L’accord de cessez-le-feu à Gaza aurait été négocié avec poigne par Steve Witkoff, peu préoccupé par le jour de repos dans la religion juive.

Selon le média israélien Haaretz , l’envoyé spécial de Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, a passé vendredi soir un coup de téléphone au gouvernement israélien depuis Doha, où il se trouvait depuis une semaine. C’est dans la capitale du Qatar que se sont déroulées les discussions pour l’accord de cessez-le-feu. Le diplomate américain souhaitait informer Israël de sa venue à Jérusalem le lendemain après-midi. 

Les assistants de Benjamin Netanyahou le préviennent alors que le premier ministre ne sera pas visible avant le soir, en raison de son respect du jour de repos hebdomadaire dans la religion juive. Il est interdit, lors de ce jour chômé, d’effectuer la moindre tâche, pour se consacrer à la célébration du culte. Un délai inacceptable pour Steve Witkoff, qui aurait exprimé sans ambages son peu d’intérêt pour le rituel religieux.

The Syrian Pipeline Game: How Turkey’s Plans Affect Israel’s Regional Ambitions
 
The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has revived Turkey’s plans to construct oil and gas pipelines through the country, turning it into a regional “energy corridor” for neighboring states. Some of these plans would offer the Arab Gulf States a more convenient land route for exporting energy to Europe through Turkey, posing a challenge to Israel’s similar aspirations. Israel has other opportunities to export its natural gas to new markets via pipeline, but they pose the risk of undermining Israel’s relationship with Greece and Cyprus. Israel should follow the “pipeline game” in Syria closely to ensure that new economic opportunities in the region don’t pass it by.

Qataris shell out $623M for storied Park Lane Hotel
 
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund bought the Park Lane Hotel overlooking Central Park — once called the “world’s greatest site for development” — as the Middle Eastern nation continues its push into New York real estate.
The Qatar Investment Authority paid nearly $623 million to acquire the 46-story hotel at 36 Central Park South from Steve Witkoff’s company, property records show. PincusCo first reported the sale.  
It was not immediately clear what the $450 billion sovereign wealth fund plans for the property, which Harry Helmsley developed in the 1960s.

Il a ainsi affirmé sur son compte X, accompagné d’une vidéo : « Au cours de l’année dernière, en utilisant notre pouvoir politique, nous avons réussi à empêcher cet accord d’aller de l’avant, à maintes reprises. » Mais il a avoué par la même occasion qu’il n’avait plus un tel pouvoir, notamment parce que Benyamin Netanyahou, soucieux de ne pas faire dépendre son avenir politique des partis d’extrême droite, a élargi la coalition en y faisant entrer le parti Nouvel Espoir du ministre des Affaires étrangères Gideon Sa’ar en septembre. Les propos D’Itamar Ben Gvir ont été mal accueillis par une partie des Israéliens.

Aryeh Deri affirme que les obstacles à l’accord sur les otages ont été surmontés

Confusing, even contradictory reports have emerged on what it may contain — including, importantly, whether it accommodates all, some or none of the four nonnegotiable demands Netanyahu has been reiterating in recent weeks: for an ongoing Israeli presence on the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent Hamas rearming; for a mechanism to prevent armed fighters returning from southern to northern Gaza across the Netzarim Corridor; for the release of the largest possible number of living hostages in the first six-week phase of the deal, and for Israel’s right to resume fighting until Hamas is destroyed.
 
On the face of it, it would seem unthinkable that Netanyahu would have accepted the American bridging proposal if those demands were not accommodated. And indeed, the prime minister reportedly told a meeting Tuesday with relatives of soldiers slain on October 7 and of hostages that, for a start, “Israel won’t leave the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor under any circumstances.”
 
But it would also seem unthinkable that Hamas, which has been unyielding in its demand for a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, would accept such terms. Indeed, Hamas’s officials have issued several statements rejecting the American proposal, and are also now disputing the widely reported assertion of recent weeks that it was prepared to implement the first phase of the deal, in which it aims to secure the release of large numbers of the most dangerous Palestinian terrorists from Israel’s jails, without an upfront Israeli commitment to a permanent end of the war. Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 invasion and slaughter in southern Israel who is now effectively the sole voice of Hamas, has yet to offer his personal response from the depths of Gaza, but is widely expected to confirm that the proposal is a nonstarter.

The text below, entitled Appendix I, supplements the Israeli proposal for a deal with Hamas, which was submitted on May 27, 2024, and was publicly presented by US President Joe Biden on May 31, 2024. That proposal sets out a three-phase agreement “on the exchange of hostages and prisoners and restoring a sustainable calm,” and provides for the release of 33 Israeli hostages in the first phase. In his announcement of the deal on January 15, 2025, Biden specified: “This is the exact framework of the deal I proposed back in May.”

The parties and the mediators’ objective is to achieve a final consensus to implement the May 27, 2024, agreement on the exchange of hostages and prisoners and return to a sustainable calm which would achieve a permanent ceasefire between the parties.

2. Israeli forces withdrawal:

   Withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards from densely populated areas along the borders of the Gaza Strip, including Wadi Gaza (Netzarim axis and Kuwait roundabout).
    The Israeli forces will be deployed in a perimeter (700) meters with an exception at 5 localized points to be increased no more than (400) additional meters that the Israeli side will determine, south and west of the border, and based on the maps agreed upon by both sides which accompany the agreement.

4. Philadelphi corridor:

   The Israeli side will gradually reduce the forces in the corridor area during stage 1 based on the accompanying maps and the agreement between both sides.
    After the last hostage release of stage one, on day 42, the Israeli forces will begin their withdrawal and complete it no later than day 50.

How two feuding presidents combined to get a Gaza deal
 
It took two presidents who can't stand each other to make a deal between Israel and Hamas.
 
President-elect Trump swiftly claimed the victory for himself on Wednesday, while President Biden retorted sharply when a reporter asked if he or Trump really deserved the credit: "Is that a joke?"
 
Why it matters: Officials from the U.S., Israel and Qatar tell Axios the deal to free the hostages and end 15 months of war wouldn't have been possible without unprecedented coordination between their administrations.
 
While Biden laid out the parameters of this deal all the way back in May and spent months pushing the parties to agree to it, Trump's public and private involvement "was the 10 cents missing for the dollar," one U.S. official told Axios.
Both Israel and Hamas had far more incentive to sign on once they knew it was a deal with the incoming president, not just the outgoing one, another official acknowledged.
Flashback: After Trump's election victory, Biden and his team set a Gaza deal as their key foreign policy goal for the remaining 10 weeks in the White House.
 
When Biden met Trump in the Oval Office a few days later, he proposed that they work together on a deal.
The president-elect agreed, and decided he wanted an agreement before his inauguration.
Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his top Middle East adviser Brett McGurk started meeting with their successors on the Trump team, Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff, to coordinate their efforts.
 
(...)
 
The intrigue: On Dec. 2, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) went to Mar-a-Lago for a round of golf with Trump. "I told him that if he issues a statement about the hostages in Gaza it will be a big deal," Graham told Axios.
 
Trump agreed and started dictating to his press team. The resulting Truth Social post said that if the hostages were not freed by Jan. 20, "There will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge."
That created a sense of urgency for the Qatari and Egyptian mediators, but also for Netanyahu, sources familiar with the talks say.
 
(...)
 
But Mohammad Sinwar, who succeeded his brother as Hamas' military leader in Gaza, refused to budge, and the gaps remained wide. U.S. officials also remained skeptical of Netanyahu's willingness to deal after he walked back promises and moved goalposts at previous points in the talks.
 
(...)
 
Trump decided to dispatch Witkoff to the region after talks picked back up in the New Year and began to show some momentum.
 
"The president is exasperated," Witkoff, a real estate investor and Trump confidante, said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago two days before he travelled to Doha.
"If these hostages aren't back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East — it will not be good for Hamas or anybody else," Trump warned once again.
McGurk later told Trump's envoy the time was ripe and his push was needed.
Zoom in: In meetings after his arrival last Friday, Witkoff stressed to the Qatari prime minister that Trump wanted a deal and expected the mediators to push Hamas to make one.
 
He told Netanyahu: "Trump is serious about this deal, don't ruin this," according to a source briefed on their conversation.
Witkoff also asked Netanyahu to send in more senior officials to negotiate, with a mandate to close the deal, the source said. Netanyahu agreed.
 
(...)
 
An Israeli official told Axios that was an unprecedented moment in the U.S.-Israel relationship, and credited Witkoff for injecting "Trump momentum" into the meeting.
 
"Witkoff played a crucial role in the negotiations over the last few days, applying pressure from Trump. It was an X-factor," another Israeli official said.
Graham told Axios that all the players involved understood that Witkoff speaks for Trump. "People in the region don't want to start on a bad foot with Trump," he said.
 
(...)
 
The final sprint in the negotiations took place at a Qatari government official residence. Hamas representatives were on the first floor with the Israelis on the second and the Qatari and Egyptian mediators shuttling between them.

Negotiations dragged on until 3am each night and resumed in the morning after a few hours of sleep, a U.S. official said.
Issue after issue was closed: The redeployment of Israeli forces; what Hamas must do during the ceasefire; the delivery of humanitarian aid; the sequencing of hostage and prisoner releases.
On Wednesday morning, Hamas raised three new demands, according to a U.S. official. "We had to flex a muscle to get them to back off, and we did," the official said.
 
(...)
 
The Qatari prime minister made the announcement: "We saw two U.S. administrations working together... what the U.S. did led to this moment."
Next, Netanyahu called Trump and thanked him for his help in getting the deal. Only then did he call to thank Biden.