Two weeks ago, I wrote about a potential peace plan between Israel and Hamas that had been proposed by President Trump. At the time of that column, the deal looked unlikely. But, to my surprise, Hamas and Israel agreed to the plan and it went into effect. Last week hostages were returned to Israel, and prisoners were released into Gaza. Those scenes were ones of joy and relief for the families that had been waiting for years to see their loved ones again. But the joy may be short-lived, and the hostage and prisoner exchange was the easy part. Now comes the tremendously difficult process of putting together a lasting peace. The headlines following the exchange reflected the difficulties that lie ahead. News story after news story talked about the unanswered questions that remain and wondering what the next steps were for Israel and Hamas. After my last column, I reached out to a friend who is much closer to the situation than I am and the feeling they gave off was one of caution. Of course, that caution is warranted, we have no way of knowing how this will play out.

But all of these caveats and worries and concerns stand in stark contrast to the message and tone that was struck by President Trump in front of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) last week. He declared “the war is over.” Further saying that this is “not only the end of a war, this is the end of the age of terror and death.” Even before he got to Israel, he was proclaiming peace on Air Force One, “The war is over, you understand that.”

Knowing Trump as we do, it’s easy to dismiss his rhetoric as a narcissist touting his own achievements to boost his ego. But in this moment, I have never wanted President Trump to be more right. I hope that the war is over, that peace will take hold, and that, as he put it, the age of terror and death is over. John and Yoko told us that “War is over (if you want it).” Right now, we should all hold that desire, an end to the war, the killing, the bombing, the terror, the kidnapping, the despair, the children being buried in rubble, the insanity.

But it would appear that one week in the peace is already in danger. As I’m writing this on Sunday, there have been flareups of violence this morning between Hamas and Israel. Each side has accused the other of breaching the peace. Israel launched waves of air strikes on dozens of targets within the city of Rafah, claiming that Israel Defense Forces personnel came under fire from Hamas fighters. In addition to the air strikes, Israel has halted humanitarian aid going into Gaza. The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, denies the claims being made by the IDF.

From a Palestinian perspective, one could understand why this might look like Israel resuming the killing after getting the hostages back. It demonstrates the tremendous task ahead of the stakeholders working towards peace in the region. A ceasefire is easy to negotiate compared to trying to build trust between the two sides. It’s still early, but if both sides point fingers at the other and assume malicious intent, there will never be a holding and lasting peace. Releasing hostages and prisoners is one thing, building trust is quite another.

The other facet that this recent flareup demonstrates is that while it’s clear that most Palestinian and Israeli citizens want peace, what’s less clear is if the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hamas want peace. Netanyahu has been a reluctant participant in the peace talks, only doing so because of the pressure being placed on him by the United States and European nations. One could imagine that it would not take much provocation for him to order the IDF to retaliate. He is surrounded by far-right ministers who also do not seem eager to engage in peace. Already this morning the National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he wanted the IDF to “fully resume combat in the Gaza Strip with maximum force.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich simply posted, “War!” on his social media. These do not seem to be the voices of people who even desire peace.

And so, with the flareup of violence, the calls by several high-level individuals within the Israeli government for a resumption of war, and the lack of trust, it would appear that the president’s optimism was misplaced. If he is half the dealmaker he claims to be, I hope that he can find a way to make this work yet. The war can be over, but if John and Yoko were right, we need to want it.