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Trump wants Gaza war over ‘in any possible way’
As Gaza truce talks resume in Qatar, Dan Perry, a former regional editor for The Associated Press, says chances “are low” that a ceasefire deal gets done.
“Israel’s leaders are waiting for Donald Trump to take office because they think they’ll have greater leeway … to put more pressure on Gaza to finally get Hamas to relent. I’m not so sure this is going to a happy place soon,” he told Al Jazeera.
While Trump has indicated he wants the war on Gaza to end, Perry said that doesn’t mean a negotiated settlement that halts the bloodshed.
“When Trump says ‘get this done’, I think what he means is ‘I don’t care about the consequences; just get it done in any possible way you can so it’s over with and I can take credit for having brought peace, no matter how it was achieved,'” said Perry.
“I do not think Trump cares about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and, therefore, Netanyahu would have a freer hand.”
Trump names pro-Israel figure as deputy special envoy for the Middle East
US President-elect Trump named Morgan Ortagus, a favourite among the US’s pro-Israel lobby, as his incoming administration’s Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Middle East Peace.
Ortagus will serve under Special Envoy Steven Witkoff, who has been described as an admirer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ortagus served as spokesperson at the State Department from 2019-2021 under the first Trump administration, and was a member of the Abraham Accords team – which oversaw the normalisation of relations between Israel and Bahrain, and Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Accepting the appointment, Ortagus said she was “honoured” to represent her country in what she called a “crucial diplomatic role”.
Israel has much to gain regionally from ceasefire deal under Trump
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been stalling a Gaza ceasefire deal until US President Donald Trump comes to power, an analyst says.
“[Netanyahu has] been basically holding for time … in order to leverage with Trump [a] particular deal, in order to cash in – either in the West Bank by getting some areas annexed to Israel, or in Syria, or perhaps with a strike on Iran,” said Sami al-Arian, director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University.
Netanyahu, therefore, has been the main obstacle to a ceasefire deal, he added.
A truce deal could be close, however, as Trump has said he wants the war on Gaza over, al-Arian noted.
“After this destruction there is a lot of course to be gained for Israel, regionally speaking, because Trump wants to have a normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia, and perhaps even beyond Saudi Arabia, and this war in Gaza is just a reason not to have any kind of progress on that.”
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