensure the peace holds into the second stage of negotiations, but the terrorists are weaker, having been forced to give up the hostages, their only leverage against Israel.

The Jewish state had to release 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of them terrorist murderers, to get their citizens back. By agreeing to a ceasefire, Israel also risks Hamas living to fight another day. But if hard-headed and patient diplomacy can see Hamas dismantled as a viable military and political force, this agreement will usher in a much better future for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

TRUMP’S TRIUMPH IS BAD NEWS FOR HIS ADVERSARIES

Moral history is measured not in posturing rhetoric but in physical results that improve lives. Trump has plainly secured a great victory. He has freed innocents, forced a terrorist group into diminished isolation, and crafted a credible new hope for a far better Middle Eastern future. There are difficult days ahead. But Trump can be proud, as he is, of what he has accomplished.

The president has shown that no conflict is beyond the resolution of his mediating influence. In the second stage of negotiations between Israel and Hamas, as with his diplomatic endeavors toward Ukraine, North Korea, and Iran, let us hope that Trump builds on this formidable success.