After three days of indirect negotiations in Egypt, President Trump says Israel and Hamas have "signed off on the first phase" of the 20-point peace plan he unveiled last week.
Barry Strauss, an emeritus professor of history from Cornell University, says Trump's leadership was a key factor in getting the deal done.
Strauss says: "The deeper lessons of a war only become clear in the long term. In the short term however, if it holds, the Gaza peace deal is a triumph for President Trump. America First for Trump means that as much as possible, the US gets its allies to do the heavy lifting. That was/is the case both in Gaza and in Ukraine.
“Biden followed a similar policy, but he limited arms transfers to Israel, whereas Trump opened them up, which has made a difference. America provided leadership and financial aid and some weaponry, but the heavy lifting was done militarily by Israel and diplomatically by Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.
“As far as the art of the deal, Trump presided over the negotiation of a peace deal. I think that Trump’s policy of support for Israel (e.g., Iran, tolerating the attack on Doha) combined with personal relationships with important Muslim players, e.g., Turkey’s Erdogan, has made a big difference.”
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