
Witkoff, a New York real-estate developer, told the prime minister choices had to be made and Israel's negotiators needed the authority to make decisions, said a person familiar with his conversations. If Netanyahu didn't want to work that way, said, everyone should just pack their bags and go home, the person said.
Witkoff delivered the same imperative to Arab mediators. A day earlier in Doha, Qatar, he told them it was time for an agreement, not endless diplomatic back-and-forth, said the mediators and the person familiar with the conversations.
Witkoff, a friend of Trump's he was playing a round of golf with him during an assassination attempt in September was new to diplomacy. But his push was well-timed, with both sides more inclined to a deal, and Trump having warned there would be "ALL HELL TO PAY" if there wasn't one.
That warning was meant for both sides, the person said. "The president has been a great friend of Israel," Witkoff told the prime minister, the person said, "and now it's time to be a friend back." Immediately after the meeting, Netanyahu sent a key aide and the heads of Israel's spy agencies to Doha for a week of negotiations that brought a deal which had been moribund just weeks earlier back into play.
On Friday, Israel's security cabinet approved the agreement, which would pause the fighting for at least six weeks, swap hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and open a pathway to ending a 15-month war that spilled over into a regional conflict and had global repercussions.
The full cabinet endorsed it later. The deal will go into effect Sunday, according to the Israeli prime minister's office.
This story is from the January 18, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
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This story is from the January 18, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
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