There are different views on who deserves this credit because the former president adopted the Israeli plan last May and his team worked on it for seven months with continuous shuttle visits. However, President Donald Trump believes that if it had not been for his threats as he approached the White House, the two parties would not have submitted to agreeing and making concessions.

What are the justifications of each party? Moreover, were there other factors that helped conclude the long-awaited agreement?

Was it a joke?

Biden was quick to reject any idea that Trump deserved any credit for reaching the ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. When a reporter asked him whether he or Trump deserved credit for the agreement, he said disapprovingly: "Is this a joke?"

However, Biden,  haunted by the specter of Trump's return throughout his presidency, seemed angry with his predecessor for announcing the agreement two hours before him in a post he broadcast on his Truth Social platform. Biden was racing against time to complete the deal before Trump was sworn in and took office in the White House on January 20.

Unsurprisingly, the Biden administration officials downplayed the importance of Trump's Middle East advisor, Steve Witkoff's, participation in the last-minute talks in Doha alongside Biden's advisor, Brett McGurk. This is regardless of the importance of ensuring his support for the deal, given that the Biden administration, not Trump's, painstakingly negotiated it over the past year.

Logical importance

Biden administration negotiators explain that it is important for all parties to the deal to know that the new President, Donald Trump, has approved the agreement. This is not only because Biden was leaving office in just a few days but also because the United States is the guarantor of the agreement, which will be implemented in several stages.

One concern about not involving Trump officials in the negotiations was that the new administration might abandon the post-conflict plan for Gaza after Biden's diplomats spent more than a year enduring countless trips back and forth from Washington to various capitals in the Middle East to craft the terms of this deal.

In addition, Biden does not want Americans and Israelis to forget the events that have occurred in the Middle East in the past few months. During these months, he played a direct or indirect role in changing the geopolitical map and existing alliances in the Middle East. This helped Hamas accept what it had not accepted in the past, while Trump played no role in this process.

Have Trump's threats paid off?

Hamas leaders may also have concluded that striking a deal before Trump takes office could spare them further destruction after he said that hell would ensue in the Middle East if the Israeli hostages were not released. They expected the Trump administration to begin sanctioning senior Hamas officials abroad or reduce the amount of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.

Trump wasted no time in emphasising that he was the driving force behind the deal, writing on social media that it was only possible because of his historic victory last November. He noted that the world had learned that his administration would pursue peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans and their allies. This underscores his long-standing desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize in his second term by stopping the wars in the Middle East and the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The truth

According to Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, Biden and Trump can share credit for the tenuous agreement. Panikoff believes Biden deserves credit for continuing to push for the talks despite repeated setbacks. Still, Trump's threats to Hamas and his efforts through Witkoff to persuade Netanyahu are also commendable.

The ironic truth, as Panikoff sees it, is that at a time of increasing partisanship in the US, even in foreign policy, the deal represents how powerful and influential American foreign policy is when it is bipartisan. An agreement would not have happened without Biden and Trump pushing for it.

Photo: Who should get the credit for concluding the peace deal? (Photo: by Adobe).