Gaza Ceasefire: Signed, Sealed, Not Delivered (Yet)

Biden administration embarrassed by Trump's team.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced late Thursday that a deal was signed between his team in Qatar and Hamas to end fighting inside the destroyed enclave after a reported pressure campaign by the incoming Donald Trump administration in the U.S.

Trump said in an interview Thursday that the deal better get done before he takes office next week.

The Times of Israel, citing a spokesman for Netanyahu, said there will be a full cabinet meeting on Saturday night to finalize the deal because of the Sabbath on Friday. The newspaper wrote: “it was not clear why both the security cabinet and full cabinet could not still be convened before sundown,” which means, at the earliest, the truce will not come into effect until Monday.

Israel has not let the imminent ceasefire deal get into the way of its slaughter inside Gaza and killed at least 87 on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera. The IDF killed at least 46,000 since the start of the genocide, mainly women and children.

It is unclear how much of a role that Trump’s team played in the negotiations, and the outgoing Biden administration has been sure to claim at least some credit. But, either way, it seemed obvious that it was Trump that, at the minimum, sped the process up.

Trump took to Truth Social to share an article from The Times of Israel that quoted an Arab official who said, “Trump envoy swayed Netanyahu more in one meeting than Biden did all year.”

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The report said there was a tense meeting between Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Mideast envoy, and Netanyahu last weekend. Two unnamed Arab officials told the paper that Witkoff did more to sway Netanyahu in one meeting than U.S. President Joe Biden did in the entire year.

There has been some skepticism after the agreement, namely how long it will be after the Israeli hostages are released that the IDF begins attacking Gaza again. A source familiar with the details of the deal told Israel’s Ynet that Trump’s team assured Tel Aviv that if it agrees to a ceasefire now “he will support Israel retroactively if it decides to return to fighting and violate the ceasefire.”

The deal is nearly word-for-word the agreement that Biden endorsed in May, leading to new criticism for the administration. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was confronted during a press briefing by journalist Max Blumenthal who said he will be remembered for allowing a genocide to occur.

“Everyone in this room knows we had a deal, Tony, and you kept the bombs flowing…why did you sacrifice the rules-based order on the mantle of your commitment to Zionism,” Blumenthal asked. “Why did you allow my friends to be massacred? Why did you allow my friends’ home in Gaza to be destroyed when we had a deal in May?”

In May, Biden told reporters at the White House that “It’s time for this war to end.”

The first six weeks would involve a complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas in the enclave. Phase 2 would include a “permanent end to hostilities” and the exchange of remaining living hostages. Israel would also have to withdraw its forces from the entire enclave.

While the mainstream news media in the West was a lapdog for the Biden administration and portrayed Hamas as the obdurate party during these negotiations, the reality is it was Netanyahu.

Hamas has said for months it will hand over the hostages if three conditions are met: permanent ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all of Gaza, and the ability of the population to return home unimpeded.

Craig Mokhiber, a former UN lawyer, called Biden’s endorsement of a ceasefire in May a “cynical electoral move.”

“He waited until Israel finished destroying all of Gaza, and now only proposes a return to the intolerable conditions for Palestinians before October,” he posted. “No attention to root causes, no accountability for perpetrators, no real redress for victims, no protection for the vulnerable Palestinians, continued siege, occupation & apartheid.”