While the President of the United States Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump will try to take over debt for Israel and Hamas accept a an armistice agreement in Gaza, an unknown political guest in Trump’s incoming team has emerged as key to sealing the deal.

Steve Witkoff, a New York real estate developer and broker, says he was instrumental in getting the message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Trump wants the deal done by the time he takes office next week.

Witkoff has been a friend of Trump for four decades. The two men were playing golf together and Witkoff was the president-elect at the time attempted murder during his golf outing in Florida last September. Now, he is Trump’s envoy to the Middle East.

In addition to his business and interests in the Middle East, Witcoff says he shares Trump’s personality.

Last Saturday, as negotiators neared an agreement, Witkoff approached Netanyahu’s office to finalize the agreement but was told by aides that the Israeli leader would not be interrupted on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported. Witkoff, who is also Jewish, responded “in salty English”, saying he didn’t care what day it was. Netanyahu obliged.

“I think he heard it loud and clear: it’s going to be a good start,” Witkoff later told reporters about the deal, praising Trump for handing out “better” than anyone else.

“They give us a lot of control,” Witkoff added.

Trump announced Witkoff as his Middle East envoy shortly after winning the presidential election in November, and while his presidency did not take office until Monday, Witkoff quickly stepped in and traveled to Doha for months-long talks to end the conflict.

Although he has no experience in foreign policy or education, his nomination is consistent with Trump’s preference for non-partisan and low-skilled candidates. “We have people who know everything about the Middle East, but they can’t speak well … he’s a good negotiator,” said the president-elect of his friend.

After the deal was announced, Trump said Witkoff would continue to “work with Israel and our Allies to ensure that Gaza does NOT become a safe haven for terrorists”.

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

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

“The track record and the length of the relationship show a high level of trust and loyalty that will allow Witcoff to have a long time running the peace file in the Middle East,” Zaha Hassan, a political analyst and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera. .

Hassan said that while some of Trump’s top appointees in his administration tend to have strong pro-Israeli views, “Witcoff’s results are not yet known”, he said. “What we do know now is that he helped negotiate an end to the war, something the Biden administration couldn’t do for 15 months.”

Hassan also pointed to Witcoff’s business dealings with the Gulf countries as a basis that would make him a “good supporter of regional peace”.

“Given Mr. Trump’s desire to achieve a permanent Saudi-Israeli agreement and Saudi demands that such an agreement include a Palestinian state or an irreversible process, there is hope that Trump, unlike Biden, will use the opportunity of office. leadership in the service of the ‘deal of the century’ ,” he said.

Political time

In 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, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Trump’s team “has been very difficult to get this deal going.”

The Biden administration has tried to portray the talks as a bipartisan effort. “For the past few days, we’ve been talking as one group,” the president said, shaking Witkoff. But Trump’s team has pushed back, saying the administration could not act until Witkoff intervened.

Biden administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity said government officials want Mr. Witkoff to participate in the negotiations so that the agreement that has been reached will continue to be supported by the US after Biden leaves office next week.

One executive described McGurk’s partnership with Witkoff as a “fruitful partnership”, in which the two worked closely together while pushing the parties to come to an agreement. At a critical moment last week, for example, Witkoff left negotiations in Doha to go to Israel to meet with Netanyahu, while McGurk remained in Doha and continued to work with the Qatari negotiators, who were in contact with Hamas.

But even if the Trump team wants to show their concern, through Witkoff, as important, some experts have warned about this matter.

“I’m very skeptical of the idea that Trump is pressuring Netanyahu, although I think it’s a story that some people would like to believe and maybe Trump wants people to believe,” Yousef Munayyer, a politician. An expert 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 Israel could control was when the deal would happen and they went around the American political time to make it happen. give Trump a political victory – first in the election, continue the war, then on the day his opening.”

What remains to be seen, Munayyer added, is what the Trump administration has promised Israel in return.

“The question that remains is what kind of reward Trump will give to Israel, especially when Netanyahu comes to give money.”