WASHINGTON—As the Biden administration seeks to broker an end-of-term peace deal in the Middle East, it is bringing along a surprising back-seat partner: Donald Trump. Instead of slamming a White House-brokered Lebanon cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah announced Tuesday,

U.S. leaders hope Gaza conflict has ceased spreading around the region as ‘permanent’ peace deal reached in Lebanon

JONAH BLANK is Adjunct Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation and a Visiting Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute. From 1999 to 2009, he served as Senator Joe Biden’s Policy Director for South and Southeast Asia, and from 1999 to 2001 he also advised the senator on the Middle East.

During the 2020 election campaign, the Joe Biden campaign made much of the stark differences between its candidate and Donald Trump. When Biden won, many Americans breathed a sigh of relief and believed America could return to “normal” after four disastrous years of the Trump presidency.

It’s not the cease-fire they wanted, but it’s the cease-fire they get. Just hours ago, hostilities ceased between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, pursuant to a deal hammered out in recent weeks with the help of U.