Trump’s Envoy Witkoff on Gaza Deal: “Now We Have to Implement it”

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) –

President Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, gave an interview with Fox Cable News. Below I will quote him and present a little commentary with further information and context.

Witkoff was asked about a statement by Hamas reported in the New York Times “We’re prepared for a dialogue with America and achieving understandings on everything.”

The Special Envoy replied that

“it’s good if it’s accurate. We were able to demonstrate that President Trump’s policies of peace through strength work. Everybody listens. Getting those three people [Israeli hostages in Gaza] out was a big deal. Four more are coming out, I believe, this weekend. This is a testament to how the world perceives President Trump’s presidency.”

Juan Cole: Although the question was set up regarding Hamas, and the answer implied that Hamas was cowed into finally agreeing to the deal because of the prospect that Trump would be harsh toward it, in actuality Hamas appears to have agreed to Biden’s May 27 Protocol, on which it was based, last summer. It was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, far-right extremist and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and far, far right extremist and former Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir who repeatedly thwarted a deal, according to Haaretz . Smotrich even boasted of blocking previous hostage deals, waving around a copy of a letter he said was from Netanyahu promising that the war would not end.

So Trump strong-arming may have helped the deal happen, but the strong arm was applied to Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. We know this because Ben-Gvir, the leader of the goose-stepping “Jewish Power” bloc, resigned in a huff when Netanyahu accepted Witkoff’s pressure, and Smotrich, who wants to make Israel into a Jewish version of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said he was only staying on to keep the Right wing in power, despite his rejection of the negotiations.

Witkoff, asked about his interactions on behalf of Trump with leaders in Israel and Doha, Qatar (where indirect negotiations were conducted with Hamas through Qatar and Egypt), replied,

“I said, ‘You’ve got to look at the tweet, look at the truth, look at what he said.’ The words speak for themselves. He expects a hostage release.

“Remember, we were working on this — though we had nothing to do with the mathematics behind the prisoner release and hostage release. That was set probably 11 or 12 months ago under the so-called May 27th protocol. This was agreed to by Hamas, by the Israelis, and monitored by the United States under the Biden administration.

“That protocol established the mathematics of how many Palestinians in Israeli jails would be released for each hostage coming out. Our job was to speed up the process, which felt like it had bogged down. We were able to get it done, and it doesn’t happen without the President.”

Juan Cole: So Witkoff is saying that Trump’s intervention “speeded the process” at the end. This is plausible. Biden and Blinken let Ben-Gvir and Smotrich play them for fools for an entire year, so it likely was the prospect of Trump’s ire that finally pushed Netanyahu to agree to the May 27 Protocol.

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Fox played a clip of Trump saying, “It’s not our war; it’s their war. I’m not confident. I think they are very weakened on the other side. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place really has to be rebuilt in a different way.”

Juan Cole: : Actually, it was “our war.” The US paid for it, provided the weapons and ammunition in real time, and likely deployed electronic surveillance on behalf of Israel. It was an American war.

Witkoff was then asked whether the ceasefire would hold.

He replied,

“I don’t disagree with the President. The implementation is probably more difficult than the execution of the deal. The execution was a big step — that was the condition precedent. We had to get it done, and we did, thank God. Now, we have to implement it.

I’ll be going to Israel to be part of an inspection team in the Philadelphia Corridor. Our job is to ensure that people entering the area are not armed and don’t have bad motivations. Implementation is key. If it goes well, we’ll move into Phase Two and get more people out. That’s the President’s directive, and it’s what we are focused on.

Juan Cole: The issue of the Philadelphi Corridor (not “Philadelphia”) has to do with Egyptian-Israeli relations. It is a narrow strip south of Gaza given to Egypt by the 1979 Camp David Treaty. Netanyahu occupied it last summer and accused Egypt of letting Hamas smuggle arms underneath it through tunnels. No such tunnels, however, have been discovered. Egypt has loudly denounced the seizure and has even darkly hinted that it could mean the end of the Camp David peace accords. It is apparently a mere power play by Netanyahu and his accusations that “people with bad motivations” moved beneath it are baseless.

Asked about the possibility of the Saudis joining the Abraham Accords and recognizing Israel, Witkoff said,

“It’s been widely reported that there’s talk of a normalization deal. I believe normalization presents an incredible opportunity for the region. It’s the beginning of the end of war and opens the region for investment and growth. Banks won’t have to worry about missiles from groups like the Houthis, Hezbollah, or Hamas targeting infrastructure.

Normalization is significant for Israel and the region. A condition precedent to normalization was a ceasefire. People needed hope and to believe again. I’d like to think we’ve achieved that, and we’ll build on it. We need to show that violence can stop and that dialogue is possible. If we can do this, everyone will start believing . . .

I think you could get everyone in the region involved. Qatar was enormously helpful in this process. Sheikh Mohammed’s communication with Hamas was indispensable. The UAE is already a part of it. Egypt was also very helpful. We have the opportunity to bring everyone into a better future for the region—more opportunity, more hope. I think we’ve reached an inflection point.”

Juan Cole: The original Abraham Accords conducted by Jared Kushner were deeply flawed because they left out the Palestinians. Indeed, they may have been part of Hamas’s motivations for its attack on Israel of October 7, 2023, since the Hamas leadership was worried about being permanently marginalized and sentenced to eternity in an open-air prison.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said publicly that it will not recognize Israel unless there is a concrete and immediate pathway to a Palestinian state. The “condition precedent” for such a thing is therefore not merely a ceasefire in Gaza. It is a Palestinian state.

The same prerequisite would apply to Qatar, which wants the Palestine Authority to take back over Gaza. Because of Qatar’s support for the Syrian rebels, Doha may want an Israeli withdrawal from Syria, as well.

It is, by the way, good news that Witkoff recognizes Qatar’s positive role in the negotiations. The cease-fire wouldn’t have occurred without Doha’s good offices.

Benjamin Netanyahu has spent his political life making sure that the 5.2 million occupied Palestinians remain stateless, and there isn’t any prospect of the sort of Palestinian state of which the Saudis speak as long as he remains prime minister.

Trump has a lot more arm-twisting to do.