Steve Witkoff was just an observer 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 diplomatic experience — was in Israel as Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, urging and pressuring Netanyahu to make concessions to end the devastating 15-month war in Gaza.
After painstaking talks, countless false dawns and seemingly endless problems, the odds seemed stacked against a breakthrough before the end of Joe Biden’s term as US president.
So it was telling that when Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani finally announced in Doha that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire – allowing the release of hostages held in the encircled belt – Witkoff was present with other mediators.
“What has changed in the last eight months? It was Trump and Witkoff. The way Trump operated really made a difference,” said a person familiar with the discussions.
The the structure of the agreement — a multi-phase proposal that ultimately leads to peace and reconstruction — was first floated by mediators and publicly endorsed by Biden more than six months ago. But Trump’s imprimatur ultimately sealed the deal.
Trump made peace in the Middle East a big issue during his campaign and attacked Biden’s failure to secure a ceasefire; after the vote, he was quick to back up his rhetoric. Witkoff, his surprise appointment as Middle East envoy, 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 talks and to understand why Qatar — which has been frustrated by the warring parties’ lack of progress in the talks, as well as criticism of its hosting of Hamas — has suspended its role as a mediator. .
He then flew to Tel Aviv to meet with Netanyahu. It is not known whether Witkoff delivered any specific threats from Trump or made promises to Israel in the event of a deal — both hallmarks of Trump’s diplomacy, which is equal parts unpredictable and transactional.
But the effect was clear: a day later, on November 24, Israel’s chief negotiator David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence agency, traveled to Vienna to meet with Sheikh Mohammed.
“Then things got moving and there was a completely different will on the Israeli side,” said a person familiar with the talks.
Witkoff, a close friend of Trump’s who is also known to Qatari officials for his real estate business, has suddenly become a weatherman on an unlikely negotiating team led by Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk.
In directing their emissaries to coordinate, both Biden and Trump temporarily put aside their bitter personal and political rivalry — a minor miracle in itself.
Their challenge was clear. Netanyahu has spent much of the past year circling Biden’s mediators, coming close several times to a deal before introducing new conditions, such as new demands including that Israeli troops should remain in the Philadelphia Corridor, a swath of territory that runs along the Gazan-Egyptian border. .
Even some Israeli security officials have accused Netanyahu of blocking the process, but the Biden administration, at least in public, has largely echoed Israel in blaming Hamas for the failure of the talks.
Up to this point, Israel has largely accomplished its battlefield objectives against Hamas: the militant group’s military capabilities have been shattered and Israel has killed almost all of the group’s main leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks.
Biden’s team concluded long ago that there would be no deal as long as Sinwar was alive. But even after Israel killed him in October, talks on Gaza remained deadlocked. Netanyahu has publicly insisted he will never agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza or withdraw Israeli troops from the besieged strip – and there have been no signs he has budged.
Trump’s victory in the election shook up the negotiations in Gaza and created a new reality: any deal agreed by Biden would be implemented by Trump.
In early December, Trump made it clear that he wanted an end to the conflict by the time he takes office in January, posting on his Truth Social platform: “If the hostages are not released before January 20, 2025 . . there will be HELL TO PAY in the Middle East.” The announcement came shortly after Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago club with Netanyahu’s wife Sara and his son Yair.
By mid-December, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and McGurk traveled to Israel to take the final step toward reviving the Gaza ceasefire talks for the hostages.
There were suspicions that Netanyahu would wait to defeat Trump, not the lame-duck Biden presidency. The Israeli prime minister also faced constant pressure from far-right allies who threatened to leave his ruling coalition if he agreed to a deal with Hamas or “surrendered” to the Palestinians – a factor he was still struggling to manage after job posting.
But people familiar with the talks said Witkoff was unwilling to tolerate delays in the discussions on several points. With Trump’s backing, he has been straight with Netanyahu about what needs to happen and offered assurances of strong U.S. support for Israel, the people said.
“He gives us much authority to speak in his name and encourages us to speak decisively. And it emphatically means, ‘You better do it,'” 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 to be freed during the first phase of the deal, a senior US administration official said.
But again the momentum in the negotiations began to fade. Witkoff flew back to Doha late last week to meet with Sheikh Mohammed to discuss the standoff and they agreed that Witkoff would push the Israelis while Qatar pressured Hamas.
With McGurk’s consent, Witkoff then 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. Conversations took place in Sheikh Mohammed’s office or residence, often late into the night.
At certain times, Hamas negotiators were present in the same building, just one floor down.
Many in the Arab world and beyond believed that Biden had repeatedly failed to use his influence with Netanyahu to agree to a deal or curb Israel’s fierce offensive in Gaza while standing firm with the Jewish state.
In contrast, when Witkoff came in, the Israelis seemed nicer. “He was handling this like he was trying to make a business deal,” said a person familiar with the talks. “He applied real pressure. There is a sense that there was progress when he met with the Israelis.”
In the beginning, McGurk and Witkoff kept in touch and only kept each other informed. But in the final stages of the talks, they decided it made 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 the deal, such as where Israeli forces would be redeployed in Gaza.
That’s where Witkoff played his part, backed by Trump’s political power. Netanyahu was aware that during his first term, Trump pushed through a series of pro-Israel policies that upended years of American policy in the Middle East.
“The only difference is Trump. Netanyahu wants to align with Trump. . . they [the Americans] they made it clear that they want silence here,” said another person familiar with the talks.
Trump’s victory also prompted Qatar and Egypt to apply new pressure on Hamas.
“Trump’s effect was not just on Biba, but also on 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 a stake in showing Trump, ‘Look what we’ve done.’
The ceasefire is now set to take effect on Sunday, when the first hostages are due to be freed – the day before Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv
Cartography by Aditi Bhandari
