President-elect Donald Trump’s strong stance on reaching a resolution in the Middle East has finally given way to a ceasefire and hostage release deal, despite the hopelessness that loomed over the Israel-Hamas war spanning the last 15 months. This week has marked the first notable pause in fighting since Dec. 1, 2023, and it is no coincidence that the ceasefire, just approved by the Israeli Security Cabinet, is expected to begin around Trump’s inauguration.
Trump’s peace-through-strength foreign policy approach has proven to be effective in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges plaguing the war in Gaza. He wasted no time following his election victory as he dispatched his incoming special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, in December 2024 to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to support Biden’s foreign policy team in the negotiation process. Since Witkoff’s second visit to Doha last week, Trump has demonstrated he will follow through on his commitment to resolving the chaos in the Middle East.
While hope is rising that peace is near for the first time in 15 months, much remains unresolved as the ceasefire deal aims to result ultimately in a declaration of “sustainable calm” by phase two and the implementation of a reconstruction plan in Gaza by phase three, a plan without details or direction.
As expected, the negotiation process has not been smooth. The Israeli Cabinet delayed its vote on the ceasefire agreement, blaming Hamas for reneging and attempting to obtain last-minute concessions. The hostage exchange is also uneven to Israel’s detriment as Hamas is expected to release 33 of the 96 remaining hostages in the first phase, while Israel would release 30 Palestinian prisoners for each civilian hostage and 50 for each female soldier. The gradual release of hostages is not ideal either, as it could give Hamas leverage in the negotiation process, and concerns remain regarding the condition of the hostages following 15 months of captivity.
Postwar success in Gaza requires the elimination of Hamas’s presence and operations in the region. If Israeli troops withdraw from the Gaza Strip by phase two, as laid out in the ceasefire deal, eliminating Hamas will be much more difficult. Israel’s targeted strikes on key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and allies have greatly diminished the capabilities of both terrorist organizations. The targeted pager attacks by Israel against Hezbollah operatives in September 2024 sent a clear message that terrorism will not be tolerated, and Hezbollah’s morale and capacity plummeted as a result.
Israel’s operational successes may be undermined by a ceasefire, allowing Hamas and Hezbollah to recover and regroup. Thankfully, the incoming administration is proving to take Middle East security seriously, and the decisions in the weeks ahead will be vital to ensuring Hamas does not have the upper hand in this deal.
While many details regarding the future of Gaza remain fuzzy, it should be nonnegotiable that Hamas can no longer retain control of Gaza. Hamas has proven a willingness to disregard innocent civilian lives in pursuit of an ideological agenda that seeks the ultimate destruction of Israel. While Israel has been condemned continually by the international community for indiscriminate bombings, the same advocacy groups fail to mention that Hamas has built an expansive tunnel network across Gaza to conduct its operations and yet lacked the capacity to build bomb shelters for the Gazans who have reaped the ultimate cost of warfare.
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Hamas is estimated to have spent $1 billion on this tunnel network. Those funds could have been directed to schools, hospitals, or actual above-ground infrastructure development, but Hamas’ agenda always comes first. Hamas cannot continue to control Gaza, as Trump has made clear.
While Trump’s foreign policy approach may be viewed with contempt in the international community as a marked shift toward transactional policies that prioritize American interests, his demonstration of strength, vowing that there would be “hell to pay,” was taken seriously. Hopefully, his projection of strength will force Hamas to concede its governance of Gaza, and only then can reconstruction be in sight.
Meaghan Mobbs is the director of the Center for American Safety and Security at the Independent Women’s Forum. Mallory Sailer is an intern with the Independent Women’s Forum and a master of international affairs student at the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
