A “tense” weekend meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff led to a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations, with the top aide to US President-elect Donald Trump doing more to sway the premier in a single sit-down than outgoing President Joe Biden did all year, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

Witkoff has been in Doha for the past week to take part in the hostage negotiations, as mediators try to secure a deal before Trump’s January 20 inauguration. On Saturday, Witkoff flew to Israel for a meeting with Netanyahu at the premier’s Jerusalem office.

During the meeting, Witkoff urged Netanyahu to accept key compromises necessary for an agreement, the two Arab officials on Monday told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity. Neither Witkoff nor Netanyahu’s office responded to requests for comment.

  • prole
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    3 hours ago

    Try to stay on topic, I know it’s hard…

      • prole
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        3 hours ago

        Yeah, it’s definitely not though. We were talking about Trump’s possible allegiances to Israel, and you seem to think he doesn’t have any. That’s ignorant.

        I have no problem discussing the genocide being perpetrated on the Palestinian people (and has been ongoing for decades, not something that started a few years ago, btw), but that’s not what was being discussed, so when you change the subject to that it looks like you’re avoiding something.