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I'll add another story on the challenges and complexities of negotiating the hoped for hostage/ prisoners swap in Israel.
One of the key factors in the situation was the role of President Joe Biden in calling and negotiating with the Quatar representatives.
I highlight this factor because it is probably one of the key differences in Presidential capacity between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I suspect even Donald trumps strongest supporters would not see him as capable of carrying out this sort of negotiation
On November 9, Burns and Barnea met the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, in Doha. But they felt they couldn't progress the deal without knowing who was going to be freed.
Top-level diplomacy was needed. The White House says president Joe Biden then phoned his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, and had a "very intense call about where we stood".
Soon after the call, Hamas provided a list.
.... The White House has been keen to emphasise the president's intimate involvement in the hostage deal, listing the number of phone calls he had with his counterparts in Israel, Qatar and Egypt.
Officials also described a Zoom meeting he held with the families of the American hostages in mid-October, with one describing it as one of the most "gut wrenching things I've ever experienced in that office."
Reporters have been backgrounded on his insistence — despite pushback in Israel — that truckloads of aid be allowed into Gaza.
White House officials stress this was not only to meet Hamas's conditions of a hostage release, but to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinians at risk of being starved by an Israeli siege.
One of the key factors in the situation was the role of President Joe Biden in calling and negotiating with the Quatar representatives.
I highlight this factor because it is probably one of the key differences in Presidential capacity between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I suspect even Donald trumps strongest supporters would not see him as capable of carrying out this sort of negotiation
On November 9, Burns and Barnea met the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, in Doha. But they felt they couldn't progress the deal without knowing who was going to be freed.
Top-level diplomacy was needed. The White House says president Joe Biden then phoned his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, and had a "very intense call about where we stood".
Soon after the call, Hamas provided a list.
.... The White House has been keen to emphasise the president's intimate involvement in the hostage deal, listing the number of phone calls he had with his counterparts in Israel, Qatar and Egypt.
Officials also described a Zoom meeting he held with the families of the American hostages in mid-October, with one describing it as one of the most "gut wrenching things I've ever experienced in that office."
Reporters have been backgrounded on his insistence — despite pushback in Israel — that truckloads of aid be allowed into Gaza.
White House officials stress this was not only to meet Hamas's conditions of a hostage release, but to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinians at risk of being starved by an Israeli siege.
How high-level hostage diplomacy got through the sticking points that threatened the deal
For weeks, the faces of hostages have been plastered on posters all over the world, while the diplomatic operation to free them has largely been top secret.