Biden said the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza would begin on Sunday
When President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Saturday to pressure him for a ceasefire in Gaza, someone was talking over speaker: Brett H. McGurk, President Biden’s longtime Middle East negotiator.
It was a vivid example of cooperation between two men representing bitter political rivals whose relationship has been described as toxic at best. Rarely has a group of current and new presidents of different parties worked together at such a dangerous moment, when the fate of American lives and the future of a devastating war hang in the balance. balance.
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden publicly declared recognition of this breakthrough.
“This EPIC Ceasefire was only possible because of our historic Victory in November,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media page even before The agreement has been officially announced in the Middle East.
At the White House, Mr. Biden told reporters that his administration had worked tirelessly for months to persuade both sides to stop fighting. He called it “one of the most difficult negotiations I have ever experienced” and praised “an extraordinary team of American diplomats who worked tirelessly for months to get this done.”
As he left the room, a reporter asked Mr. Biden: “Who gets the credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?” Mr. Biden stopped, turned around and smiled.
“Is that a joke?” he asked.
But despite tensions between the current president and his successor, their representatives in the Middle East have described a cooperative working relationship in the weeks since Election Day.
“Brett is leading,” Mr. Witkoff said last week at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club in Florida, describing the working relationship. That description is by all accounts accurate, even if it does not match what Mr. Trump said earlier in one of his statements describing his negotiators as role players. important.
In fact, Mr. Trump’s threat that “all hell” will break loose Failure to reach an agreement before his inauguration on Monday may have helped push the Hamas leadership to make a final decision. But people familiar with the negotiations said Wednesday’s announcement of a deal to temporarily end hostilities in Gaza was the culmination of months of work by Mr. McGurk in the Middle East, which ended with weeks of carefully coordinated efforts by Mr. Witkoff.
Mr. Witkoff, 67, an outspoken real estate investor from the Bronx, went to Qatar largely to negotiate, knowing that whatever Mr. McGurk negotiated, he would have to deliver. In fact, the 33 hostages to be released under the ceasefire may not be freed until Inauguration Day or later. The ceasefire will expire six weeks later, unless Phase 2 of the agreement comes into effect.
By design, the goal is to send a unified message that the fighting must end and hostages held by Hamas must be released. A person familiar with the negotiations, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the discussions, said Mr. McGurk was more involved in hammering out the details of the deal, while Mr. Witkoff’s role is to make clear that Mr. Trump wants a deal by the time he takes office.
The president-elect also laid out some initial parameters in his dealings with Netanyahu — who, for all his support for Trump in the election, has been seen by the Trump camp as being promiscuous. hinder an agreement. Mr. Witkoff flew to Israel from Doha on Saturday — despite the Sabbath — to emphasize the message that Mr. Netanyahu must get on the plane.
According to people familiar with the negotiations, Mr. Witkoff’s work, including meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, helped Mr. McGurk and the Biden administration put pressure on both sides during the negotiations.
It is unclear whether such an arrangement would have worked in the days immediately after Mr. Trump won a second term.
He and Mr. Biden have barely spoken in recent weeks, their already acrimonious relationship weighed down by the Trump team’s determination to eliminate career White House staffers and the Biden team’s last-minute orders to join the new administration.
In his speech Wednesday, Mr. Biden acknowledged some level of cooperation and respect between their aides.
“This agreement was developed and negotiated during my administration, but most of its provisions will be implemented by the next administration,” Biden told reporters. “Over the last few days, we’ve been talking as a team.”
But he did not praise Mr. Trump for helping with the effort. For his part, the president-elect said he was “happy” that the American hostages would be released, but he did not mention Mr. Biden or the work of the current administration.
“We have achieved so much without even entering the White House,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Imagine all the great things that will happen when I return to the White House and my Administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more Victories for America!”
Both leaders had staffers describe how they worked together during the Gaza negotiations.
A person familiar with that effort said the close partnership between Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff was part of an “extremely productive” process through which the Biden administration completed a deal that the administration Trump will have to supervise.
That cooperation began shortly after Mr. Trump was elected and appointed Mr. Witkoff as his special envoy to the region. Biden administration officials said they believe the momentum for a deal began earlier, when Mr. Biden helped broker a separate deal to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to Biden officials, that isolated Hamas and helped convince the group that the ceasefire was in their interests.
