1. Talking to Hamas
At first glance, the news that broke last week sounded unreal. “U.S. Holding Secret Talks with Hamas,” read the Axios headline. But the scoop by star reporter Barak Ravid was just as solid as it was dramatic. The same Trump administration that has threatened Hamas with “all hell” if it doesn’t release the hostages is simultaneously holding direct talks in Qatar with leaders of the terror organization.
The United States designated Hamas as a terror organization nearly three decades ago and ever since has deliberately avoided any direct contact with the group. When brokering the latest Gaza cease-fire agreement, American negotiators talked to Qatari and Egyptian interlocutors, who then had to walk over to a separate room on a separate floor and convey their ideas to Hamas, just so it was clear that the United States was not engaging with the group.
Trump upended this arrangement.
Tasked with talking to Hamas is Adam Boehler, the special presidential envoy on hostage affairs, who, contrary to most U.S. officials, is permitted to engage with designated terror organizations. Boehler has focused primarily on the American citizens still held by Hamas—Edan Alexander from New Jersey, who volunteered to serve in the IDF and is known to be alive—and on another four American citizens, Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Judith Weinstein and Gadi Haggai, whose bodies are still held by Hamas in Gaza.
On Sunday, Boehler took to the airwaves to explain the unprecedented move.
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Boehler explained that the purpose of the meetings with Hamas was to “jumpstart some negotiations that were in a very fragile place.” He said that in the talks, he asked Hamas representatives, “What is the endgame that you want here? Not the dream endgame, but what do you think is realistic at this point.”
In an interview with Israel’s KAN-11, the special envoy revealed that Hamas proposed a five-to-ten-year pause on military activity, after all hostages are released, and that it was made clear that the United States will not agree to see Hamas in power after the war is over.
In practical terms, it seems that Boehler’s engagement with Hamas has yet to bear fruit.
But it did help clarify the Trump administration’s strategy: From now on, the official U.S.-Egypt-Qatar channel is no longer the exclusive vehicle for negotiating a Gaza cease-fire and hostage deal; the U.S. priority is the release of its own citizens; and while Israel is America’s ally, that does not mean the administration will always work in lockstep with the Netanyahu government.
2. No Apologies
Sitting down with leaders of a terror organization is no small deal, especially when a close ally of yours is in the midst of a bitter war with that terror group. The move did not go unnoticed by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Careful not to create too much of a public uproar (after all, Netanyahu promised his supporters that he sees eye to eye with the American president and that Trump is “the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House”), Bibi sent Ron Dermer, his close ally and the cabinet minister entrusted with maintaining ties with the Trump administration, to express Israel’s dissatisfaction. In what was described as a “tense call,” with Boehler, Dermer made clear that Jerusalem doesn’t like the move and doesn’t appreciate the idea of the United States running a back channel with Hamas.
And this is where it becomes a little more interesting.
The Trump administration, instead of trying to dismiss the issue or frame discussions with Hamas as a minor attempt to advance talks, doubled down. Not only did Boehler not apologize, he used his five TV interviews Sunday morning to make it clear that he couldn’t care less about Dermer and his objections.
“We’re the United States, we’re not an agent of Israel,” Boehler said point blank on CNN. Later, on Israel’s Channel 13, he said he “doesn’t really care that much” about Dermer’s complaint and added: “If it was a big deal every time Dermer got a little bit upset, I think you may understand Ron has a lot of big deals every day.”
The message coming out of the White House was directed at Israel and was loud and clear: Negotiating with Hamas is America’s privilege, and it is doing so in order to advance American interests. Israel has no say on the issue.
3. A Democratic “What If”
It’s not hard to imagine how former members of the Biden Middle East team felt watching recent events unfold. Biden and his team walked on eggshells when it came to Israel and Netanyahu. They offered full and complete support to the Israeli government and military, and when disagreements arose, they struggled to keep them behind closed doors and tried to limit any unfavorable action toward Netanyahu. When Israel refused to follow the U.S. requests to avoid an all-out attack on Rafah, Biden responded only with a symbolic pause on one shipment of heavy bombs. And when complaints over Israel’s disregard for civilian lives mounted, the Biden administration issued a warning letter, but never followed through. And still, Netanyahu and members of his government responded in public, attacking Biden, accusing him of hamstringing Israel’s military and vowing “to fight with our fingernails,” as Netanyahu put it, if America withheld weapons.
Just imagine what Netanyahu would have said if Biden had decided to engage with Hamas in negotiations. And how his cabinet would have responded if a senior Biden adviser had said that he “doesn’t really care” about the complaints of an Israeli minister.
Trump, as it turns out, can go much further in pressuring and bypassing Israel than any Democratic president could ever dream of doing. Instead of a collective attack on the U.S. administration for sitting down with Israel’s enemies, Netanyahu’s response was a polite expression of dissent delivered by Dermer.
4. Behind the Scenes of an Emotional Oval Office Moment
Trump won over many Israelis this past week after meeting in person at the White House with eight former hostages released from Hamas captivity. Trump maintained his signature awkwardness in human interactions (“I said, ‘Were there any people that were, like, kind? I was shocked. The answer was nobody. There was nobody. Just the opposite,” he recalled about his conversation with the former hostages), and yet he came across as someone who genuinely cares about their plight and is committed to returning all remaining 59 hostages still held by Hamas.
The released hostages’ road to the Oval Office was long and uncertain. It started with Trump watching a clip from a heart-wrenching interview with Eli Sharabi, who was released in January after 491 days in captivity. Trump, apparently, was touched and expressed his willingness to meet with Sharabi. The wheels in Israel began moving, and within days a delegation of released hostages was formed, a private plane was made available for the journey, and the eight survivors of Hamas captivity made their way to Washington, some of them only weeks after being freed and still under medical supervision.
Once in Washington, they learned that while Trump was interested in meeting with them, nothing had been set up, and it would be a struggle to get on the president’s schedule. An attempt to arrange the meeting last Tuesday, before Trump’s address to the nation, failed. Some of the group were invited as guests to his speech to a joint session of Congress, but Trump neglected to mention them in his address.
The next day, as hopes for an in-person meeting seemed dim, Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff called on the hostages and suggested they come and meet him at his White House office. Once there, he hoped, it would be possible to drop in and see Trump.
They arrived on a rainy day, waited for a couple of hours, and eventually got to see Trump in the Oval Office. The setting was a bit off—Trump sat behind his desk, and the former hostages stood in a half circle around him throughout the 30-minute long meeting, but the discussion seemed to flow. Each got a chance to tell their story of captivity, and they all praised the president for helping them return home. “You were sent by God,” Omer Shem Ttov told Trump.
The president relished their gratitude, and his staff later put out a video compilation of the meeting, highlighting those expressions. One of the organizers of the delegation later admitted that there were moments he had thought the meeting would never happen, but once it did, he said, it was a great success—the former hostages got to fulfill their mission of conveying their message to Trump about the desperate need to get all remaining hostages out.
It might have required a long journey overseas, nearly 48 hours of uncertainty, and an awkwardly staged meeting, but they got Trump to hear firsthand from the people who were in Hamas tunnels about the need to act swiftly on the issue.
5. Slashing Columbia University Funding: Is it Good for the Jews?
Much has been said about the Trump administration’s decision last Friday to cut $400 million in funding for Columbia University because of its “consistent inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” as well as the ICE raid and arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the pro-Palestine Columbia protests who has been detained and faces deportation from the United States.
These moves will continue reverberating in the coming weeks and months, as the administration mulls actions similar to those taken with Columbia against at least eight other colleges and as higher education institutions consider their response to the administration’s sanctions.
Here are a couple of points to watch for as these stories continue to unfold:
- Is this a victory for the Jewish community, which had called out the elite higher education institutions for not protecting Jewish students? Or was the rightful demand for action hijacked by an administration eager to bash the bastions of American academic elitism?
- Will the harsh, unprecedented move against Columbia send a message to all universities about the need to curb anti-Jewish activities and ensure that Jewish students can feel safe on campus, or will it just convince college leaders that there’s no need to even try, because—as seen in the case of Columbia—Trump doesn’t care about steps taken to improve the situation?
- And, looking forward: If this case reaches the courts, as it might given the alleged flaws some have pointed out n the process led by Trump’s task force, will it eventually be up to the courts to determine what constitutes antisemitism and when criticism of Israel and Zionism crosses the line into Jew hatred? And if so, is that good for the Jews?
Top image: President Donald Trump and Adam Boehler, the special presidential envoy on hostage affairs (Credit: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)).