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Former President Bill Clinton praised President Donald Trump for his administration’s efforts in brokering the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, saying the president and regional partners “deserve great credit” for keeping negotiations on track.
“The horrors of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the conflict they reignited have resulted in unbearable human loss,” Clinton wrote. “It has been hard to watch and nearly impossible to rationalize.”
“I’m grateful that a ceasefire has taken hold, that the last 20 hostages have been freed, and that desperately needed aid has begun to flow into Gaza,” he continued. “President Trump and his administration, Qatar, and other regional actors deserve great credit for keeping everyone engaged until the agreement was reached.”
Clinton added that, with support from the U.S., the region, and the world, Israel and Hamas must try to turn this “fragile moment into lasting peace that provides the dignity and security of both Palestinians and Israelis.”
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“I believe that they can get there, but only if they do it together,” Clinton said.
The praise for Trump comes after a years-long feud between him and the Clintons.
The feud stemmed from Trump’s relentless attacks on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he branded the former secretary of state “Crooked Hillary.”
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The Clintons have also argued that Trump’s presidency undermined democratic norms.
While Trump periodically revives the feud, Bill Clinton has also criticized him — particularly over his handling of Israel-Iran tensions in June.
At the time, Bill Clinton expressed skepticism about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump’s intentions for peace in the Middle East. He urged Trump to calm the situation and end the “outright constant killing of civilians.”
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“First of all — they’re not talking about negotiating peace in the Middle East because the Israelis have no intention of… under Prime Minister Netanyahu, of giving the Palestinians a state. And now, they’re too divided and crushed to organize themselves to achieve it,” Bill Clinton said during a guest appearance on “The Daily Show.”
He continued, maintaining that Trump agrees with Netanyahu in believing that the Palestinians “shouldn’t have a state.” However, he added that neither leader wants to trigger a full-scale regional disaster.
“Mr. Netanyahu has long wanted to fight Iran because that way he can stay in office forever and ever. I mean, he’s been there most of the last 20 years,” the former president said. “But I think we should be trying to defuse it, and I hope President Trump will do that.”
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Bill Clinton emphasized the need for the U.S. to protect its allies in the region while also urging restraint.
“We have to convince our friends in the Middle East that we’ll stand with them and try to protect them,” he stated. “But choosing undeclared wars in which the primary victims are civilians, who are not politically involved, one way or the other, who just want to live decent lives, is not a very good solution.”
Bill Clinton conceded that the U.S. must try to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon but again stressed the need to protect innocent lives in the region.
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“Do I think that we have to try to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon? I do,” he declared. “But we don’t have to have all this outright constant killing of civilians who can’t defend themselves, and they just want a chance to live.”
Days later, President Trump launched Operation Midnight Hammer, using B-2 bombers and other jets to strike multiple uranium sites in Iran.
Hillary Clinton also praised Trump for his Israel-Hamas peace breakthrough.
“I really commend President Trump and his administration, as well as Arab leaders in the region, for making the commitment to the 20-point plan, and seeing a path forward for what is often called the day after,” she told CBS News after Hamas agreed to Trump’s peace plan.
Hillary Clinton also appeared to pull back her digs at Trump in August, just before the president met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Appearing on the “Raging Moderates” podcast, Clinton said she would nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize if he succeeded in getting Putin to end his war and return all the territory Russia seized in Ukraine.
“You know, look, if we could pull that off — if President Trump were the architect of that — I’d nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize,” she said during the interview.
Fox News Digital’s Marc Tamasco and Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
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