Gaza Cease-Fire Deal
Advertisement
Supported by
News Analysis
But the extraordinary collaboration between outgoing and incoming presidents did not stop both sides from claiming credit.
Peter Baker
Peter Baker has covered the past five presidents and was briefly The Times’s lead correspondent in Jerusalem.
The long-sought, tortuously negotiated Gaza cease-fire deal announced on Wednesday came about in part through a remarkable collaboration between President Biden and President-elect Donald J. Trump, who temporarily put aside mutual animosity to achieve a mutual goal.
The two presidents directed their advisers to work together to push Israel and Hamas over the finish line for an agreement to halt the fighting that has ravaged Gaza and release hostages who have been held there for 15 months. The deal is set to start on Sunday, the day before Mr. Biden turns over the White House to Mr. Trump.
Each president had his own interest in settling the matter before Inauguration Day. For Mr. Biden, the deal, if it holds, represents a final vindication on his watch, what he hopes will be the end of the deadliest war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while freeing Americans as well as Israelis from captivity. For Mr. Trump, the deal, for now, takes a major issue off the table as he opens a second term, freeing him to pursue other priorities.
The dramatic development, just five days before the transfer of power in the United States, cut against the natural grain in Washington, where presidents of opposing parties rarely work in tandem during a transition, even in the face of a major crisis. But the political planets quickly returned to their normal orbits as both sides argued over who deserved credit for resolving the standoff.
While Mr. Biden waited for official word to come from the region, Mr. Trump got the jump on him by disclosing the deal himself in an all-caps social media post. “This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November,” he added soon afterward.
By the time Mr. Biden appeared before cameras at the White House later in the afternoon, he was more gracious, noting that the two teams spoke with one voice. But he bristled when asked who merited credit, him or Mr. Trump. “Is that a joke?” he asked.
Still, the partnership, awkward and prickly as it was, stood out in an era of deep polarization. “It really is extraordinary,” said Mara Rudman, who was deputy special envoy for Middle East peace under President Barack Obama. “Everybody’s talking about who gets credit, but the fact is that it’s shared and part of the reason it worked is that it’s shared.”
That was not to say that it would lead to enduring synergy on this or other issues. “This was a case where the right thing to do aligned with people’s best political interest as well,” said Ms. Rudman, now a scholar at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
However credit is ultimately apportioned, diplomats, officials and analysts said it seemed clear that both presidents had played important roles. The deal that was finally agreed to was essentially the same one that Mr. Biden had put on the table last May and that his envoys, led by Brett H. McGurk, his Middle East coordinator, had worked painstakingly to make acceptable to both sides.
At the same time, Mr. Trump’s impending return to power and his blustery threat, that “all hell will break out” if the hostages were not released by the time he was sworn in, clearly changed the calculations of the warring parties. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the beneficiary of so much support from Mr. Trump during his first term, could not take for granted that the new president would back him if he prolonged the war during his second term.
Indeed, it was telling that Mr. Netanyahu, who goes by the nickname Bibi, called Mr. Trump first to thank him after the deal was announced and only then called Mr. Biden. In a statement, Mr. Netanyahu emphasized his gratitude to Mr. Trump “for his remarks that the United States will work with Israel to ensure that Gaza will never be a terrorist haven.” Mr. Biden was not mentioned until the fourth paragraph and only in a single sentence that thanked him “as well” for his assistance.
Mr. Trump’s desire to force a deal went beyond his trademark public threats and extended to constructive assistance on the ground. He authorized Steve Witkoff, his longtime friend whom he picked as special envoy for the Middle East, to work with Mr. McGurk to press negotiators to finalize the agreement. Mr. McGurk and his team were happy to have the help and use Mr. Witkoff’s support as leverage.
“This was Biden’s deal,” former Representative Tom Malinowski, Democrat of New Jersey, wrote on social media, “but as much as I hate to say it, he couldn’t have done it without Trump — not so much Trump’s performative threats to Hamas, but his willingness to tell Bibi bluntly that the war had to end by Jan. 20.”
There were some Republicans who were willing to praise Mr. Biden for his efforts to forge the agreement along with Mr. Trump. “It is good to see the Biden Administration and Trump Transition working together to get this deal done,” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote on social media.
Few transitions have seen such a moment of intersecting interests. In the throes of the Great Depression, the defeated President Herbert Hoover tried to engage President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt to team up to address a bank crisis, only to be rebuffed by an incoming leader who did not want to be tied to his predecessor.
A more eerily haunting example came 44 years ago, when President Jimmy Carter labored until the final hours of his presidency to free 52 American hostages being held in Iran without help from his successor, President-elect Ronald Reagan. In fact, some evidence has emerged suggesting that people around Mr. Reagan tried to discourage Iran from releasing the hostages before the election for fear that it would help Mr. Carter, although official investigations never verified that.
Mr. Carter ultimately struck a deal to free the hostages, but in a final insult Iran held back the planes with the Americans onboard until moments after Mr. Reagan was sworn in on Jan. 20, 1981. That memory was not lost on Mr. Biden’s team in recent weeks, especially after Mr. Carter’s death last month. Administration officials and their allies in recent days had been morbidly mulling the possibility of history repeating itself.
The coming change in political leadership in the United States was not the only factor driving the negotiations over the war in Gaza. The situation on the ground has changed dramatically since Mr. Biden first offered his cease-fire proposal in May.
In the interim, Israel has decapitated the leadership of Hamas, all but demolished its allied militia Hezbollah in Lebanon and taken out key military facilities in Iran. A Biden-brokered cease-fire in Lebanon left Hamas without a second front against Israel, further isolating it. And the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria only reinforced the weakness of Iran and its allies and proxies.
But the looming Inauguration Day in Washington created a new action-forcing deadline that was hard to ignore. Mr. Trump said little during the campaign about the war, but when he did he made it clear that he was not happy about it and urged Israel to wrap it up as soon as possible because the heart-wrenching pictures of death and destruction in Gaza were damaging Israel’s reputation on the international stage.
Moreover, Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Netanyahu has evolved since his first term, when he presented himself as the Israeli leader’s staunchest ally. Mr. Trump cut aid to the Palestinians, moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli authority over the Golan Heights and presided over diplomatic openings between Israel and several of its Arab neighbors.
But their ties soured in Mr. Trump’s final year in office when he perceived Mr. Netanyahu to be taking advantage, and they deteriorated even further when the prime minister congratulated Mr. Biden on a victory in the 2020 election that Mr. Trump still denies. Mr. Netanyahu has worked assiduously in recent months to make up with Mr. Trump.
As for Mr. Biden, his own relationship with Mr. Netanyahu has been strained since the days soon after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack, when he flew to Israel and hugged the Israeli leader on the tarmac. Biden advisers and allies have suspected that Mr. Netanyahu was deliberately holding off on a cease-fire deal to hand the victory to Mr. Trump in an effort to kowtow to him.
Mr. Biden said nothing about that during his televised remarks on Wednesday. But after 15 months of trying to manage the Middle East crisis and head off a wider regional war, he appeared relieved to see an end coming.
“I’m deeply satisfied this day has come, finally come, for the sake of the people of Israel and the families waiting in agony and for the sake of the innocent people in Gaza who suffered unimaginable devastation because of the war,” Mr. Biden said.
He referred to the collaboration with Mr. Trump without mentioning him by name. “I’d also note this deal was developed and negotiated under my administration,” Mr. Biden said, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. “But its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration. These past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team.”
Asked about Mr. Trump’s role, Mr. Biden noted that the cease-fire was “the exact framework of the deal I proposed back in May” and claimed credit for giving Israel the backing it needed to weaken Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. “I knew this deal would have to be implemented by the next team,” he added, “so I told my team to coordinate closely with the incoming team to make sure we’re all speaking with the same voice because that’s what American presidents do.”
Mr. Trump made no mention of the role of his predecessor’s team and left the impression in his social media posts that he had delivered the agreement by himself.
“We have achieved so much without even being in the White House,” he wrote. “Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House, and my Administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more Victories for the United States!”
Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times. He has covered the last five presidents and sometimes writes analytical pieces that place presidents and their administrations in a larger context and historical framework. More about Peter Baker
Advertisement
