Steve Witkoff was just a spectator at the US Capitol when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress in July, an experience the real estate investor described as “epic.” and “spiritual”.

Five months ago, the Bronx-born businessman – with no experience in diplomacy – was in Israel as Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, urging and pressuring Netanyahu to make concessions to end the conflict. -ob that 15 months of war in Gaza.

After a grind of on-off speeches, countless false dawns and seemingly endless problems, the odds appear to be at a crossroads before the end of Joe Biden’s term as US president. .

So it was telling that when the Prime Minister of Qatar Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in Doha finally announced that Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire – which would enable the release of hostages held by the besieged strip – Witkoff is with other mediators.

“What has changed in the last eight months? It’s Trump and Witkoff. The way Trump operates really shows the difference,” said one person briefed on the talks.

the deal structure – a multi-phased proposal that ultimately brings peace and reconstruction – first conceived by mediators and publicly endorsed by Biden more than six months ago. But it was Trump’s imprimatur that ultimately sealed the deal.

Trump made Middle East peace a major issue during his campaign and attacked Biden’s failure to secure a ceasefire; after the vote, he moved quickly to walk back his rhetoric. Witkoff, his surprise appointment as Middle East envoy, was sent to Qatar on November 22 – less than three weeks after his election victory.

In Doha, Witkoff met with Sheikh Mohammed to get an update on the stalled talks and to understand why Qatar – which has been frustrated by the warring parties for the lack of progress in the talks as well as criticism which it got for hosting Hamas – suspended its role. as mediator.

Then he flew to Tel Aviv to meet with Netanyahu. It is not known whether Witkoff delivered any concrete threats from Trump or made promises to Israel in the event of a deal — both hallmarks of Trump’s diplomacy, which is unpredictable and transactional in equal measure. .

But the effect was clear: a day later, on November 24, Israel’s top negotiator David Barnea, head of the Mossad spy agency, traveled to meet Sheikh Mohammed in Vienna.

“That’s when things started, and it was a completely different willingness from the Israeli side,” said the person briefed on the talks.

Witkoff, a close friend of Trump who is also known to Qatari officials through his real estate business, has suddenly become the weatherman of an unlikely negotiating team led by Biden’s top Middle East adviser Brett McGurk.

In ordering their envoys to coordinate, Biden and Trump both temporarily put aside their bitter personal and political feuds — a minor miracle in its own right.

Their challenge is clear. Netanyahu has spent much of the past year going around Biden’s negotiators, several times coming close to a deal before introducing new terms, such as new demands including that Israeli troops must stay in the Philadelphi corridor, a slither of territory that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Even some Israeli security officials have accused Netanyahu of obstructing the process, but the Biden administration, at least publicly, has largely echoed Israel in blaming Hamas for the failure of the talks.

At this point Israel has largely completed its battle objectives against Hamas: the militant group’s military capacity has been dismantled and Israel has killed almost all of the group’s top leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the attack on October 7.

Biden’s team had long since concluded that there would be no deal as long as Sinwar was alive. But even after Israel killed him in October, the Gaza talks are still on hold. Netanyahu has publicly insisted that he will not agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza or withdraw Israeli troops from the besieged strip – and there is no sign of him budging.

Trump’s election victory sparked the Gaza talks and created a new reality: any deal agreed to by Biden will be implemented by Trump.

In early December, Trump made it clear that he wanted to end the conflict by the time he took office in January, posting on his Truth Social platform: “If the hostages are not released before January 20, 2025 . . there is ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East.” The post came shortly after Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago club with Netanyahu’s wife Sara and his son Yair.

In mid-December, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and McGurk traveled to Israel to make a final push to resuscitate the Gaza ceasefire-for-hostage talks.

There are suspicions that Netanyahu will wait to give a victory to Trump, rather than the crippled presidency Biden. Israel’s PM also faces constant pressure from far-right allies who threaten to leave his governing coalition if he agrees to a deal with Hamas or “surrenders” to the Palestinians – a factor that he still is. struggling to manage after the deal was announced.

But people briefed on the talks said Witkoff was at several points unwilling to let the talks falter. With Trump’s support, he has been direct with Netanyahu about what needs to happen and offered assurances of strong U.S. support for Israel, the people said.

“He gives us great authority to speak for him, and he advises us to speak clearly. And emphatically means: ‘You better do this’,” Witkoff told reporters in Palm Beach last week.

McGurk returned to the region in early January shortly after Hamas made a significant concession: it agreed to a list of 34 hostages to be released during the first phase of the deal, a senior administration official said. in the US said.

But again the momentum of the talks started to fade. Witkoff flew back to Doha to meet with Sheikh Mohammed late last week to discuss the hold-ups, and agreed that Witkoff would push the Israelis while Qatar pressured Hamas.

With McGurk’s agreement, Witkoff traveled back to Israel to meet with Netanyahu — an unscheduled trip during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.

Witkoff next joined McGurk and Barnea, Israel’s top negotiator, in Doha, where they remained until the agreement was concluded. The talks took place in Sheikh Mohammed’s office or residence, often late into the night.

At points Hamas negotiators were in the same building, just one floor down.

Many in the Arab world and beyond believe that Biden has repeatedly failed to use his leverage with Netanyahu to agree to a deal or stop Israel’s fierce offensive in Gaza while he has stood firm on the state. of the Jews.

When Witkoff was engaged, by contrast, the Israelis seemed more attractive. “He’s operating it like he’s trying to close a business deal,” the person briefed on the talks said. “He put the right pressure. There was a sense that when he met the Israelis, there was progress.

At first McGurk and Witkoff kept in touch and only briefed each other. But in the final stages of the talks, they decided it would make sense for Witkoff to participate directly in the negotiations.

They know that any collapse will depend on Netanyahu accepting critical points that have previously derailed a deal, such as where Israeli forces in Gaza will redeploy.

That’s where Witkoff played his part, backed by Trump’s political power. Netanyahu knows that in his first term, Trump pushed a set of pro-Israeli policies that upended years of US policy in the Middle East.

“The only difference is Trump. Netanyahu wants to get along with Trump. . . they (the Americans) have made it clear that they want quiet here,” said another person familiar with the talks.

Trump’s victory also encouraged Qatar and Egypt to put pressure on Hamas.

“The Trump effect is not only on Bibi, it’s also on Qatar and Egypt,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East peace negotiator now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They trust Hamas because they both have a part in showing Trump: ‘Look what we’re doing’.”

The ceasefire is due to take effect on Sunday, when the first hostages are due to be released – the day before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv

Cartography by Aditi Bhandari