US President Joe Biden, alongside Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R), speaks in regards to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage launch deal within the Grand Lobby of the White Home on January 15, 2025.(Photograph by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)
WASHINGTON, United States — The Gaza ceasefire clinched Wednesday was a bittersweet victory for US President Joe Biden days earlier than he fingers over the White Home to Donald Trump, who claimed credit score — and, most consultants say, deserves some.
Biden first proposed the outlines of the deal between Israel and Hamas on Could 31 however diplomatic efforts repeatedly got here up brief, even when Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned in Tel Aviv in August that it might have been the final probability for a deal.
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Trump’s Center East envoy Steve Witkoff marched into Netanyahu’s workplace on Saturday, forcing the Israeli chief to interrupt the sabbath, and pushed to seal the ceasefire.
The timing has echoes of a 1981 deal on US hostages in Iran, free of 444 days of captivity moments after Republican Ronald Reagan succeeded Democrat Jimmy Carter, though this time the outgoing and incoming administrations labored collectively.
In scenes unprecedented in current US historical past, Witkoff and Biden’s Center East advisor Brett McGurk met collectively with the emir of Qatar — a key middleman between Israel and Hamas — when sealing the deal.
Gaza truce and Trump’s declare
Trump shortly boasted that the “epic” deal “may solely have occurred” on account of his election as US president in November.
Requested if Trump deserved credit score, Biden quipped: “Is {that a} joke?”
Talking hours earlier than a beforehand scheduled farewell handle to the nation, the outgoing president stated he included the Trump group in negotiations in order that the US was “talking with one voice.”
White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated it was not sudden for all sides to hunt credit score for constructive information.
“What I can say is, the president bought it carried out,” she stated, referring to Biden.
State Division spokesman Matthew Miller stated the Trump group’s presence was about demonstrating “continuity” slightly than the Republican exerting new stress.
Staunch assist for Israel
Biden confronted heated criticism from the left of his Democratic Social gathering throughout its unsuccessful election 12 months over his staunch assist of Israel since Palestinian group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault.
Biden licensed billions of {dollars} in weapons for Israel’s relentless retaliatory marketing campaign on Gaza, regardless of criticizing the strategic US ally for the civilian dying toll — which authorities in Gaza say is within the tens of hundreds.
“The Biden administration was afraid of the political price of being seen to be urgent Israel in any method,” stated Sarah Leah Whitson, government director of the rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now.
Trump, whereas vowing to be much more pro-Israel, was capable of clarify to Netanyahu that “I don’t wish to inherit this,” Whitson stated.
“It made me assume that every one of this could have been doable months in the past and we may have saved hundreds of Palestinian lives,” she stated.
Trump had warned Hamas of “hell to pay” if it didn’t comply with a deal, which incorporates in its first part the discharge of 33 hostages seized on October 7.
David Khalfa, an professional on Israel on the Jean Jaures Basis in Paris, stated that Trump’s unpredictability seemingly impacted Hamas.
He additionally pointed to Netanyahu’s political place heading a hard-right however shaky coalition authorities.
“There may be at this time an ideological alignment between the American populist proper and the Israeli prime minister. So he has very weak room to maneuver towards a Trump who doesn’t face the pressures of reelection,” stated Khalfa.
Energy of uncertainty
Brian Katulis, a senior fellow on the Washington-based Center East Institute, stated a need by Israel and others for the correct optics as Trump takes over may have performed a job in sealing the deal.
However a bigger issue than Trump was the altering dynamics within the area — the key blows inflicted each on Hamas and its patron Iran, he stated.
Israel has devastated Iranian ally Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran’s personal air defenses, with Tehran’s fundamental ally within the Arab world, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, ousted final month by insurgent forces.
“I don’t assume any of the threats and bluster that we noticed from Trump have been an enormous issue on both aspect. I feel it’s largely a child that’s fathered by Biden and his group,” Katulis stated.
“However I feel the sense that there have been large query marks on what was coming might need motivated those that have been stonewalling,” he stated.
Jon Alterman, director of the Center East program on the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research, agreed that the uncertainty following Trump’s victory contributed to the deal.
Israel and Hamas have been negotiating “underneath the phrases that every aspect had change into acquainted with” and knew there was a excessive danger “that the parameters have been about to vary.”
And if the deal falls aside?
“Then it doesn’t matter who carried out it; there will probably be loads of blame to go round,” Alterman stated.
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