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Steve Witkoff: Hamas Promised Me It Would Disarm

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Steve Witkoff, our chief Middle East negotiator, has now said, with surprise and disappointment, that “Hamas promised me it would disarm.” But now the terror group says it won’t disarm. My goodness, Hamas wouldn’t have been fooling you, would it, Mr. Witkoff? Steve Witkoff may be a whiz at making real estate deals in New York City, but in the Middle East, he’s a babe in the woods. He apparently doesn’t know about Muhammad’s famous hadith, claiming that “war is deception.” More on the gullible Witkoff, and the state of play in Gaza between the IDF, Hamas, and the Americans, can be found here: “Witkoff says Hamas officials told him and Kushner that terror group would disarm,” by Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, November 7, 2025:

White House Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff claimed Thursday that Hamas officials told him and fellow Trump aide Jared Kushner that the terror group wanted to disarm during their “famous meeting” hours before the ceasefire was inked on October 9.

“Hamas has always indicated that they would disarm. They’ve said so — they said it to us directly during that famous meeting that Jared had with them,” Witkoff recalled, speaking to the America Business Forum conference in Miami.

Of course Hamas will keep its word, Mr. Witkoff. When has Hamas ever told a lie, or misled anyone? See, there’s nothing to worry about.

“I hope that they keep their word because if they do, they’ll understand that the development plan that we have for Gaza is really terrific — a lot better than anyone has ever discussed before,” he continued, adding that it will include a “tremendous jobs program.”

Of course Hamas will gladly give up its arms, as you and Jared were promised. After all, the terror group wants to see Gazans thrive, with good jobs at good wages, as they both clear away the rubble and proceed to rebuild. When has Hamas ever shown indifference to the wellbeing of Gazans?

Hamas officials have publicly taken a different stance, insisting either that the group will not disarm or have dodged the question entirely when pressed….

Oops. It sounds as if Hamas is not going to disarm after all, despite the promise it made to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Could they have been fooling the Americans all along?

Hamas is obligated under the Trump plan to completely disarm. There is no exception made for light arms. Rifles and guns in the hands of Hamas have killed hundreds of Israelis, including those murdered on October 7, 2023.

Hamas is stalling for time. How long will it be — weeks, or more likely months — before an international security force is formed, enters Gaza, and takes delivery of all those weapons Hamas will supposedly turn over them? Meanwhile, Hamas will have been able to hide in its network of tunnels, a great many of its weapons, which it has no intention of turning over.

Witkoff remains so hopeful, so trusting that Hamas will demilitarize. What will it take for him to realize he is being played?

In his remarks, the US envoy also confirmed The Times of Israel’s reporting that Washington is leaning on Israel to grant safe passage to 100 to 200 Hamas operatives who are currently holed up in tunnels beneath the city of Rafah, in exchange for them giving up their weapons….

This pressure from Washington on Israel to let 200 Hamas fighters go free to the part of Gaza still under Hamas’ control is madness. Any fighters who stayed behind the Yellow Line were certainly intent on continuing to fight the IDF, and they should not be allowed to escape.

Furthermore, Hamas was already obligated to turn over all of its weapons. That was part of the deal that led the IDF both to stop fighting, and to withdraw behind the Yellow Line. Hamas should not now receive another concession in order to do what it was already obligated to do: disarm. But the Americans, instead of pointing this out, are putting pressure — outrageous pressure — on Israel to let the almost 200 Hamas combatants leave the area under IDF control as long as they surrender their weapons. Of course, once they reach the Hamas-controlled area, they will simply be given weapons to replace those they had just given up.

Some of those 200 Hamas combatants have attacked, and killed, Israelis, and Israel does not intend to let them go free.

For its part, the US fears that allowing Israel to kill all of those Hamas fighters would risk collapsing the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.

But hasn’t the ceasefire already collapsed, with Hamas’ insistence that it will never disarm?

Witkoff said that if the US manages to “hold it together, then we’ll have even more credibility around the world. I’m very confident we will hold it together and we will complete the mission.”

Does Witkoff really think that Hamas will voluntarily disarm? How exactly will the U.S. “hold it [the Trump plan] all together”? Even the first phase of the plan did not exactly go as planned. Hamas was supposed to turn over all the dead Israelis within 72 hours; instead, it has been delivering them in batches of one or two, and so far, more than a month has gone by. Five bodies have still not been turned over. And even several of the bodies Hamas turned over were not Israelis at all. And Hamas has repeatedly insisted that it has no intention of disarming, as called for in the next phase of the plan.

Now the Americans are talking about a rebuilding program, with a model residential community to be built to the east of the Yellow Line, that will be seen by the Palestinians as an example of what they can all have in their future if they turn away from Hamas and help to peacefully rebuild the Strip. It just might work, if Hamas is completely disarmed and its leaders sent into exile. Only then can peaceful reconstruction begin. That is a big If.

Comments

    • No wonder he needed Qatar financing in real estate: he’s sooooo gullable

    • It wouldn’t happen to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn would it.?

      It amazes me that Witkoff apparently never saw fit to educate himself on Hamas, and Islam. That is troubling because he is the point-man diplomat in this fiasco.The only way that Hamas will disarm is if they are militarily defeated, and they decide to surrender rather than die. But, either way, surrender or death, will result in them being disarmed.

  2. This was to be expected, but Israel got back the living hostages. Now they can continue to slaughter Hamas terrorists, (Koranimals) if they refuse to disarm.

    • Ultimately, their death is what they don’t want to be cheated out of. Just like Lieutenant Dan Taylor, the Film character. Hamas is dying to die. Give them what they want.

    • Yeah, and now Israel isn’t in a quandry about any repercussions on the hostages if Israel struck Hamas in any way. I know that bodies are important in Jewish law, but please don’t make that the roadblock in retaliating

    • Sadly, Israel is being blamed for breaking the ceasefire–false as this is.

  4. This is hilarious. For any adult to rely on ‘promises’ made by Hamas – or any other of the hate groups or governments under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood – tells me that our chief ‘negotiator’ has no clue about his adversary’s culture, faith, or history.

  5. Its amazing in the most negative sense howa man as old as Steve Witkoff, can be so terribly naive and gullible as to actually think the Hamas can be trusted it’s word in any promise that it made.

    To feel that a jihad entity that has its Muslim terrorists murder unarmed civilians , ecen young girls , children and deliberately burn i babies death as well as kidnap and then torture , raoes starve and mutder the people who they had kidnapped , would then have any honor to keep its promised word. is outright absurd .

  6. It’s absurdly irrational and even outright stupid of Steve Witkoff, to believe anything the Hamas officials promise . The are liars , they engage in the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya of peaking the deceptions of lies to further their jihad agenda to achieve their Islamic goals with is the destruction of the State of Israel and the genocide of all the Jewish race.

    To explain this in a mild way about those pathological liars of Hamas. If Witkoff, was a man of wisdom and someone of Hamas would tell him that “It’s raining outside, ” Witkoff, would then first kook out of the window before believing that that Muslim of Hamas said to him.

  7. Do you really believe he didn’t see this coming ? All everyone wanted was the hostages to be released . Now Hamas can be destroyed .

    • It’s not Wikoff who chiefly worries me, James. It’s Trump. Perhaps Trump knows Witkoff would be played and has a Byzantine reason for putting him out there to be played. Better be the case.

      • @Wellington: You know, just a couple of weeks ago, I heard Trump referring to ‘a three thousand year old history’. That really worried me, because as we all know, mohamedanism pretends to have been created by mohamed, who is said to have died in 632 AD. So Trump was confusing Arabic mohamedans with Philistines. That means he doesn’t have a clue about the historic facts that lie before us. And it’s small wonder that Dimwitkoff doesn’t either. Now I’m quite sure that both Trump and Dimwitkoff are ‘on the level’ in the sense that they’re not betraying our culture, so that leaves only the other option: they are not competent for this part of their job, and that’s really worrisome.And this naievete only confirms this.

        • Captain Quirk: I fear you’re right and I know you’ll understand that I hope you’re wrong.

  9. I cannot believe an effing WAR is being conducted by an effing real estate agent!

  10. To me, Witkoff is a near perfect example of a person with “deliberate ignorance.” He appears to “assume” “they are just like us” with the same values and goals. Negotiation demands trustworthy counterparts. Islam has taught and practiced for 1400 years that it does not make binding commitments to opponents. Witkoff is a blind man leading other blind men straight into the ditch of death. “Deliberate ignorance constitutes knowledge of the truth.” Wyle v. R.J. Reynolds (9th Cir. Ct. App.)

  11. This is like a Monty Python sketch. The whole Third Crusade could have been avoided if Pope Innocent II had just offered Saladin a “really good jobs program”.

  12. I knew the outcome and I am just a humble observer – he should be put out to grass.

  14. If not incompetence, then that only leaves collusion. Perhaps all roads do lead to Rome on the Potomac.

  16. Witkoff dies nit have a clue. He absolutely does not understand Islam. He is naive abd unfit for this position. This is laughable. Actually the entire administration needs people who can properly advise on Islam. This is crucial. Get Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Douglas Murray, Robert Spencer, even John Guandolo – just to name a few.

    • I have encountered personally and locally the suicidal deliberate ignorance of an entire community which refuses to see that for 1400 years it is targeted for extermination. Contrary to their teaching for thousands of years to “Ask EVERY question repeatedly, because each time the answer will remove SOME of the tarnish of error and deception that is always present.” The question terrifies them because they know the answer and have experienced the slaughter. The lesson of the Holocaust Remembrance is lost. [To my sadness]

    • One has to wonder why Mosab Hassan Yousef has not been a part of these negotiations at least as a consultant.

      • Yes Agree. He should definitely be no. one on a list of advisors, besides the others I mentioned. Thanks for reminding me,

  19. Steve Witkoff: Hamas Promised Me It Would Disarm
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    D’oh!

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