Why Joe Biden and Donald Trump both want to claim credit for Israel-Hamas hostage deal

President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump jockeyed Wednesday for credit for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Hamas and Israel that Mr Biden had long pursued and that came together days before Mr Trump is set to retake the White House.

The Biden and Trump teams worked closely in the days leading up to the deal, talking daily and holding meetings in Qatar and Israel.

Biden officials said a meeting Saturday between Mr Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was crucial to closing the deal, and Mr Witkoff has called the Biden administration “the tip of the spear” in talks.

Their cooperation represents a highly unusual moment in the polarized world of US politics, especially given the contentious history between the president and president-elect.

But it did not stop both Mr Trump and Mr Biden from touting their respective roles.

Mr Trump declared on social media that “the EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November.”

The president-elect, who often boasts of his dealmaking prowess, had pushed for an agreement before his inauguration and threatened last week that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Israeli hostages were not returned by Inauguration Day, which is Monday.

Mr Biden, speaking later from the White House, repeatedly noted that the agreement was very similar to the one he proposed in May.

“We got the world to endorse it,” Mr Biden said.

“Secondly, it’s America’s support for Israel that helped them badly weaken Hamas and its backers and create the conditions for this deal.”

He said he told his team to make sure that he and Mr Trump were “speaking with the same voice, because that’s what American presidents do.”

Asked Wednesday whom he expected to get the most credit for the deal - “You or Trump?” one reporter queried - the president demurred.

“Is that a joke?” he said, before turning to walk away.

The issue of who gets credit for brokering a break in the 15-month conflict is a particularly personal one for Mr Biden, who has been speaking to the history books as he prepares to end his 50-year career in public service on Monday.

During the negotiations, Mr Biden often grew frustrated with Mr Netanyahu, who rebuffed US admonitions about civilian casualties and at times seemed reluctant to approve a ceasefire.

The timing of the deal is unusual, coming less than a week before a US presidential transition of power.

It echoes the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, who were held in Tehran for 444 days and whose plight hung over the failed re-election campaign of Democrat Jimmy Carter.

The hostages were freed on Jan. 20, 1981, just as Republican Ronald Reagan took office.

Some in Mr Biden’s orbit felt that Mr Netanyahu, who had cosied up to Mr Trump during his first term, was aiming to give the Republican a leg up in the campaign by rejecting a ceasefire deal before the November election.

Mr Trump’s aides and allies argued that it’s evident that Mr Trump’s approach and imminent return made the difference.

“He made it clear and unambiguous that if the hostages were not released prior to his taking office, there would be hell to pay,” said Matt Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Some Democrats also gave Mr Trump credit.

“This was Biden’s deal, 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,” former Democratic congressman Tom Malinowski wrote on X.

Other groups - such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the families of several American hostages in Gaza - thanked both Mr Biden and Mr Trump in statements on the deal. Biden officials have emphasised the importance of working with the incoming administration, with one senior administration official calling the level of coordination with Mr Witkoff “unprecedented.”

But Biden officials pushed back on the idea that Mr Trump drove the deal.

Asked at a Wednesday briefing if he agreed that Mr Trump deserves the credit, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller pushed back.

“Not only do I not buy it, it’s not what we’ve seen in the negotiations,” he said.

Mr Biden and his team have agonised over the situation in Gaza for over a year, struggling to balance a desire to show support for Israel with concerns over the plight of Palestinians, more than 46,700 of whom have been killed since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.

Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, including more than 300 soldiers.

The conflict was a weight on Mr Biden’s re-election campaign, dividing Democrats: Activists branded him “Genocide Joe,” and protesters sympathetic to Gaza regularly interrupted his rallies and White House events.

At the same time, pro-Israel groups and family members of hostages called on Mr Biden to be more resolute in supporting a key ally and securing the release of American hostages held by Hamas.

Mr Biden often responded to both groups by pointing to the efforts his administration was making to reach a ceasefire deal that would end the bombing of Gaza and allow for the release of several hostages. But negotiations repeatedly broke down until recently.

A diplomat briefed on the negotiations said Hamas’s diminished position aided negotiations, in addition to Mr Trump’s influence, saying this was “the first time there has been real pressure on the Israeli side to accept a deal.”

The diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door talks, said the contours of the agreement suggest that Israeli negotiators offered concessions on issues that had previously impeded a breakthrough.

But a senior Biden administration official contested the idea that Mr Trump’s Inauguration Day ultimatum secured a conclusion to talks.

The official said that while deadlines can be helpful, the “catalyst” for success was the defeat of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia; a ceasefire deal in Lebanon; and Hamas’s “massive isolation.”

Mr Trump seized on Democrats’ divisions on the campaign trail, often criticizing Mr Biden as not backing Israel forcefully enough.

At the same time, Mr Trump courted Arab American voters who were angry at US support for Israel - a remarkable pivot for a candidate who once called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

In remarks Wednesday, Mr Biden referred to the ceasefire deal as the culmination of hundreds of days of diplomacy, calling it “one of the toughest negotiations I’ve ever experienced” and listing the efforts his administration has made over the past year to support Israel and degrade its regional foes.

International leaders bestowed credit on both sides for reaching a deal.

Both Brett McGurk, the Middle East director for Mr Biden’s National Security Council, and Mr Witkoff were in the room Wednesday when Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani announced that an agreement had been reached.

Mr bin Abdulrahman Al Thani gave them both credit for the historic milestone.

“I really would like to thank both the envoys who are here with us in the last couple of days,” he said.

“And they played a vital role in reaching this moment.”

Mr Witkoff, Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy, emphasised the collaborative nature of the negotiations to reporters last week, as he said officials were “on the verge” of a deal.

“No one has private authorship; we are totally outcome-driven,” Mr Witkoff said, shortly before travelling to Doha.

But he made sure to cast Mr Trump as the central player.

“It’s the president, his reputation, the things that he has said that, that are driving this negotiation,” Mr Witkoff said, standing next to Mr Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

Mr Biden is correct that the agreement announced Wednesday was identical in most respects to the proposal put on the table in May. That draft was built on the outlines of a US-proposed deal reached in November 2023 that led to the release of about 100 hostages before collapsing in accusations of violations from both sides.

Over nearly 14 months of talks, Mr McGurk was a near-constant presence in the region. CIA Director William J. Burns, a big gun who was brought in for moments when a deal seemed near, travelled 19 times to the region and Europe for negotiating sessions.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made a dozen visits to the Middle East since the Hamas attacks that launched the war. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin have visited at crucial moments, as well.

Mr Biden can claim credit for a ceasefire in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel, negotiated by his special envoy, Amos Hochstein, that played a major role in leading to the Gaza ceasefire.

That agreement, reached in late November, removed any hopes by Hamas that Hezbollah would come to its rescue. It brought an intensification of negotiations throughout December mediated by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

Both Mr Sullivan and Mr Blinken made trips to the region in December. By the end of the month, as Hamas finally responded to demands to produce a full list of hostages it was holding, the talks accelerated into a final phase.

But there is little doubt that Mr Trump’s election - and his threat that there would be “hell to pay” unless a deal was reached before his inauguration - helped focus attention in Doha, the Qatari capital where the talks were held.

Biden administration officials have said they quickly began briefing Mr Witkoff on the daily status of the negotiations, aware that they would be out of office when a deal, if reached, was implemented and would need buy-in from the incoming administration.

Mr Witkoff traveled several times to Doha and, in a session that administration officials described as crucial, met Saturday in Israel with Mr Netanyahu.

Cat Zakrzewski, Susannah George and Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.

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