Washington: President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are both claiming credit for Israel and Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire deal in Gaza Wednesday after the White House brought Trump’s Middle East envoy into negotiations that have dragged on for months.
Trump wasted no time in asserting he was the moving force behind the deal. Biden, meanwhile, stressed that the deal was reached under “the precise contours” of a plan that he set out in late May.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” Trump wrote on social media. “I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones.”
Trump added that his incoming Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff – who was participating in the talks in Doha, Qatar – would continue “to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven.”
Biden said from the White House that “my diplomacy never ceased in their efforts to get this done.”
“It is the result not only of the extreme pressure that Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and weakening of Iran – but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy,” Biden said.
The jostling comes with both Biden and Trump determined to see the deal become a set piece of Middle East success for the legacy of their presidency. Biden’s administration worked for months to broker peace in talks that inched frustratingly close to success before repeatedly breaking down. Trump, for his part, had warned of “hell to pay” if a deal wasn’t done by his inauguration – in five days.
While Biden’s refusal to impose meaningful restrictions on sending arms to Israel may have helped the key U.S. ally seriously degrade Hamas and fellow Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, it also came with enormous suffering for innocent Palestinians and Lebanese who have been caught in the crossfire of the 15 months of grinding war.
Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said Biden deserves praise for continuing to push the talks despite repeated failures. But Trump’s threats to Hamas and his efforts through Witkoff to “cajole” Netanyahu deserve credit as well, he said.
“The ironic reality is that at a time of heightened partisanship even over foreign policy, the deal represents how much more powerful and influential U.S. foreign policy can be when it’s bipartisan,” he said. “Both the outgoing and incoming administration deserve credit for this deal and it would’ve been far less likely to happen without both pushing for it.”
In his White House remarks, Biden said his administration negotiated the deal but that Trump’s team will soon be charged with making sure it’s implemented.
“For the past few days, we have been speaking as one team,” Biden said in a nod to Witkoff being part of the talks.
Trump’s team pushed back, saying Biden couldn’t get the deal done until Trump and Witkoff intervened.
The Biden administration was handing the Trump administration a detailed roadmap to win a lasting peace that has broad support in the region, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
“The involvement of President-elect Trump’s team has been absolutely critical in getting this deal over the line,” Miller told reporters. “And it’s been critical because obviously, as I stand today, this administration’s term in office will expire in five days.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog offered his gratitude to both the incoming and outgoing U.S. presidents.
Nancy Okail, head of the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, said acceptance of the deal in the face of Trump’s insistence that a ceasefire be in place when he takes office “ironically shows how effective actual pressure can be in changing Israeli government behavior.”
The Biden administration’s open embrace of the Trump team’s involvement in the talks was rooted in far more than the president-elect’s influence with Netanyahu and his threats to get a deal done before he’s back in the White House, three current U.S. officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to offer candid details, said their interest in having Witkoff participate in the talks alongside Biden’s Mideast pointman, Brett McGurk, was primarily designed to ensure that an agreement – which will require a lengthy American commitment – would have continued U.S. support after Biden leaves office.
Yet, since Witkoff entered the latest round of talks alongside McGurk, these U.S. officials have downplayed Trump’s relevance to the process, apart from the importance of ensuring his support for a deal painstakingly negotiated over the past year. They also want backing for a plan pushed by the Biden administration for the governance, reconstruction and security of Gaza that will take many months – and significant U.S. backing – to succeed.
One fear about not including Trump officials in the negotiations was that the post-conflict plan for Gaza that has been worked out over the past year might be abandoned by the new administration. It calls for an international presence in Gaza to help the Palestinian Authority with governance and reconstruction as well as a temporary foreign security presence to address Israeli security concerns.
Implementation of the agreement could begin Sunday, when the first group of hostages may be freed, according to a senior U.S. official involved in the talks.
Negotiations intensified over the past four days, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The official described McGurk and Witkoff’s coordination as a “fruitful partnership” in which the two closely coordinated as they pressed parties to come to terms. At at critical point last week, Witkoff left talks in Doha for Israel to meet with Netanyahu. That allowed McGurk to remain in Doha and continue to work with Qatari negotiators who were chief interlocutors with Hamas.
The U.S., Qatari and Egyptian negotiators, along with Israel’s team nearby, worked until the wee hours of Wednesday morning, just a floor above where the Hamas negotiators were holed up, the official said.
Later Wednesday, Hamas made several last-second demands, but “we held very firm,” and the group eventually agreed to the terms of the deal, the official said.
Over the course of the war, Biden’s relationship with Netanyahu was strained by the enormous Palestinian death toll in the fighting – now standing at more than 46,000 dead – and Israel’s blockade of the territory that has created a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza by leaving access to food and basic health care severely limited.
Pro-Palestinian activists have demanded an arms embargo against Israel, but U.S. policy has largely remained unchanged. Biden’s critics say his approach could come with long-term ramifications for U.S. standing in the Middle East and may well prove to be a stain on his legacy.
After his remarks Wednesday, Biden was walking away from the podium when a reporter asked who would be credited in the history books for the ceasefire deal.
