Vivian Bercovici: Trump wants a big, beautiful peace deal, but Hamas is standing in the way
When Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old American-Israeli IDF soldier who was recently released from Hamas captivity visited Trump in the Oval Office last Thursday, Steve Witkoff, America's special envoy to the Middle East, was also present. Witkoff asked Alexander to tell Trump how his conditions changed following the November election in the United States.
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'They moved me to a new place, a good place,' Alexander said. 'People did everything. They treated me really well.'
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Trump revelled in the confirmation that Hamas feared him, quipping: 'They weren't too afraid of Biden.' Alexander quickly agreed.
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By the end of this week, Trump wants a deal. A big, beautiful deal that will usher in a significant expansion of the Abraham Accords, perhaps announcing that negotiations will include Lebanon and Syria, which would be groundbreaking.
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The jewel in the Middle Eastern crown — Saudi Arabia — will likely hold back, as it has indicated consistently. The Saudis will condition their embrace of a new Middle East security and economic order on the end of the war between Israel and Hamas.
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It will thus fall to Witkoff to work his magic in Doha and find a way to bridge the critical gap between Hamas and Israel. That would likely involve the first stage of a ceasefire, partial Israeli withdrawal and the phased release of living and dead hostages. Trump would take that as a win at this point.
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The final stretch will be the toughest. Hamas will continue to hold living hostages, as they are its only leverage. And Israel will resist committing to a full withdrawal from the Strip with Hamas still standing — even barely — in order to bring them all home.
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No one in the region — aside from Iran, Hezbollah and, one has to assume, Qatar — is keen to see Hamas survive. Qatar, of course, is friends with both the United States and Hamas — hosting the largest U.S. military base in the region, while financing and providing a home base to the terrorist organization's leadership in Doha.
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With the flick of a wrist, Qatar could take down Hamas. It has not done so. So we continue with this absurd situation: the battered Hamas terrorist force, which is ideologically committed to the destruction of Israel, is left holding these very powerful aces — human beings.
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Waiting on the sidelines is the jewel of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia. Only when the dirty details are swept away will the Saudis even consider joining Trump's big, beautiful plan to bring peace and glory to the Middle East. Steve Witkoff has a big job ahead of him.
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