As I write, Hamas seems to have agreed to a peace deal brokered by Donald Trump. This is a great achievement for Trump and, although many things could still go wrong in prosecuting the peace plan, we should give credit where credit is due.
The struggle between Israel and Hamas was a seemingly intransigent problem that certainly seemed beyond the capability of previous USA governments to resolve. There were a number of obvious reasons for that.
Firstly, the Democratic regimes in the USA were ambiguous about their support for Israel whereas the Republicans under Trump stood firmly with Israel.
Secondly the Obama and Biden governments relied on conventional diplomacy to resolve the issue and were reluctant to confront the radical Islamists. Trump on the other hand had the courage to attack Iran to downgrade its nuclear weapons program and cut off Iran’s support of the various Islamist terrorist groups (including Hamas) that they have routinely sponsored. Being the great disrupter that he is, meant that all the players who were used to decades of ineffectual diplomacy had to confront someone who really wanted to make a difference!
Trump’s decisive action against the Iranian’s nuclear ambitions caused Iran to scale down its destabilising efforts resulting in diminished support for the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas who all had from time to time launched assaults against Israel.
Another important factor has been Trump’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Whilst their relationship has been sometimes strained, Trump has remained sufficiently close to Netanyahu to temper his more rash responses to provocations from Hamas and the other Islamist opponents of Israel who had largely relied on the sponsorship of Iran.
As well, the potency of the Israeli Defence Forces has allowed Israel to dominate militarily when it has had to. Israel, because of the frequent attacks on its sovereignty, has a battle hardened and lethal defence force more than capable of holding its own in any theatre of war.
Now I am the first to admit that Trump has character flaws. He is arrogant, bombastic and egotistical and when commenting on his own achievements prone to hyperbole!.
But Trump is not inexperienced in Middle East diplomacy. In his first term he succeeded in negotiating the Abraham Accords which saw Sunni Muslim countries reach a détente which defused considerably the tensions in the Middle East.
Moreover Trump is more objective about international relations, not being in the thrall of the United Nations, unlike many European countries and other Western democracies such as Australia and Canada. This meant that Trump could champion the cause of the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, Israel without due concern for the facile platitudes of the United Nations.
Now this is an important point. Israel is a champion of democracy, whereas the radical Islamism of Iran and its fellow travellers is antithetical to Western values and indeed to democracy itself. In this regard it is surprising that many Western governments, including our own, have not been more supportive in holding radical Islamism at bay. In this respect Israel’s struggle against radical Islamism is a fight for all liberal democracies. It is a pity that many of those who enjoy the fruits of democracy seem so reluctant to make any sacrifice to defend it!
In the midst of this existential crisis for Israel, the weak leaders of the UK, Canada and Australia ran off to the United Nations to cede nationhood status to Palestine, despite the fact that Palestine met none of the criteria for statehood. This was essentially an empty gesture to try to appease Hamas. Of course Hamas applauded this move and immediately withdrew from peace negotiations believing they now had an elevated status which meant they could escalate their demands!
Incongruously, now that there seems some reasonable prospect of peace, Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong claim this precipitate action somehow added “momentum” to the peace effort. How deluded they are! The USA Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on the other hand reported that this cowardly capitulation merely emboldened Hamas who then immediately withdrew from peace negotiations!
Ever since the October 7 event Albanese and Wong have continuously exhorted Israel to moderate their attacks on Hamas. But if the IDF had not significantly degraded the military capability of Hamas and killed many of their leaders there would have been little likelihood that Hamas could have been compelled to participate in meaningful peace negotiations. Albanese and Wong preached appeasement and that path had no prospect of success.
Trump, on the other hand, stood with Israel and despite some home grown criticism, facilitated the degradation of the military capability of Hamas. Moreover he diminished the capacity of Hamas’s principal benefactor, Iran, to provide continued support.
Then in a stroke of genius, Trump co-opted the support of Arab and Muslim nations to diminish support for Hamas.
Consequently we now have a platform that could allow some enduring peace in the Middle East. Whilst I have reservations about some of Trump’s policies, I can only applaud his efforts to resolve the Israel/Palestinian dilemma. And I must confess it doesn’t surprise me that this is the result of a pragmatic businessman looking for realisable outcomes rather than a career diplomat seeking to promote an idealistic ideology.
Postscript
Since I commenced this essay, the remaining hostages have been released. Fulfilling the rest of the peace plan will be extremely difficult but the hostage release in itself is a great achievement. And whatever his faults, it was unlikely to occur without the involvement of Donald Trump!