Hamas threatening Israel with freezing the release of hostages last week was no shock to a former employee of the Biden administration, as he explained in an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday.
Brett McGurk served as deputy assistant to the president and White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa from 2021 to 2025 under the Biden administration.
"These latest threats are part of the same pattern," McGurk wrote. "[Former] President Joe Biden was right to stand firmly by Israel and demand the release of hostages by Hamas. And President Donald Trump is right to do the same."
Terror group Hamas infiltrated Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killed over 1,000 Israelis, and had taken 250 people as hostages.
At the time, Biden publicly warned, "To anyone thinking of taking advantage of this situation...don't!"
On October 8, Hezbollah started their daily rocket launches from southern Lebanon into Israeli territory. Hamas continued to launch rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory and pledged to repeat the October 7 massacre.
McGurk explained that with all of that, the Biden administration decided that realistically, the only way the war would wind down was for the US to back Israel through and through while all parties worked towards a ceasefire.
Biden brought the three-phase deal to the table in May 2024 which would see the release of the most vulnerable hostages first, male Israeli soldiers released in the second half of the phase, and the rest of the hostages released at the end. All of that with the guarantee of Hamas not governing Gaza.
"While Hamas and its defenders claim it accepted this framework in early July, that is not true," McGurk wrote. "In those negotiations, it never - not once, even where nearly every other detail seemed locked down - agreed to a list of hostages that it would release if a ceasefire was agreed."
He emphasized that during the talks in the summer in Cairo, Egypt, and in Doha, Qatar, Hamas only engaged in conversations about what it cared about, which was the IDF positions during the ceasefire and at border crossings. Hamas refused to discuss the hostages as well as the well-being of the civilians living in Gaza.
After finding out about American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin's death right after landing in Washington DC after hostages negotiations in Doha, McGurk and other senior advisors spoke with Biden and collectively they decided to "flip the script by freezing the talks and support Israel's campaign against Hamas's backers."
Two weeks later, Israel struck and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, and then almost immediately after, signed a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah with the help of the US. Around that same time, Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
In retaliation, Iran fired the largest ballistic missile attack in history against Israel. Israel then retaliated to the missile attack by eliminating Israel's strategic air defenses.
Soon after, the Syrian rebels fought and defeated the Assad regime, making it collapse and cutting off Iran from arming Hezbollah through their smuggling routes in Syria.
The ceasefire and Trump
The final negotiations began in December 2024, Biden and Trump joined forces and secured a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. "Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, soon met with Michael Waltz, his named successor, together with me and my successor, Steve Witkoff, to map out the path from a Lebanon ceasefire to a Gaza deal," McGurk wrote.
"This unprecedented partnership between incoming and outgoing administrations helped close the final terms on January 15 in Doha. By January 19, one day before Trump's inauguration, the ceasefire took effect, and hostages began to come home," he continued.
McGurk then pivoted in his op-ed to talk about Trump calling Hamas's bluff. Trump declared that the ceasefire would end if the hostages aren't released on this past Saturday, and he "was right to call their bluff."
"The only way to end this war is for Hamas to continue releasing hostages and accept terms for a future that might allow Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace," McGurk explained. "That means a Gaza without Hamas in charge."
Benjamin Netanyahu publicly agrees
בניגוד לטענות השמאל השקריות שראש הממשלה מנע עסקה שהייתה אמורה להתקיים כבר לפני חודשים רבים - שליחו המיוחד למזרח-התיכון של נשיא ארה״ב בממשל הקודם, ברט מקגורק, חושף שוב את האמת, במאמר לוושינגטון פוסט - חמאס הוא היחיד שהיווה מכשול לעסקה:"בעוד שחמאס ומי שמגן עליו טוענים שהוא הסכים…
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) February 17, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a tweet stating that "Brett McGurk, once again reveals the truth...Hamas is the only one who posed an obstacle to the deal...Hamas did not seriously intend to release hostages as long as Iran and Hezbollah supported its maximalist demands with continuous attacks against Israel.""