Trump’s role in Gaza ceasefire fuels Arab American anger with Biden

Washington, DC – When Samraa Luqman voted for Donald Trump in November, she believed that, even if there were a one-percent chance that the former president would push for a ceasefire in Gaza, he would be a better option than the Democrats who had failed to stop the war.

Trump ultimately won that race and is slated to re-enter the White House on Monday. And in the lead-up to his inauguration, Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have agreed to pause hostilities in Gaza, where more than 46,700 Palestinians have been killed in the last 15 months.

But Luqman says she doesn’t feel vindicated, even though Trump has claimed credit for pushing the ceasefire deal over the line.

Instead, she’s outraged at outgoing United States President Joe Biden for failing to finalise the agreement months earlier.

“I’m just even more angry because Trump, who is not even in office, did a little arm-twisting, and the ceasefire agreement was done right away,” Luqman told Al Jazeera. “This could have happened sooner. It’s so sad, all those extra lives lost.”

She added that the way the agreement was reached “solidified Biden’s legacy as Genocide Joe”, a nickname that links the Democratic leader to the Israeli abuses in Gaza.

After overwhelmingly backing Democrats in previous elections, many Arab American voters turned against the party and its candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, in November’s race because of their support for Israel’s war.

While many Arab voters say it is too early to celebrate the fragile ceasefire agreement, they stress that Trump’s intervention shows that they were right to abandon Harris.

The shift in Arab American voting preferences was especially apparent in the swing state of Michigan.

In predominantly Arab neighbourhoods on the east side of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Harris received less than 20 percent of the votes. The majority of residents either cast their ballots for Trump or Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

While Harris argued that she and Biden had been working “tirelessly” to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, the vice president also pledged to continue arming Israel without any conditions.

The Biden administration also vetoed four United Nations Security Council resolutions that would have called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Trump’s role

Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan, was among those who endorsed Trump last year, even appearing at his rallies.

He explained that negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza was the top demand of the former president’s Arab and Muslim supporters.

“He knew that it was a fair and humane request,” Ghalib told Al Jazeera in a statement.

“We supported him and asked for ceasefire, peace, fighting Islamophobia, fair representation for Muslims in his administration and promoting and protecting faith and family values and safe education for our kids. He has shown some signs of moving forward to deliver on every one of his promises.”

Both Trump and Biden claimed credit for the ceasefire agreement on Wednesday, with the incoming president asserting that the “epic” deal would not have been reached had he not won the elections in November.

It is difficult, however, to assess the extent of Trump’s role in behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

But several Israeli media reports have indicated that Trump was decisive in getting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the pact, which will lead to the release of Israeli captives in Gaza as well as hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Trump sent his envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with mediators in Qatar and Netanyahu in Israel last week.

On Thursday, the US president-elect appeared to confirm Israeli accounts that Witkoff pushed Netanyahu to accept the agreement.

He shared on social media a Times of Israel article quoting an unidentified Arab official as saying: “Trump envoy swayed Netanyahu more in one meeting than Biden did all year.”

Notably, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani thanked Witkoff by name when announcing the deal on Wednesday.

‘All hell’ breaking loose

Trump had warned earlier this month that “all hell will break out” if the Israeli captives are not released by the time he takes office on January 20.

Some analysts saw the message as a threat to Hamas. But the Palestinian group had repeatedly said that it would accept the ceasefire deal laid out by Biden in May, which included a prisoner exchange and a permanent end to the war.

It was Netanyahu who publicly stated on several occasions that his government intends to continue the war.

Still, Biden administration officials — including Secretary of State Antony Blinken — have insisted that Hamas has been blocking the agreement.

Hala Rharrit, a former US diplomat who resigned last year over the Biden administration’s handling of the war, said the deal announced on Wednesday is the same proposal that had been on the table since May.

Rharrit told Al Jazeera that the Biden administration’s months-long failure to finalise the agreement was a “matter of political will”.

“If there was not a change in administration, I think we would have kept on hearing the exact same rhetoric of ‘We’re working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire,’” Rharrit said.

She added that there would have been no shift had Harris gotten elected, but Trump’s victory created the incentive to make the ceasefire deal happen.

Concerns about agreement

Although Wednesday’s announcement sparked jubilation in Gaza, Arab American advocates are cautious about celebrating just yet.

It is not clear whether Israel will honour the deal, which does not take effect until Sunday. In neighbouring Lebanon, a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in November has failed to stop daily Israeli attacks.

Israel has also killed dozens of people in Gaza, including at least 21 children, since the deal was announced.

Suehaila Amen, an Arab American community advocate in Michigan, said she hopes the ceasefire will come to fruition, but stressed that it is difficult to take the word of US and Israeli politicians.

Still, she said an agreement reached after Trump’s intervention is further indictment of Biden’s unwillingness to get Israel to end the war.

“For many within the community, pushing back against the Biden administration for their continuous funding of a genocide — as well as turning a blind eye to the verified and documented human rights violations — continues to be something we stand by,” Amen told Al Jazeera.

Amen said voters are “well aware” that Trump helped complete the ceasefire deal.

“As Biden leaves with a bloody legacy of genocide to his name, our work continues to ensure our rights are protected and no further harm or harassment ensues towards the Arab and Muslim American community, from the White House and on down,” she said.

‘We hope it will not be temporary’

The way Walid Fidama sees it, the former president made “concrete promises” to end the war in Gaza when he met with Arab and Muslim advocates before the elections. A lifelong Democrat, the Yemeni American ultimately cast his vote for Trump in November.

“We are happy that he helped with the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, and we hope it will not just be temporary,” Fidama told Al Jazeera.

“We want the agreement to take full effect and allow displaced people to return to their homes.”

But some members of the Arab American community are sceptical that Trump will bring lasting peace to the Middle East, as he promised on the campaign trail. After all, Trump has filled his incoming cabinet with staunchly pro-Israel aides, including Senator Marco Rubio, his nominee for secretary of state.

And during his first term, from 2017 to 2021, Trump made a series of policy shifts that bolstered the Netanyahu government, including by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Luqman said she is under no illusion that the Republican establishment will distance itself from Israel, but ending the atrocities in Gaza “immediately in order to save more lives” was her top concern.

“I’m not going to support Marco Rubio. But at the same time, I’m really conscientious that there aren’t many good options,” Luqman said.

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