When President-elect Donald J. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday to press him for a Gaza ceasefire deal, there was someone on the phone: Brett H. McGurk, President. Biden’s longtime Middle East negotiator.
It is a clear example of cooperation between two men representing bitter political rivals whose relationship has been described as toxic. Rarely has a current and new bipartisan team of presidents worked together at such a critical time, with the end of American lives and the future of a terrible war hanging in the balance. the balance.
Both Mr Trump and Mr Biden have publicly said they have benefited from progress.
“This EPIC cease-fire agreement could only have happened as a result of our historic Victory in November,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site even before it was officially announced in the Middle East. do not agree.
At the White House, Mr. Biden told reporters that his administration had been working hard for months to convince both sides to end the war. He called it “one of the toughest negotiations I’ve ever been involved in” and gave credit to the “extraordinary team of American diplomats who worked tirelessly for months to make it happen.”
As he left the room, a reporter asked Mr. Biden, “Who gets the credit for that, Mr. President, you or Trump?” Mr. Biden stopped, turned and smiled.
“Is this a joke?” he asked.
But despite the tension between the current president and the next, their representatives in the Middle East described the cooperation in the week after election day.
“Brett is in charge,” Mr. Witkoff said last week at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump in Florida, described a working relationship. That description is accurate by all accounts, even if it was inconsistent with what Mr. Trump said moments earlier in one of several statements describing his negotiators as critical players.
In fact, Mr. Trump’s threat that “all hell” would break loose if no deal was reached before his inauguration on Monday may have helped Hamas leaders 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 result of months of work by Mr. McGurk in the Middle East, culminating in efforts coordinated by Mr. Witkoff during several weeks.
Mr. Witkoff, 67, a flamboyant real estate investor from the Bronx, positioned himself in Qatar for negotiations, knowing that whatever Mr. McGurk will have to do it. In fact, the 33 hostages who will be released in the cease-fire agreement may not find freedom until Inauguration Day or later. The cease-fire expires six weeks later, unless Phase 2 of the agreement begins.
The goal is to send a unified message that the war must end and the hostages held by Hamas must be released. A person familiar with the negotiations, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussions, said Mr. McGurk was more involved in hashing out the details of the deal than Mr. Witkoff is to explain that Mr. Trump likes. contract at the time of his inauguration.
The president-elect also set some benchmarks in his relationship with Mr. Netanyahu – who, for all his support for Mr. Trump in the election, was seen by Trump’s camp as dragging his feet on agreement. Mr. Witkoff flew to Israel from Doha on Saturday — despite the Sabbath — to highlight Mr. Netanyahu’s message.
Mr. Witkoff’s work, including meetings with Mr. Netanyahu, helped McGurk and the Biden administration put pressure on each other during negotiations, according to the person familiar with the discussions. .
It is not at all clear that such an arrangement will work in the days after Mr. Trump’s second term.
He and Mr. Biden have barely spoken in recent weeks, their relationship already strained by the Trump team’s determination to purge White House staff and Mr. Biden’s team issuing orders at the last minute. to make a box in the new administration.
In his speech on Wednesday, Mr. Biden acknowledged the cooperation and mutual respect between his aides.
“This agreement was drafted and negotiated under my administration, but the term will be enforced by most of the next administration,” Mr. Biden told reporters. “For the past few days, we’ve been talking as a team.”
But he stopped short of crediting Mr. Trump for helping 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 current administration’s actions.
“We’ve accomplished a lot without even being in the White House,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Just think of all the amazing things that will happen when I’m back in the White House, and my administration is fully vindicated, so they can win more for the United States of America!”
Both leaders left it up to the workers to determine how they worked together in the Gaza negotiations.
A person familiar with the effort said the close cooperation between Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff was part of a “very effective” process that led to the Biden administration finalizing the deal, which must be reviewed. the Trump administration.
That partnership began shortly after Trump won the election and named Mr. Witkoff as his regional envoy. Officials in the Biden administration have said they believe the move for a deal began earlier, when Mr. Biden helped broker a separate deal to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah there. Lebanon. It isolated Hamas and helped convince the group that a ceasefire was in its best interest, the Biden official said.
