As both United States President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump try to take credit for Israel and Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire deal in Gaza, a relatively unknown political newcomer in Trump’s incoming team has emerged as a key figure in sealing the deal.
Steve Witkoff, a New York real estate developer and investor, was reportedly instrumental in delivering the message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Trump wanted the deal in place by the time he takes office next week.
Witkoff has been a friend of Trump for four decades. The two men play golf together and Witkoff was with the president-elect during an assassination attempt at his Florida golf course last September. Now, he’s Trump’s Middle East envoy.
In addition to his business style and personal interests in the Middle East, Witcoff reportedly shares Trump’s brash personality.
Last Saturday, as negotiators inched closer to a deal, Witkoff reached out to Netanyahu’s office to finalise the deal but was told by aides that the Israeli leader could not be disturbed during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. Witkoff, who is Jewish himself, responded “in salty English”, saying that he did not care what day it was. Netanyahu obliged.
“I think they heard him loud and clear: better get done by the inaugural,” Witkoff later told reporters about the deal, praising Trump for delegating “better” than anyone else.
“He gives us a lot of authority,” Witkoff added.
Trump announced Witkoff as his incoming Middle East envoy shortly after winning the presidential election in November, and while his administration is not taking over until Monday, Witkoff quickly got involved and travelled to Doha to participate in ceasefire negotiations that had been continuing for months.
While he has no foreign policy experience or training, his appointment is in line with Trump’s preference for unconventional picks with little expertise. “We have people that know everything about the Middle East, but they can’t speak properly … he is a great negotiator,” the president-elect said of his friend.
After the deal was announced, Trump said Witkoff would continue “to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven”.
Witkoff attended Netanyahu’s 2024 address to the US Congress, and praised the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech to US lawmakers as “strong”. “It was epic to be in that room,” he said. When Biden temporarily suspended military aid to Israel last year, Witkoff seized on the pause to fundraise for the Trump campaign.
Trump and Witkoff share a close and enduring relationship, having known each other since the 1980s.
“That history and the longevity of the relationship indicates deep trust and loyalty which will give Witcoff a longer leash to manoeuvre on the Middle East peace file,” Zaha Hassan, a political analyst and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera.
Hassan also noted that while others Trump has nominated to key roles in his administration have tended to have strong pro-Israel views, “Witcoff’s proclivities aren’t yet clear”, she said. “What we do know now is that he successfully helped negotiate a ceasefire, something the Biden administration couldn’t do for 15 months.”
Hassan also pointed to Witcoff’s business dealings with Gulf states as background that could potentially make him “a good broker for regional peace”.
“Given Trump’s desire in realising a Saudi-Israeli normalisation agreement and the Saudi requirement that such a deal would have to include a Palestinian state or an irreversible path to one, some hope exists that Trump, unlike Biden, will use the leverage of the office of the presidency in the service of a true ‘deal of the century’,” she said.
Political timing
During the final days of negotiations, Witkoff worked closely with Biden’s team, including White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk. Speaking to reporters this week, Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said that Trump’s team “has been absolutely critical in getting this deal over the line”.
The Biden administration has tried to portray the negotiations as a bipartisan effort. “For the past few days, we have been speaking as one team,” the president said in a nod to Witkoff. But Trump’s team has pushed back, suggesting that the administration couldn’t get the deal done until Witkoff intervened.
Biden administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity suggested that the administration wanted Witkoff to be involved in the negotiations so that the resulting agreement will see continued US support after Biden leaves office next week.
One official described McGurk and Witkoff’s coordination as a “fruitful partnership”, in which the two closely coordinated as they pressed the parties to come to terms. At a critical point last week, for instance, Witkoff left talks in Doha for Israel to meet Netanyahu, while McGurk stayed in Doha and continued to work with Qatari negotiators, who were chief interlocutors with Hamas.
But while Trump’s team have sought to portray their involvement, through Witkoff, as essential, some analysts cautioned against that narrative.
“I’m actually quite sceptical of the idea that Trump put any particular pressure on Netanyahu, even though I think that’s a narrative that some folks would like to believe and perhaps that Trump would like for people to believe,” Yousef Munayyer, a political analyst and senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC, told Al Jazeera.
“I think the reality is that this was a deal that everyone knew had to happen and the only thing that the Israelis could really control was the timing of when this deal could happen and they manoeuvred in such a way around the timelines of American politics to deliver a political victory for Trump — first in the election, by keeping the war going, and then on his inauguration day.”
What remains to be seen, Munayyer added, is what the Trump administration had promised Israel in return.
“The question that remains is what sort of reward Trump will be giving to the Israelis, and Netanyahu in particular, when they come to cash in.”