Last Friday, when Jared Kushner heard that Hamas would begin talks to release Israeli hostages, he was fielding calls at his mansion, which sits on a man-made island just north of Miami. He jumped into his car and drove the 20 minutes to another mansion — this one owned by the billionaire Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East peace envoy.
In those crucial moments, the Trump administration’s diplomatic power center was not in Washington but in one of the wealthiest enclaves in Florida.
The two real estate developers, charged with closing the deal on a prime piece of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy ambitions, got to work setting up a command center, where they made and fielded calls from stakeholders, including an impatient president and cabinet members in the Israeli government.
The stage had been set for a peace deal earlier that week, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed with Mr. Trump on a 20-point proposal for pursuing a peace agreement.
With terms that largely favored Israel, it was still unknown whether Hamas would sign on and agree to release hostages or relinquish control of the enclave. As the deadline for Hamas to respond ticked closer, Mr. Trump warned Hamas fighters that thousands of them had already been killed, and that many more would be if they did not agree to a deal.
Hamas said hours later that it would begin talks to release hostages.
While he was working alongside Mr. Witkoff in Miami, Mr. Kushner’s advice to the Israelis was not to worry about the rest of the militant group’s statement, which did little to assuage Israeli concerns that Hamas would refuse to give up its arms or political control of Gaza. Mr. Kushner was focused on the first part of the statement, which meant hostages could soon come home.
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The post How Jared Kushner, a Self-Described ‘Deal Guy,’ Helped Broker a Gaza Breakthrough appeared first on New York Times.
