Two real estate developers who became advisers to President Donald Trump’s second presidential administration helped broker the historic ceasefire between the State of Israel and Hamas.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law who served in his first administration, played key roles this week in brokering a deal with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The New York Times.
“In New York real estate, you’re always negotiating back and forth,” Kushner said of the deal. “But there’s still a lot of negotiation to be done before you get the contract and you push hard for it. I think we’re just used to complex deals that are very dynamic, and also with complex characters.”
Witkoff and Kushner spent the recent critical days of talks in face-to-face meetings, arriving in Egypt on Tuesday to meet with a group of mediators who had been working there for days to convince Hamas to disarm and return the Israeli hostages taken in October 2023. The duo reportedly discussed during the flight how the deal could go wrong and what they could do to save the deal in such an event, with Witkoff negotiating directly over the phone while Kushner would draw up plans.
“The experience that Steve and I have as deal guys is that you have to understand people,” Kushner added. “You have to be able to get to the heart of things, and then see who you think is playing games, and how much room do you have to push things?”
“A lot of the people who do this are history professors, because they have a lot of experience, or diplomats,” Kushner said. “It’s just different being deal guys, it’s just a different sport.”
Kushner and Witkoff’s role in the discussions has drawn criticism from some who see their roles as personal rather than politically driven.
Coupled with their personal ties to Trump, there are potentially huge business benefits to be had.
Affinity Partners, Kushner’s private equity firm, has raised billions from wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“For the next phase of this agreement to be successful, Jared Kushner must stop approaching this issue as a real estate deal and start focusing on political and human rights,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
The agreement marks the second ceasefire agreement in the region signed this year, the first taking place in January, shortly before Trump took office. Israel reportedly violated this agreement more than a thousand times, leading to the collapse of the ceasefire in March. letter sent to the United Nations by Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of the State of Palestine in the body. In the hours since the new deal was announced, so has Israel reportedly has not stopped its bombing campaign.
— Chris Malone Mendez
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