Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed his nominee for Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to relay a "stark message" to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week: "Make the deal," the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Witkoff, who arrived in Israel from Qatar last Saturday to meet with the prime minister, told him “the president has been a great friend of Israel and now it’s time to be a friend back.”
“I would say that the president is exasperated,” Witkoff told reporters last week. Trump warned there would be “all hell to pay” if a deal was not reached.
According to a source familiar with the conversation who spoke to The Journal, Witkoff told Netanyahu that choices had to be made and Israel’s negotiators needed the authority to make decisions, adding, "If Netanyahu didn’t want to work that way, everyone should just pack their bags and go home."
Netanyahu reportedly instructed the negotiating team—comprising the heads of Mossad and Shin Bet, an IDF representative and a political advisor—to travel to Qatar for intensive talks to finalize the deal.
Witkoff delivered the same message to Qatari and Egyptian mediators when he met with them a day earlier, saying, "The diplomatic back and forth must end."
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The deal agreed upon in Doha on Wednesday and approved by the government early Saturday was similar to the one proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden in May, the Journal reported, but Netanyahu reportedly told families of hostages in July that he was not ready to end the war as he depended on his far-right coalition partners to maintain his government. “If we give up on victory over Hamas, we are all in danger from every front,” he said, pounding on the table, in a recording heard by the paper.
After Witkoff's meeting with Netanyahu, Trump posted on Truth Social that Arab officials claimed Trump had more influence on Netanyahu in one meeting than Biden had over the past year.
Families of hostages demand a deal to free their loved ones
(Video: Miki Schmidt)
Israeli and American officials told the Journal the deal remains fragile. A key breakthrough Witkoff helped achieve was alleviating Hamas' concerns that the IDF would resume fighting after the most vulnerable hostages were freed in the first phase.
"Witkoff said if everyone abides by the agreement, then Trump would encourage meaningful negotiations in Phase 2," the source told the paper.