Joe Biden was asked whether the credit for the deal belongs to him or to Trump – and this is how he replied

Behind the joy and happiness of the Americans, there is a fierce political struggle between the American President Joe Biden and the President-elect Donald Trump – who deserves the credit for achieving the cease-fire agreement in Gaza and the release of the abductees. This, despite a unique cooperation between the two parties and between the two governments, both outgoing and incoming, in the last few days that led to the achievement of the agreement.

According to reports in the American media, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, worked in close coordination with Biden’s team in recent days, and participated in crucial meetings in Qatar and Israel. In these reports, sources in the Biden administration stated that Witkoff’s meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Saturday was critical to completing the deal.

Trump was quick to take credit for the agreement and wrote on his social network “Truth Social”, that “this epic ceasefire agreement could only have happened thanks to our historic victory in November”, i.e. in the last election in the United States. “We caused them to support the agreement,” said Biden while taking the credit back to him, “and it was American support for Israel that helped significantly weaken Hamas and its supporters and create the conditions for this agreement.”

In this speech at the White House last Wednesday, Biden added that he instructed his team to make sure that they and Trump’s people “speak with one voice. This is how American presidents behave.” On his way back from the podium, when asked by a reporter who deserves the credit for the deal – him or Trump, Biden replied with a smile: “Is this a joke?” ) – he responded in a strange way to the question he was asked.

According to a senior diplomatic source quoted in the Washington Post, Trump’s threat that “hell will break loose in the Middle East” if the abductees are not released by his inauguration on January 20, together with the president-elect’s stated position in favor of ending the war, exerted significant pressure on Netanyahu to come to the agreement

If so, should the deal be part of Trump’s legacy more than Biden’s?

It was also said there, that according to sources in the American government, a lot of intensive preparatory work was done behind the scenes. CIA Director William Burns made 19 visits to the region and Europe for the negotiation meetings, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited the Middle East a dozen times since October 7.

In his official announcement, the Prime Minister of the Government of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdel Rahman Al-Thani, gave credit to both sides: “I would like to thank the two envoys who have been here with us in the last few days,” Al-Thani said, referring to Brett McGurk, Biden’s director of the National Security Council for the Middle East. And to Steve Witkoff, Trump’s man. “They played an essential role for us to reach this moment.” In contrast, the major Jewish organizations in the United States, including AIPAC and the American families of the abductees, acted in a similar way, in order to thank the two leaders for their part in the deal.

Even among senior politicians there are different voices regarding the question of who is the president who deserves the glory for achieving the deal. Dennis Ross, who served as a senior figure in Democratic and Republican administrations, told the “Wall Street Journal” that “Netanyahu feels that he cannot act contrary to Trump, which gives the president-elect leverage in relations at the very beginning of his second term.” Similarly, Tom Malinowski, a former Democratic congressman, wrote on Platform X that “this was Biden’s deal, but as much as I hate to admit it, he couldn’t have done it without Trump – not because of his – Trump’s – theatrical threats against Hamas, But because of his willingness to bluntly tell Bibi that the war must end by January 20.” The two (the bipartisan Ross, and Malinowski from the Democratic camp) believe that most of the glory should be given to Trump.

On the other hand, senior officials in the Biden administration denied to the “Washington Post” the claim that it was Trump who led to the agreement. The spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, said in a press briefing: “Not only do I not accept it (that Trump deserves credit), it’s simply not what we saw during the negotiations.”

John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during the Trump era, added to the “Wall Street Journal” an interesting point of view: “There’s nothing like the end of a presidency to say that this is a real deadline, and if we’re going to do something, we better do it now.” , because who knows what will happen after the 20th.” His words imply that it was the end of Biden’s term that created the decisive pressure to achieve the deal.

However, a deeper analysis may reveal a different picture. The statement “Who knows what will happen after the 20th” indicates that the real driving factor was the fear of Trump’s expected behavior after taking office, especially in light of his threats that “All hell will open”. Therefore, here too it turns out that the main credit for getting the deal goes back to Trump and his people, since the threat he represents, and not the end of Biden’s term, is what drove the process. Did Bolton mean to hint at this possibility as well? There is no telling. What’s more, he didn’t care to emphasize that the main praise regarding the deal goes to Trump, and not to Biden.

Either way, it is clear that giving credit to Netanyahu for the agreement is something that is out of place, something that may affect Netanyahu’s reputation as a leader in a “different league” to one degree or another.