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When President Trump organized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in the White House at the beginning of April, a reporter recalled Mr Trump that his campaign blade of 2024 to end the war in Gaza remained unfulfilled.
Israel had recently renewed a weak ceasefire in his 18-month war with Hamas and his bombing of Gaza. But Mr. Trump claimed optimism.
“I would like to see the war stop,” he replied. “And I think the war will stop at some point that will not be in the future.”
A month later, the prospects for peace in Gaza were even further dimmed.
Mr. Netanyahu warned on Monday From an “intensive” Israeli escalation in the Palestinian enclave after his safety cabinet had approved plans to call tens of thousands of reservists for a new attack there.
Israeli hawks insist that only strength can put Hamas under pressure to finally release the more than 20 hostages who still keeps it trapped and ends the conflict. But many analysts say that a great Israeli escalation can kill any hope that is left for peace.
The question now is how Mr. Trump will respond. Analysts said that, after an early flurry of diplomacy to free the hostages and reach a long -term scheme, Mr. Trump and his senior officials are derived from the conflict. That is something of a free hand intended for Mr Netanyahu, who seems willing to use it.
“In the beginning of the administration, all the promise on Gaza was,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a middle -in -east specialist in the administrations of Obama and Biden. “But when the ceasefire ceased fell apart, Trump actually gave the Israelis the green light to do what they wanted.”
“My feeling is that he is not that involved,” added Mr Goldenberg, who is now a senior vice-president at J Street, a Center-left Jewish political advocacy. “He was a bit bored.”
Mr. Trump is planning to travel to the middle next week, with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
A violent escalation in Gaza would be frustrating for Mr. Trump, a grim memory that he did not deliver the peace that he promised.
Yet it is possible that Mr. Trump has lost patience and welcomes in Israel in Israel to arouse a final, crushing blow to Hamas in what Mr Netanyahu said that his military officers said that he would be ‘the final movements’ of the war.
Mr. Trump can also have a high tolerance for the use of heavy power by Israel. He has warned Hamas that “All Hell” will come loose if the group does not release the remaining hostages.
Michael Makovsky, the president and chief executive of the Hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security of America, agreed that Mr. Trump was less involved with Israel on the subject of Gaza than the Biden government.
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. And his top officials spent an enormous amount of time after the October 7, 2023, Hamas -attacks trying to manage the Israeli Gaza campaign. Their goal was to limit civilians in Gaza and to save Israel from international conviction, even if critics called them far too tolerant for the use of violence by Israel.
Mr. Trump has shown concern of concern about the population of Gaza and said on Monday that he would help Gazans “get some food” in the midst of an Israeli blockade.
But his attention to the conflict has been sporadic.
“It is just like day and night with the BIDEN administration, who tried to micromanate Israel’s activities,” said Mr Makovsky.
Israeli officials don’t get any phone calls, “he said.” I don’t think they will be pressed about how much auxiliary trucks are coming in. “
Axios Reported on Monday That Israel would launch a new land surgery in Gaza if a deal with Hamas was not reached by the time Mr Trump returned from his journey to the region. Mr Makovsky, who recently attended meetings with Senior Israeli officials, said the report corresponded to his understanding.
When it comes to the middle -old, he added, Mr. Trump was more focused on budding diplomacy focused on preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.
In a statement on Monday, Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, that Mr. Trump is committed to securing the immediate release of hostages and an end to Hamas rule in Gaza. ” He added that “Hamas is bearing the only responsibility for this conflict and for the resumption of hostilities.”
A sign of the changing focus is the portfolio of Mr Trump’s special envoy for the Midden -Oost, Steve Witkoff. In the early days of Mr. Trump’s presidency, Mr. Witkoff threw himself in the Israel-Hamas diplomacy in the pursuit of extending a temporary agreement for ceasefires that was reached on January 15.
But Mr. Witkoff has since become a kind of roaming super envoy who juggles with many missions. The former real estate developer and old Trump -friend has also accepted the Iran file and has met President Vladimir V. Putin van Russia four times to discuss Ukraine.
There is little to suggest that State Secretary Marco Rubio has arrived. Mr. Rubio, who also gave Mr Trump the task of the national security adviser last week, still has to visit Israel.
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