Steve Witkoff has never been a professional diplomat nor has he had any experience in international negotiations. Even so the New York Jewish real estate magnate, a close friend of US President Donald Trump, has succeeded where many have failed – bringing about a breakthrough in the hostage deal. Behind closed doors in negotiations in Doha, Cairo and Jerusalem, the man who built his fortune buying old buildings in Harlem and Brooklyn, became a key figure in the most complicated diplomatic arena in the Middle East.
So how did the 67 year old businessman, who until recently was concentrating on selling penthouses in Miami and New York, become the moving force behind one of the most intricate crises in the history of the Middle East?
“He understands the picture and came to win”
Israel has been enthralled in recent weeks, by the release of the hostages from Hamas captivity. Witkoff, the Trump administration’s special envoy for the Middle East, was also excited. In footage circulated online, the released female surveillance soldiers are seen singing “Am Yisrael Chai” in a meeting with him. “We want to say thank you, to you and to Trump, to everyone,” Liri Albag told him. Witkoff, for his part, responded excitedly that “The US is with you, the President is with you. And we have a common goal – to bring everyone home.”
Even before Trump was officially sworn in as US president, Witkoff was already present at the negotiations in Doha, Cairo and Jerusalem. According to media reports, he was the one who pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until he agreed to the hostage deal.
Sources who met Witkoff during his recent visit to Israel told “Globes” that they were impressed that “he is a profound person who understands the full picture, knows how to ‘cut corners’ and came here to roll up his sleeves and win. Witkoff understands the complex reality and will not leave any possibility that Hamas will remain in Gaza.”
According to “The Wall Street Journal,” Witkoff told Netanyahu in the crucial and final meeting before the prime minister authorized the Israeli negotiating team to move forward with the talks, that he needs to make decisions and authorize the mediators to make them – but if the prime minister does not want to do so, then everyone involved in the talks should pack up and go home. “The president is a great friend of Israel,” Witkoff is quoted as saying to Netanyahu, “and now it’s time to be a friend back.”
What had not succeeded in working for many months suddenly worked. The parties signed and in just a few days the deal began being implemented.
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The Middle East crisis: “Like a huge real estate deal”
So who is this Steve Witkoff, who has suddenly entered our lives in such a significant way? The man who travels all over the Middle East, meets with prime ministers and presidents, threatens Hamas, and twists Qatar’s hand is a shrewd businessman, but more importantly, he is a close personal friend of Trump.
Witkoff, 67, the son of a women’s coat manufacturer who grew up in the Bronx, New York, is married with three sons. Tragically, his youngest son, Andrew, died in 2011 of an opioid overdose, when he was just 22 years old. Witkoff studied and qualified as a lawyer but moved into real estate in the 1980s, when he began his business career by purchasing old apartment buildings in Harlem and the Bronx.
In 1997, he founded the Witkoff Group, where his wife and two sons also work. “Fortune” magazine recently estimated the company’s value at $500 million, while it is thriving with projects in South Florida and close ties to investment funds such as Blackstone and Apollo. The company’s business operations are actually managed by his son Alex and grandson Zach.
Witkoff has climbed to the top of the real estate world in New York and Florida, and along the way has secured himself a critical and unprecedented place in Trump’s inner circle. Today, he is considered one of Trump’s closest and most loyal friends, and someone who accompanied him on his path back to power.
The appointment of a real estate businessman, rather than an experienced diplomat, demonstrates the extent to which President Trump views the Middle East crisis as similar to negotiating a complicated real estate deal. “The Wall Street Journal” reports that people close to Witkoff say he also shares this view, and sees it as “one huge real estate deal.” According to insiders, the choice of a person close to Trump ensures a certain continuity in the approach of his predecessor as Middle East envoy, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Even Trump’s ambitious plans for the Gaza Strip are seen as a real estate project. The president wants to take ownership of the Strip and turn it into, as he puts it, the Riviera of the Middle East. “We’ll remove the destroyed buildings, we’ll create economic development that will provide an unlimited number of jobs and housing for the residents of the region,” Trump said.
US expert Prof. Eytan Gilboa of Bar-Ilan University USC Center on Public Diplomacy tells “Globes” that Trump believes in a transactional approach to diplomacy and international relations, and so his choice of a real estate businessman as envoy is no surprise.
“He is sure that there are many points of contact between business negotiations and diplomatic negotiations, which is why he calls agreements ‘deals.’ There is something to that,” says Prof. Gilboa, although adding, “Business negotiations do not have the complexity of history, political positions, and cultural sensitivities. Here as president, and as his envoy, you come to a subject free from all these considerations. Sometimes the results are excellent and sometimes less so.”
The friendship between the two is also expected to help Witkoff, says Prof. Gilboa. “First of all, it is a matter of trust. Trump needs someone who is 200% loyal to him in such a sensitive position, and Witkoff meets this condition. In addition, unlike other diplomats, he does not have to get involved in the intricacies of diplomatic bureaucracy. He simply picks up the phone to the president. This allows him to make quick decisions, and gives his word much more meaning in the eyes of his listeners. This way he can achieve results quickly.”
At the same time, Prof. Gilboa believes that the current deal was mainly due to Trump’s threat: “He told the parties to reach a deal by January 20, and Witkoff simply used this leverage to achieve the desired results.”
He bought Trump a sandwich in the 1980s and became a true friend
Like Trump, Witkoff is a typical New Yorker who made his fortune in the city, put his children in the real estate business, and at a certain age moved to Florida. Like Trump, he is an avid golfer. In recent articles about him in the US media, his colleagues in the industry describe him as a smart, personable man and a talented negotiator with an uncondescending attitude.
The two spend a lot of time together, from family weddings to joint golf games – including the round played last September, during which a potential assassin was arrested near Trump’s private golf club in Florida. In an interview with AP after the assassination attempt, he said, “I was privileged to see a man who was full of self-control, brave, who cared about the safety of his friends more than his own. He was an inspiration to everyone around him. How good it would have been if we could all have watched what happened, because everyone would have seen a true leader.”
The two met in 1986 when Witkoff was a lawyer and acting for Trump at the law firm where he worked. Witkoff recounts that their friendship began over a sandwich. He met Trump at a deli after working on a deal together. Trump was out of cash, so Witkoff bought him a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich.
Over the years, the friendship only deepened. Witkoff praised Trump’s loyalty after his son died of an overdose in 2011, and said in his speech at this year’s Republican National Convention that “Trump’s presence brought real comfort in a dark hour.” He called Trump “the kindest and most compassionate person I’ve ever met.”
Witkoff, for his part, enlisted to help Trump in his fraud trial in Manhattan. He was the first to testify in his defense, while many of his supporters turned their backs on him. Witkoff was also one of Trump’s biggest fundraisers, bringing the campaign tens of millions of dollars in funding. According to “The Wall Street Journal, Witkoff even stayed with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate the week before Election Day.
“Witkoff is aware of what he doesn’t know”
Witkoff is an enthusiastic supporter of Israel. So enthusiastic that he came to Congress to watch Netanyahu’s speech a few months ago. He has been considered over the years to be an admirer of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
His connection to the Middle East is also business-related. For example, last year, he sold the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan to the Qatar Investment Fund for $623 million. The Abu Dhabi Investment Fund was also involved.
However, the bulk of the Witkoff Group’s real estate activity is of course in the US. Among the main projects is the Shore Club in Miami, where a penthouse apartment was sold this year for $120 million. “The Wall Street Journal” reported that Witkoff purchased the property and then changed the plans after the previous developer went bankrupt. He also implemented a similar strategy in the prestigious One High Line project in New York.
In a profile article about him a few weeks ago in “The Wall Street Journal,” several business people close to Witkoff were quoted. “He is very self-aware on what he knows and what he doesn’t know,” said a real estate lawyer who knows Witkoff, describing him as someone who “understands both Rubik’s cube and the people who move it.”
His negotiating style, say his real estate colleagues, “has never been confrontational.” Witkoff, they say, “is not the kind of person who wants to see blood on the floor before closing a deal.”
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on February 7, 2025.
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2025-02-07 09:21:38