Both US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are also trying to do so credit Israel and Hamas agreed on a Ceasefire agreement In Gaza, a relatively unknown political newcomer to Trump’s incoming team has emerged as a key figure in closing the deal.

Steve Witkoff, a New York real estate developer and investor, was reportedly instrumental in getting the message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Trump wants the deal completed 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 a meeting Assassination attempt At his golf course in Florida last September. He is now Trump’s envoy to the Middle East.

In addition to his business style and personal interests in the Middle East, Witkoff is said to share Trump’s brash personality.

Last Saturday, with negotiators close to reaching an agreement, Vitkov reached out to Netanyahu’s office to finalize the deal, but his aides told him that the Israeli leader could not be disturbed during the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. Witkoff, who is Jewish, responded “in broken English,” saying he didn’t care what day we were in. Netanyahu is committed.

“I think they heard it loud and clear: It better get it done before the inauguration,” Witkoff later told reporters of the deal, praising Trump for delegating “better” than anyone else.

“It gives us a lot of power,” Witkoff added.

Trump announced the appointment of Witkoff as his new envoy to the Middle East shortly after he won the presidential elections in November, and while his administration did not take office until Monday, Witkoff quickly intervened and traveled to Doha to participate in the ceasefire negotiations that have been ongoing for months.

Although he has no foreign policy experience or training, his appointment is consistent with Trump’s preference for unconventional picks with little experience. The president-elect said of his friend: “We have people who know everything about the Middle East, but they cannot speak properly… He is a great negotiator.”

After the deal was announced, Trump said Witkopf would continue “to work closely with Israel and our allies to ensure that Gaza never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists.”

Witkoff attended Netanyahu’s speech before the US Congress in 2024, and praised the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech before US lawmakers, describing it as “strong.” “It was epic to be in that room,” he said. When Biden temporarily suspended military aid to Israel last year, Witkoff took advantage of this pause to raise funds for the Trump campaign.

Trump and Witkoff have a close and enduring relationship, having known each other since the 1980s.

Zaha Hassan, a political analyst and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera: “This history and the longevity of the relationship indicates deep trust and loyalty that will give Witkopf a longer leash to maneuver on the Middle East peace file.” .

Hassan also noted that while others Trump has nominated for key roles in his administration tend to have strong pro-Israel views, “Witkoff’s leanings are not yet clear.” “What we know now is that he successfully helped negotiate a ceasefire, something the Biden administration was unable to do for 15 months.”

Hassan also pointed to Witkopf’s business dealings with Gulf states as a background that could make him a “good broker for regional peace.”

“Given Trump’s desire to reach a Saudi-Israeli normalization agreement and the Saudi condition that such a deal must include a Palestinian state or an irreversible path to a Palestinian state, there is some hope that Trump, unlike Biden, will use the office’s influence.” She said: “The presidency is in the service of the real ‘deal of the century’.”

Political timing

During the final days of negotiations, Witkoff worked closely with the Biden team, including White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk. Speaking to reporters this week, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Trump’s team “was very critical in getting this deal through.”

The Biden administration has tried to portray the negotiations as a bipartisan effort. “For the last few days, we have been talking as a team,” the president said, referring to Witkoff. But Trump’s team opposed this, pointing out that the administration could only complete the deal after Witkoff intervened.

Biden administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity indicated that the administration wanted Witkoff to participate in the negotiations so that the resulting agreement would see continued American support after Biden leaves office next week.

One official described the coordination between McGurk and Witkoff as a “productive partnership,” with the two coordinating closely while pressing the two sides to reach an understanding. At a critical juncture last week, for example, Vitkov left the talks in Doha to meet Israel with Netanyahu, while McGurk remained in Doha and continued to work with Qatari negotiators, who were key interlocutors with Hamas.

But while the Trump team sought to portray their involvement, through Witkoff, as necessary, some analysts cautioned against that narrative.

“I’m actually quite skeptical of the idea that Trump is putting any particular pressure on Netanyahu, although I think that’s a narrative that some people would like to believe and that Trump would probably like people to believe,” said Youssef Mounir, a political scientist. The analyst and senior fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.

“I think the reality is that this was a deal that everyone knew was going to happen, and the only thing that the Israelis could really control was the timing of when that deal could happen, and they maneuvered that way around the timelines of American policy in order to get an agreement.” . A political victory for Trump – first in the election, by continuing the war, and then on his inauguration day.

Mounir added that what we have to see is what the Trump administration promised Israel in return.

“The question that remains is what kind of reward Trump will give the Israelis, and Netanyahu in particular, when they come to take advantage of it.”