The most interesting detail of the hostage and ceasefire deal that Israeli and Hamas officials agreed to Wednesday lies neither in its terms, which mainly resemble what’s been on the table for months, nor in the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, is effectively acquiescing to Hamas’ continued grip on power in the Gaza Strip after loudly and repeatedly vowing he wouldn’t.

It’s the way the deal was secured: by Steven Witkoff, Donald Trump’s billionaire friend and incoming Mideast envoy, in a blunt Saturday morning meeting with the prime minister. “The envoy explained to his host in no uncertain terms that Trump expected him to agree to a deal,” Amos Harel, a Haaretz military analyst, reported Tuesday. “Things that Netanyahu had termed life-and-death issues,” he added, “suddenly vanished.”