Steve Witkoff was just a spectator at the US Capitol when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress in July, an experience the real estate investor described as “epic” and “spiritual.”
Five months later, the Bronx-born businessman with no experience in diplomacy was in Israel as Donald Trump’s chosen Middle East envoy, cajoling and pressuring Netanyahu to make concessions to end the devastating 15-month war in Gaza. .
After intense on-again, off-again talks, countless false dawns, and seemingly endless problems, the odds seemed stacked against a breakthrough before Joe Biden’s term as US president ends.
So it was telling that when Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani finally declared in Doha that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire, allowing the release of hostages held in the besieged strip, Witkoff was present with the other mediators.
“What has changed in the last eight months? It was Trump and Witkoff. The way Trump has acted has really shown the difference,” said one person briefed on the talks.
The structure of the deal – a multi-phase proposal that ultimately leads to peace and reconstruction – was first conceived by mediators and publicly endorsed by Biden more than six months ago. But it was Trump’s approval that finally sealed the deal.
Trump had placed a premium on Middle East peace during his campaign and attacked Biden’s failure to secure a ceasefire; After the vote, he acted quickly to back up his rhetoric. Witkoff, his surprise appointment as envoy to the Middle East, was sent to Qatar on November 22, less than three weeks after his election victory.
In Doha, Witkoff met with Sheikh Mohammed to get an update on the stalled negotiations and understand why Qatar, which was frustrated with the warring parties over the lack of progress in the talks as well as the criticism it was drawing for harboring Hamas, had suspended its role. as a mediator.
He then flew to Tel Aviv to meet with Netanyahu. It is not known whether Witkoff issued any specific threats from Trump or made promises to Israel should a deal be reached, both hallmarks of Trump’s diplomacy, which is unpredictable and transactional in equal measure.
But the impact was clear: a day later, on November 24, Israel’s chief negotiator, David Barnea, head of the Mossad spy agency, was traveling to meet Sheikh Mohammed in Vienna.
“That’s when things started and there was a completely different will on Israel’s part,” the person briefed on the talks said.
Witkoff, a close friend of Trump who is also known to Qatari officials through his real estate business, had suddenly become the weatherman for an unlikely negotiating team led by Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk.
By ordering their envoys to coordinate, Biden and Trump temporarily put aside their fierce personal and political rivalry, a small miracle in itself.
His challenge was clear. Netanyahu spent much of last year circling Biden’s mediators, repeatedly coming close to a deal before introducing new terms, including new demands, including that Israeli troops should remain in the Philadelphia Corridor, a strip of territory that runs along the border between Gaza and Gaza. Egyptian border.
Even some Israeli security officials accused Netanyahu of blocking the process, but the Biden administration, at least in public, largely echoed Israel in blaming Hamas for the talks’ failure.
By that time, Israel had largely completed its battlefield objectives against Hamas: the militant group’s military capacity was shattered and Israel had killed virtually all of the group’s top leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Hamas attack. October 7, 2023.
Biden’s team had concluded that there would be no deal while Sinwar was alive. But even after Israel assassinated him in October, talks on Gaza remained stalled. Netanyahu publicly insisted that he would never agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza or withdraw Israeli troops from the besieged strip, and there were no signs of him relenting.
Trump’s election victory shook the Gaza talks and created a new reality: any deal agreed to by Biden would be implemented by Trump.
In early December, Trump made clear that he wanted the conflict to end when he took office in January, posting on his Truth Social platform: “If the hostages are not released by January 20, 2025. . . “There will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East.” The post came shortly after Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago club with Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, and son Yair.
In mid-December, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and McGurk traveled to Israel to make a last-ditch effort to resurrect Gaza hostage ceasefire talks.
There were suspicions that Netanyahu would wait to deliver a victory to Trump, rather than the outgoing Biden presidency. The Israeli prime minister also faced constant pressure from far-right allies who threatened to abandon his governing coalition if he agreed to a deal with Hamas or “surrendered” to the Palestinians, a factor he was still struggling to manage after the the agreement was announced.
But people briefed on the talks said Witkoff at several points was unwilling to allow the discussions to languish. With Trump’s backing, he was direct with Netanyahu about what needed to happen and offered assurances of strong U.S. support for Israel, the people said.
“He gives us much authority to speak on his behalf and exhorts us to speak emphatically. And it emphatically means, ‘You better do this,’” Witkoff told reporters in Palm Beach last week.
McGurk returned to the region in early January, shortly after Hamas made a key concession: It agreed to a list of about 34 hostages who would be freed during the first phase of the deal, a senior U.S. administration official said.
But again the momentum of the talks began to fade. Witkoff flew back to Doha to meet with Sheikh Mohammed late last week to discuss the delays and agreed that Witkoff would put pressure on the Israelis while Qatar put pressure on Hamas.
With McGurk’s agreement, Witkoff traveled back to Israel to meet with Netanyahu, an unscheduled trip during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
Witkoff then joined McGurk and Barnea, Israel’s chief negotiator, in Doha, where they remained until the deal was finalized. The conversations took place in Sheikh Mohammed’s office or residence, and often lasted late into the night.
At times Hamas negotiators were present in the same building, just one floor below.
Many in the Arab world and beyond believed that Biden repeatedly failed to use his influence over Netanyahu to reach a deal or slow Israel’s ferocious offensive in Gaza while firmly supporting the Jewish state.
By contrast, when Witkoff became engaged, the Israelis seemed more docile. “He operated on this as if he were trying to close a business deal,” the person briefed on the conversations said. “He put the right pressure. There is a feeling that when he met the Israelis, there was progress.”
At first McGurk and Witkoff were in contact and simply kept each other informed. But in the final stages of the talks, they decided it would make sense for Witkoff to join the negotiations directly.
They knew that any progress would depend on Netanyahu agreeing to critical points that had previously derailed a deal, such as where Israeli forces would redeploy to Gaza.
That’s where Witkoff played his part, backed by Trump’s political clout. Netanyahu was aware that during his first term, Trump pushed a series of pro-Israel policies that upended years of US policy in the Middle East.
“The only difference is Trump. Netanyahu does want to align with Trump. . . (The Americans) made it clear that they want peace of mind here,” said another person familiar with the talks.
Trump’s victory also prompted Qatar and Egypt to put new pressure on Hamas.
“The Trump effect was not just for Bibi, but also for Qatar and Egypt,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East peace negotiator now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They leaned on Hamas because they both have an interest in showing Trump, ‘Look what we did.'”
The ceasefire will now take effect on Sunday, when the first hostages are due to be released, the day before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv
Cartography by Aditi Bhandari
