Is America’s diplomat breaking new ground – or repeating Biden’s errors?
Steve Witkoff, the real estate tycoon turned international negotiator, has become the subject of controversy with some conservatives attacking him and others rushing out to defend him.
“In a world left in chaos thanks to Joe Biden, Steve Witkoff is the diplomat America needs right now,” Sen. Jim Banks claimed.
Tucker Carlson hailed Witkoff as “the most effective American diplomat in a generation.”
But Witkoff, whatever his flaws, is far more honest than his PR men on X or Capitol Hill, and has never denied that he was just implementing the policies of the Biden administration.
In Jan, at Mar-a-Lago, Witkoff stated that “the Biden administration is the tip of the spear” in the Hamas negotiations. Biden has “got a solid team, and I appreciated that they’re allowing us to be collaborative.”
“I think Steve Witkoff has been a terrific partner in this,” Secretary of State Blinken praised him on MSNBC.
Much later, Witkoff told Tucker, “When I first got in and I was talking to Brett McGurk, who was the envoy on behalf of Biden, he was a smart guy.”
“He said to me, ‘This is where I want to get to, Steve.’ And so when I went in there, I went in with the imprimatur of the president.”
“Steve became a close partner of mine, I think it’s safe to say a friend,” McGurk told PBS.
Whose deal was it really?
Witkoff admitted to FOX News that he “had nothing to do with the mathematics behind the prisoner release and the hostage release”. The deal’s terms were set “months ago in the so-called May 27 protocol that was agreed to by Hamas, by the Israelis, and monitored by the United States under the Biden administration” and “our job was to speed up the process.”
And where did the May 27 protocol come from?
On a May 31 call, an unnamed senior Biden administration official told reporters that the proposed deal was “nearly identical to Hamas’s own proposals of only a few weeks ago”.
Witkoff’s achievement was taking a Biden administration proposal “nearly identical” to the Hamas demands and lending some muscle to the Biden team to push it through. That is why Biden officials like Blinken and McGurk praised Witkoff for enlisting Trump to bail them out.
There’s plenty of reasons to be critical of Witkoff, but he has been honest about what he was doing, giving credit to the Biden team, and admitting that he was advancing their agenda.
The same cannot be said of his defenders.
In his op-ed, Sen. Jim Banks claimed that Witkoff had stepped “into a leadership vacuum” and that “globalist critics continue to chirp from the sidelines, frustrated largely because Witkoff is shaking things up” and that problems “can’t be solved with old-school globalist solutions.”
Witkoff proposed a 10-15 year UN rebuilding program and allowing Hamas to stay on in Gaza. Rather than ending the war, the Biden ceasefire he worked for unwound into another war. As a result of the deal, the Trump administration sent another $134 million in aid to Gaza.
This isn’t “shaking things up” and Witkoff’s solutions are the same “old-school globalist solutions”. When a man is being praised by Blinken and the entire Biden old guard, the last thing he can be accused of doing is shaking things up. And Witkoff doesn’t claim that he is.
What new solutions has Witkoff come up with? The Obama ones. Negotiate with terrorists. Pretend they’re reasonable. Give them what they want. Act confused when it doesn’t work out.
According to Banks, “Witkoff’s key to successful negotiation is straightforward, admitting that deals only work when they benefit all parties.” According to Tucker, this is “so different from the posture that the last couple of generations of diplomats have taken, which is like, here’s what we want. Shut up and do it.” When did Obama or Clinton ever talk like that to America’s enemies?
Figuring out what the terrorists want and trying to give it to them were the signature diplomatic policies of the Carter, Clinton and Biden administrations. Those are the “old-school globalist solutions” which is why President Trump is such a breath of fresh air and Witkoff isn’t.
Witkoff’s initial Iran proposals pick up where Obama’s Iran Deal left off.
After reports emerged that the administration would let Iran keep a ‘civilian’ nuclear program, Witkoff appeared to suggest that the goal was Obama’s old capping enrichment gimmick.
“Iran “does not need to enrich past 3.67%. In some circumstances, they’re at 60%, in other circumstances 20%. That cannot be,” Witkoff argued. “You do not need to run — as they claim — a civil nuclear program where you’re enriching past 3.67%.”
Capping Iran’s nuclear enrichment at 3.67% had been the objective of Obama’s Iran Deal.
Obama had falsely claimed that his deal would force Iran to “keep its level of uranium enrichment at 3.67% — significantly below the enrichment level needed to create a bomb.”
The 3.67% was an Obama bait-and-switch.
“This would be a serious mistake because reactor grade uranium (3-5% enriched) can be quickly enriched to weapons grade,” Fred Fleitz, vice chair of the America First Policy Institute, warned, showing that 3.5% could go to 90% in only months. “Given Iran’s secret nuclear weapons research, Iran cannot be trusted to do ANY uranium enrichment.”
Witkoff has since reversed course and stated that Iran must stop and eliminate enrichment.
But the 3.67% number was revealing of where Witkoff gets his ideas. The enrichment cap and the talk of verification on enrichment were xeroxed right from Obama, Biden and the EU.
In 2023, Brett McGurk, Witkoff’s pal, had been dispatched by the Biden administration to offer Iran sanctions relief in exchange for freezing some of its nuclear enrichment.
It may not be a new idea, but Witkoff’s defenders are the only ones who accuse him of having new ideas. The Obama and Biden pros recognize that Witkoff is following in their footsteps.
Whatever Witkoff’s agendas are, he’s in over his head, and he outsourced his negotiations to everyone from the Biden team to the Islamic terror state of Qatar with whom he’s done business and whose terrorist leaders he has repeatedly praised. Knowing nothing about the Middle East hasn’t given him a fresh perspective: it just made him an easy dupe for everyone who does.
“I thought we had a deal — an acceptable deal. I even thought we had an approval from Hamas,” Witkoff had told FOX News. “Maybe that’s just me getting duped.”
It’s an honest admission. Witkoff’s defenders who pretend that he’s a genius shaking up diplomacy by appeasing Islamic terrorist states could at least try to be as honest as him.
somehistory says
“when they benefit all parties.”
A serial rapist on the run, intrudes a living room, takes a woman and her little kids hostage.
The criminal won’t come out and he won’t release the hostages unless he is set free, given a helicopter to take him to an airport where he will board a plane for some faraway place. Oh, and he wants cash in small unmarked bills.
The special force with the PD calls in hostage negotiators. Do they intend to come up with a *deal* which will benefit the family, the neighbors, the cops and the **criminal**? Or do they have a sniper looking for a window of opportunity?
This *wit*less nincompoop is no better than those who helped the terrorists before he began to help them.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I am hoping for President Trump’s diplomatic obsession to end. We don’t need to enter any new wars, but we don’t need to obsess about making 2 countries, or groups of peoples, like each other
Israel can handle the Palis as well as Iran: it’s just we who need to stop interfering in their moves just b’cos someone wants to win a Nobel Prize. We don’t have to enter a war against Iran or even bomb their nuke facilities if Tucker Carlson doesn’t want us to. However, the least we can do is give Iran the green light to go ahead w/ such an operation if it deems necessary. Oh, and for Chrissakes, just stop smooching the hineys of both Turkey and Qatar
Similarly, on Ukraine vs Russia, we are working like any agreement w/ Trump will be permanent, but Moscow knows, having been burnt on the issue of NATO expansion in the 90s & 00s, that such agreements can be negated by future US governments, and therefore aren’t willing to trust us. As a result, their attacks on Ukraine continue. Now, the US is considering abandoning the talks, and that’s a good idea. Once we are no longer interested in what goes on there, the Russians will lose interest in that war as well, which is only taking a toll on their people, and leaving them vulnerable in other places
Becca R says
A clear case of the Emoeror’s New Clithes. One sentence in this article sums up Witkoff perfectly. ,”He is in over his head.”
Billy says
Trump and his team deal foolishly with Islam’s Muslims, and the West’s deceitful impotence will hurt its people. Destruction should be the fate of Islam’s Countries, but the West only supports them to new lives while Muslims invade the West for ultimate conquest from within(Quran 9:5,29,111 and more).
Islam, a Terrorist-Criminal Enterprise, and its predatory believers continually fund, promote, and practice ideological subversion, propaganda, bigotry, discrimination, deceit, supremacy, segregation, hatred, violence, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Quran, and Muslim actions should be legally challenged with a multi-faceted force of Western Laws like Muslims wield against Americans and Westerners(Quran 9:5,29; 49:15; 60:4 and more).
Like a Foreign Terrorist Organization(FTO) designated by the USA Secretary of State, Islam is a MUSLIM TERRORIST ORGANIZATION(MTO) fighting against Non-Muslims and NOT A PEACEFUL religion under Western Law because Islam funds, teaches, and promotes Terrorist Criminal Organizations with Muslims as Terrorists for Allah(Quran 9:5,29; 49:15 and more).
Under Islam and Islamic Law, Muslims have the Legal Right and the Quranic Duty to terrorize Non-Muslims because neglecting this QURANIC DUTY is a Crime against Allah. Jihad means warfare against Non-Muslims to ESTABLISH ISLAM’S RELIGION(Quran 3:151; 9:5,29,111; Muslim Law Manual: “Reliance of the Traveller”, o9.0 and more).
More specifically, Islam, a terroristic-destructive way of life, is a Muslim Terrorist Ideology and Murderous, Criminal Enterprise of intolerance, continuous war, discrimination, segregation, supremacy, genocide, polygamy, propaganda, deceit, hatred, incitement, sedition, rape, terrorism, and violence against all Non-Muslims as taught in the Quran(Quran 2:208,216; 4:65,89,95; 5:14,64; 8:12,39,74; 9:5,21,29,36, 41,49,73,88,111,123; 21:92; 49:15; 60:4 and more).
Winston 101 says
Billy,
I wanted to thank you and let you know your Quran references are being very helpful in my learning about the true essence of hideous cancer that is Islam. Keep up the good work.
James Lincoln says
To Pres. Trump:
Immediately replace Steve Witkoff with Frank Gaffney.
FreeMarketFilly says
Witless Witkoff is a danger to the US and world peace. He obviously has never studied history and never learned that appeasing evil dictators only leads to war. Trump needs to replace him immediately. If We the People wanted the foreign policies of Obama and Biden, we would have elected a Democrat administration.
Let Israel do what it will with Iran, Gaza, and Houthis and we should butt out of the decision making.
Innocent women and children are dying everyday in Ukraine as Putin is bombing apartment houses and schools. Shamefully we have turned our backs on these people that we promised to protect from Russian encroachment. Diplomacy would have dictated that ALL European nations would have been brought together to pressure Putin to back off by 1) not buying ANY products from Russia, including oil/gas or 2) if that didn’t work, to pile on armaments in Ukraine so the Ukrainians could blitzkrieg Russia, even Moscow, until Putin offered to talk. Putin won’t agree to anything until he’s hurting……or risking losing “face.”