Analysis: Bad cop Trump needed good cop Biden on Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement

While Donald Trump rushed to claim credit for the Israel-Hamas agreement, the thankless work of Joe Biden’s team was also crucial. As for Australia’s interventions? Not so much.

It was Donald Trump rather than Joe Biden who issued a statement confirming the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

Even though there were still five days until he returned to the Oval Office, the President-elect wanted the credit for the long-awaited breakthrough to end the horrific Middle East war.

“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could only have happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November,” Mr Trump said on his social media platform, and indeed, it is hard to imagine a similar outcome had Vice President Kamala Harris been elected instead.

Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2020. Picture: AFP

His vague but ominous threat that there would be “hell to pay” if Hamas did not release the hostages they kidnapped in the October 7 attack before his inauguration forced the hand of the terror group’s leaders. Behind the scenes, Mr Trump was also similarly tough on Israel.

Last weekend, his envoy Steve Witkoff was reportedly “salty” when Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides suggested the Israeli Prime Minister could not see him to discuss the deal because it was the Sabbath, a response so blunt Mr Netanyahu felt compelled to meet him.

US President Joe Biden shakes hands with US President-elect Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office last November. Picture: AFP

But Mr Trump as the bad cop still needed Mr Biden as the good cop. For months, the President and his aides had worked painstakingly to craft a ceasefire Israel and Hamas refused to concede was necessary. Negotiators for both sides torpedoed the agreement on multiple occasions, leaving Mr Biden’s team to pick up the pieces.

Asked after the deal was done if Mr Trump deserved the credit, the outgoing president said with a smile: “Is that a joke?”

But it was the incoming president whose election completed the puzzle.

The manner of this resolution – assuming it holds – is also a reminder of what did not influence it: the repeated interventions of the Albanese government in Canberra.

That Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have wanted a two-state solution is understandable, given the desperate need for an enduring solution in the region even if the logistics of such an arrangement remain murkier than ever.

But as they purported to speak to an international audience, they tied themselves in knots for domestic political reasons on questions that required answers of moral clarity. In doing so, they damaged Australia’s relationship with Israel, and anti-Semitism spread out of control.

Australia has an important role on the world stage. Making peace in the Middle East is not it.

Originally published as Analysis: Bad cop Trump needed good cop Biden on Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement