Kushner and Witkoff: The War Is Over, Deal Will Not Be Violated
CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired a detailed interview on Sunday evening featuring Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the two U.S. envoys appointed by President Donald Trump who helped broker the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“The biggest message that we’ve tried to convey to the Israeli leadership now is that, now that the war is over. If you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better,” Kushner said, emphasizing the administration’s vision for long-term regional stability.
Addressing Hamas’s post-war actions, Kushner remarked, “Hamas right now is doing exactly what you would expect a terrorist organization to do, which is to try to reconstitute and take back their positions.”
He went on to explain, “The success or failure of this will be if Israel and this international mechanism is able to create a viable alternative. If they are successful, Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future.”
When asked to clarify President Trump’s statement that “Hamas must disarm, or we will disarm them, perhaps violently,” and whether that suggested the U.S. would send troops into Gaza, Kushner responded, “That’s not the intent. [Trump’s] statement is that he wants to see this done, and he’s fully committed to seeing it done. And– and he’s gonna continue to work hard to make sure that it is completed.”
Pressed by interviewer Lesley Stahl on who would carry out Hamas’s disarmament, Kushner explained, “The agreement is that an International Stabilization Force will build a local Palestinian police force, and there will be an agreement reached between them on how to create a secure and viable Gaza. And by the way, none of the reconstruction money is gonna be going in until you have terror-free zones, because nobody wants to invest this money into a place where it’s just gonna get destroyed again by terrorism.”
Stahl then questioned whether Hamas was cooperating sincerely in the recovery of deceased hostages’ bodies. Kushner replied, “As far as we’ve seen from what’s being conveyed to us from the mediators, they are so far. That could break down at any minute, but right now– we have seen them looking to honor their agreement.”
Witkoff recounted a key moment during negotiations in Egypt where Hamas delegates, including Khalil al-Hayya, participated. Al-Hayya survived an Israeli strike in Doha, but his son was killed. “We expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son. He mentioned it. And I told him that I had lost a son, and that we were both members of a really bad club, parents who have buried children,” said Witkoff.
Kushner reflected on that scene, saying, “What I saw at that moment was very interesting. You had– we go into a room and you have the Qataris, the Turks, and the Egyptians. And then we meet the four representatives of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. And I’m looking at these guys and I’m thinking these are hardened guys who have been through two years of war. They’ve obviously, you know– they– they green-lit an assault that raped and murdered and did some of the most barbaric things. They’ve been holding hostages while Gaza’s been, you know, bombed. And they’ve withstood all the suffering. But when Steve and him spoke about their sons, it turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings kind of showing a vulnerability with each other.”
Explaining the mechanics of the talks, Witkoff noted, “The Qataris were the interlocutors directly talking to Hamas. But then we were on the phone with the Qataris, the Egyptians, and the Turks. And the notion was to convince everybody that those 20 Israeli hostages who were alive, were no longer assets for Hamas. They were a liability.”
“At the end of the day, it goes back to the issues were pretty simple,” Kushner added. “We wanted the hostages to come out. We wanted a real ceasefire that both sides would respect. We needed a way to bring humanitarian aid into the people. And then we had to write all these complex words to deal with the 50 years of stupid word games that everyone in that region is so used to playing. Both sides wanted the objective. And we just needed to find a way to help everyone get there.”
The pair underscored that President Trump remains fully committed to enforcing the deal, adding, “We will not allow the terms of this deal for any party to be violated. And both sides will be treated fairly.”
An excerpt of the interview had been released the night before, in which Kushner and Witkoff described their shock over Israel’s strike in Qatar. “I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed,” said Witkoff.
Kushner described Trump’s reaction to the Israeli operation, noting, “I think he felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing, and that it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”
In the full broadcast, both envoys commented on Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s apology to the Qataris, rejecting the notion that it was imposed by Trump. “I wouldn’t call it forced. I would say that apology was pivotal. It was the linchpin that got us to the next place. It was really, really important that it happened. And I think we spent– with the president, at his direction, we spent a lot of time discussing it with [Minister Ron] Dermer, discussing it with– Prime Minister Netanyahu. And then the president weighed in,” explained Witkoff.
Kushner added, “President Trump had a great line– at his speech in the Knesset where he said, ‘Bibi’s very tough, but that’s what makes him great.’ And ultimately, Prime Minister Netanyahu wasn’t gonna do anything, or say anything, or agree to anything that he didn’t feel comfortable with. But he knew what needed to be done at that moment to make peace. And I give him a lot of credit for meeting the moment and doing what needed to be done in order to get this deal done.”
“The goal of the phone call was to help things move forward,” Kushner continued. “And now there’s a trilateral mechanism between the countries which didn’t happen before. So this is the first time there’s a formal mechanism now between Israel and Qatar. And I believe over time Israel and Qatar could actually turn out to be incredible allies in the region to advance things forward.”
Witkoff concluded, “The apology needed to happen. It just did. We were not moving forward without that apology. And the president said to him, ‘People apologize.’ – I remember him saying, ‘I apologize sometimes.’”
{Matzav.com}
