President Donald Trump's "fear factor" reignited the path toward peace between Israel and Hamas, while President Joe Biden's administration was forcing Israel to "fight with one hand behind their back," Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told Newsmax on Sunday.
"We saw that with the conditioning of military aid at the beginning of the war," Romirowsky told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "[They were] trying to level the playing field, not understanding the fact that Israel is fighting a genocidal war with the Hamas jihadi organization."
He said that approach undermined Israel's ability to defend itself.
"That was not going anywhere forward," Romirowsky said. "Much of the intelligence that we have today from the captives of Hamas [shows] the perception was that Joe Biden was appeasing them.
"And every time he made a move, that was a gain for Hamas."
Hamas leaders, however, viewed Trump's unpredictability as a deterrent.
"Donald Trump was the unknown for them," he said. "That was where the fear factor came in and was allowed and was able to push things along."
The shift was immediate after Trump took office.
"Aid came in; the Israelis took the gloves off," Romirowsky said. "They were able to move along with the attack on Hezbollah, the attack on Iran.
"Things changed when Hamas was able to see that the U.S. and Israel were actually on the same page, which was not the case [under Biden]."
Discussing the next stages of Trump's peace plan, Romirowsky said one of its core elements is "Hamas' disarmament," with some leaders being granted amnesty to relocate to nations that helped broker the deal."
"This lull period — that is to say, the Turks and the Qataris," he noted, "again [shows] creating some kind of force in the region, which talks about Tony Blair coming in.
"I would like to see the Egyptians come into all of this and see how that plays out."
Still, Romirowsky cautioned that Israel faces serious challenges in maintaining security as part of the cease-fire.
"The Israelis are also releasing 1,700 active terrorists that are going to go back to fortify the Hamas bench," he warned. "How do you manage all of that, and how do you deal with the next phase of all of this? Those are part of the unknowns."
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