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.

  • @IndustryStandardOP
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    -710 hours ago

    Trump and Bibi are closer than Bibi and Biden. If you can’t grasp this, you will in time.

    Nobody and I mean absolutely nobody is closer to Netanyahu than Joe BIden. And if you do not know this you do not know anything about Joe Biden.

    • @lennybird
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      39 hours ago

      Oh? When did Biden say to Bibi, “Finish the job.”? In addition to providing arms to Israel over the course of Trump’s first term, he also moved the embassy to Jeruselum. Did Biden do that? No siree.

      If you weren’t aware, they had a falling out over the course of 2024 with reports indicating this as early as February. Before that I might be inclined to agree, Trump’s lack of moral character notwithstanding.

        • @lennybird
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          35 hours ago

          So ultimately he was doing less than what Trump did do in his first term, and said he would do. Got it.

            • @lennybird
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              5 hours ago

              Oh I’m sure Trump will be far more amicable to the plight of Palestinians. Go tell tell them what you did! They’ll be so proud!

              You can live in this alternative fairy tale fantasy where we had some 3rd option; I’ll remain firmly planted in reality where there is a gradient of harm inflicted, and the election was a binary choice.

              Say how’d your vote for Stein go? Shucks, if only she had like 49% more votes… So close, right?

        • @lennybird
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          8 hours ago

          So he did not say that, or move the embassy to Jeruselum and merely continued the same track, as I had already said and without any sort of rebuttal, considering the a) damage to Democrats and b) Trump reversing course the second he gets into office anyway.

          Moot.

          My points still stand.