When US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday to press him about the Gaza ceasefire deal, he had someone on the floor: Brett H. McGurk, President Biden's longtime Middle East negotiator.
It was a shining example of the collaboration between two men who represented bitter political rivals whose relationship is best described as toxic. Rarely have teams of incumbent and incoming presidents from different parties worked together at such a high-stakes moment, when the fate of American life and the future of a devastating war hang in the balance.
“Brett is a leader,” Mr. Witkoff said last week, describing their working relationship at Mr. Trump's club, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida. That description was accurate by all accounts, even if it didn't match what Mr. Trump had said moments earlier in one of several statements describing the negotiators as critical players.
In fact, in the threat of Mr. Trump “Hell” would break loose If no deal is reached before his inauguration on Monday, it could encourage the Hamas leadership to make final decisions. But Wednesday's announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza was the result of months of Mr. McGurk's work in the Middle East, culminating in weeks of carefully coordinated efforts by Mr. Witkoff, people with knowledge of the talks said.
Mr. Witkoff, an outspoken real estate investor from the Bronx, put himself in Qatar for the talks, knowing he would have to do whatever Mr. McGurk said. In fact, the 33 hostages who will be released under the cease-fire agreement will not be released until or after Inauguration Day. The ceasefire will expire in six weeks unless Phase 2 of the agreement begins.
According to the project, the aim was to send a single, unified message that the fighting would end and the hostages held by Hamas would be released. A person familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the discussions, said Mr. McGurk was more involved in hashing out the details of the deal, while Mr. Witkoff's role was to make it clear that Mr. Trump wanted a deal. when the swearing-in ceremony takes place.
The president-elect is also setting some precedent in his relationship with Mr. Netanyahu — who, for all his support for Mr. Trump in the election, was seen by the Trump camp as dragging his feet on the deal. Mr. Witkoff flew from Doha to Israel on Saturday to emphasize the message that Mr. Netanyahu should get on the plane despite the Sabbath.
Mr. Witkoff's work, including a meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, helped put pressure on both sides of Mr. McGurk and the Biden administration during negotiations, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
In the immediate aftermath of Mr. Trump's second term victory, it was far from clear that such an arrangement would work.
He and Mr. Biden have barely spoken in recent weeks, their already strained relationship strained by the Trump team's determination to purge career White House staff and the Biden team's last-minute orders to usher in the new administration.
The exception, according to both sides, is the Gaza talks.
One of them called it a “very close partnership” between Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff and said the result was an “incredibly effective” process in which the Biden administration finalized an agreement that the Trump administration will have to oversee.
This cooperation began after Mr. Trump won the election and appointed Mr. Witkoff as his ambassador to the region. Biden administration officials said they believed momentum for the deal began before Mr. Biden helped broker a separate agreement to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. That isolated Hamas and helped convince the group that a ceasefire was in its best interests, according to Biden administration officials.