In the days and weeks preceding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrival in Washington on Monday to meet with President Donald Trump, Israeli officials and right-wing allies of Netanyahu in the United States have attacked Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and Qatar’s role as a critical broker of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.
The effort to undermine Witkoff and Qatar raises fears among ceasefire supporters that while Netanyahu outwardly supports the Trump-backed ceasefire deal, he is quietly trying to delay — or even scuttle — the second phase of the ceasefire, which would fully end the war in Gaza.
“They’re undermining President Donald Trump,” said an American close to both the Trump administration and Gulf Arab countries, who requested anonymity to speak without authorization. “It’s President Donald Trump’s deal, and President Donald Trump’s best friend who’s his official representative on the deal.”
Witkoff, a wealthy real-estate tycoon, played an integral role in sealing the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal in the waning days of the Biden administration, which welcomed his participation in final talks in Doha, Qatar. Most observers believe Witkoff’s pressure on Israel was critical for ensuring Netanyahu’s buy-in.
In a now-famous story, Witkoff, who is Jewish, asked for an in-person meeting with Netanyahu on a Saturday, and refused to accept the request from Netanyahu’s team that it wait until after the end of the Jewish sabbath. Days later, Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal on terms Israel had at least partly rejected in the past.
Trump immediately cast the “EPIC” deal as a positive result of his election on U.S. foreign policy — even before taking office.
But right-wing Netanyahu allies, who have insisted on proceeding with the war until Hamas is entirely eradicated (an ill-defined and — per Israeli securityofficials — illusory goal), first expressed their disappointment with Trump for pushing the deal, and have since focused more of the blame on Witkoff, backed up by American supporters of Netanyahu’s government.
A former senior U.S. official with business ties in Israel and Gulf Arab countries, but no relationship to Trump, said Netanyahu is focused on mollifying the far-right politicians that are still the linchpin of his governing coalition. An end to the war is likely to also bring a moment of political reckoning for Netanyahu over his failure to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, and increase the likelihood he faces legal consequences for alleged corruption, according to the former official, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
“Bibi Netanyahu gets to continue his war, which means he gets to continue his government, and at the end of the day that seems to be driving decision-making on Balfour Street more than what’s best for the people of Israel and for the country of Israel,” said the former senior U.S. official, referencing the Jerusalem street where the Israeli prime minister’s office is located. “And if he can do that by tearing down both Witkoff and Qatar in the same breath, all the better, because it fits a narrative that also relieves him of responsibility for October 7.”
The former U.S. official also said he has spoken to career officials in the Israeli government who share his concerns that Netanyahu is trying to obstruct full implementation of the ceasefire agreement.
Netanyahu’s decision to have aide Ron Dermer, a hawkish loyalist, take over as head of the hostage negotiation team with a focus on handling interactions with the United States has only heightened those concerns for ceasefire supporters. Negotiations on the implementation of the second phase were supposed to begin on Monday — 16 days after the start of the first phase — but Netanyahu has yet to send an Israeli diplomatic delegation to Doha, Qatar, to begin that process.
“He thinks he can manipulate Trump into, ‘Oh, just give me a few more weeks,’” said Alon Pinkas, a former senior Israeli diplomat and liberal Netanyahu critic. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Netanyahu and his allies have long tried to demonize Qatar to draw attention away from their own failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attacks. These right-wing Israelis have pilloried Qatar, a major non-NATO U.S. ally, for hosting Hamas’ political leadership and for previously providing cash aid in Gaza that included salary payments for Hamas’ government employees. They tend to skip over the fact that Netanyahu’s government originally had requestedthe Qatari funding for Gaza — distributed in conjunction with Israel and the U.S. — as a way to avoid a humanitarian disaster in the coastal enclave.
Having already demonized Qatar to the Israeli public, however, figures in Netanyahu’s government have tried to taint Witkoff by association, insinuating in Israeli media that Witkoff is beholden to Qatar. To support this claim, Israeli outlets have highlighted Witkoff’s sale of a Manhattan hotel to the Qatari sovereign wealth fund in Aug. 2023 after Witkoff and his partners had trouble finding a buyer.
“Over the past few weeks, Israeli officials have often expressed frustration at the pressure that is actually being imposed on Israel. A source familiar with the details of negotiations even said that at a certain point it seemed as if Witkoff worked for the Qataris,” correspondent Tamir Morag reported on Israel’s Channel 14, a right-wing channel aligned with Netanyahu, on Jan. 20, before laying out the details of Witkoff’s business dealings with Qatar.
“They are attacking Witkoff because they can’t attack Trump.”
– A Trump ally
The Israeli news outlet Yediot Aharonot gave the reports mainstream credibility in an article last Tuesday, which quoted Israeli officials who suspect that Witkoff and the Qataris have a “very close relationship.” These Israeli officials fear, according to the report, “The Qataris whisper in his ear and are liable to excessively influence him.”
American allies of the Israeli right wing have amplified the efforts to disparage Witkoff. Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, called Witkoff “Qatar’s agent,” denouncing his role in negotiations over the second phase of the hostage deal as a “disaster.”
Witkoff’s American critics have also mischaracterized Witkoff’s Jan. 7 remarks on Fox News saying ceasefire negotiators, including Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Israeli officials, were doing “God’s work.”
And these hawkish critics have further jumped on Witkoff’s remarks in a Jan. 22 interview on Fox News as a sign of his naive dovishness. In the interview, Witkoff tentatively welcomed Hamas comments suggesting they wanted to talk directly with the United States, saying “it’s good if it’s accurate.”
Right-wing talk radio host Mark Levin railed against Witkoff for nodding at the prospect of direct talks with Hamas, writing on X, “Hamas committed unimaginable acts of genocide. Now we’re willing to talk to them to better understand them?”
Josh Hammer, editor-at-large of Newsweek, seized on Witkoff’s two Fox interviews to conclude that it “seems like he’s representing his bank account more than the administration he purports to serve.”
Caroline Glick, an American-Israeli contributing editor to the Jewish News Syndicate, suggested that Witkoff should be aware of negative coverage of Trump in the Qatari media during his first term. “Steve Witkoff may love Qatar, but Qatar hates PRESIDENT Donald Trump,” she posted on X on Jan. 20. On Sunday, Glick announced she would be starting a new job as an international affairs advisor to Netanyahu.
Michael Pregent, a former Hudson Institute senior fellow, predicted Witkoff’s imminent dismissal in a video on X, declaring that Witkoff is “in over his head,” and that “he’s been cajoled by Qatar.” Pregent’s video made it into an article in Jewish Insider, an influential Washington-based outlet that politicians in both parties look to for cues about how to stay in the good graces of the mainstream pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
In reality, Witkoff has become a casualty in a proxy battle between Trump-aligned America First foreign policy types skeptical of military adventurism in the Middle East, and pro-Israel neoconservatives who are more likely to see U.S. and Israeli interests overlapping.
“They are attacking Witkoff because they can’t attack Trump,” the Trump ally with Gulf ties said.
Trump has rejected traditional American interventionism — typically cast as an expression of U.S. ideals — in favor of a blunt assessment of American interests vis-a-vis historic allies and adversaries alike. For example, he campaigned heavily on brokering a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, despite neoconservatives’ insistence on funding and arming Ukraine even more aggressively than the United States already is.
Trump’s record on Israel-Palestine policy, by contrast, has generally been more to neoconservatives’ liking. In his first term, Trump tore up the Iran nuclear agreement, moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and approved of Israel’s settlement expansion spree. And as a candidate in 2024, Trump promised to be more pro-Israel than Biden, whom he dubbed a “Palestinian.”
But Trump’s insistence on a ceasefire deal, selection of Witkoff and decision to end federally provided security protection for Iran hawks from his first administration have spooked some right-wing Israelis and their allies in the United States. Trump has also avoided saying whether the U.S. would join Israel in bombing Iran to rid it of nuclear weapons. He plans to have Witkoff spearhead efforts to reach a diplomatic agreement with Iran first if possible.
A number of pro-Israel Republicans, such as former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have also registered their objections to the hiring of an array of restraint-minded figures in Trump’s Department of Defense, including Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy, and Michael Dimino, Trump’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. Dimino, a former CIA analyst, and Dan Caldwell, an Iraq War veteran who has advised the administration on major defense hires, both have worked at the anti-interventionist think tank, Defense Priorities — a part of the libertarian-minded Koch network. Republican interventionists have taken to Jewish Insider to bash all three figures.
“The Koch crowd is either isolationist, anti-American or both and seeks to use American fatigue to cynically weaken our allies and diminish American power,” David Wurmser, an Iraq War architect who advised former Vice President Dick Cheney, told Jewish Insider.
In a recent episode of his web show, Tucker Carlson, a Trump supporter with open disdain for neoconservatives, characterized the attacks on Dimino, Caldwell and Witkoff as part of the same broader effort by neoconservatives to smear their opponents.
Caldwell, who Carlson knows personally, is “being attacked by people who never served … as somehow anti-American,” Carlson said while interviewing Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative, a conservative anti-interventionist magazine.
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“Rather than say, ‘Hey, Steve Witkoff, I disagree with you, or whatever,’ it’s, ‘He’s working for Qatar,’” Carlson added. “These people are disgusting. They’re liars.”
The Trump ally with ties to Gulf Arab countries argued though that the war over foreign policy inside the Republican Party has already been fought and won by Trumpian realists, even if interventionist neoconservatives are deploying desperate measures to try to exercise influence.
“Maybe this is up for debate again in a few years,” the Trump ally said. “But right now, the Republican Party position on this and the Trump administration position on this is that peace in the Middle East is a good thing, and the ceasefire deal was the right thing to do, or Trump wouldn’t have supported it.”