US envoy Steve Witkoff’s interview exposes contradictions and limitations in the Trump administration’s Gaza strategy.
The conversation published this Friday between popular right-wing podcast host Tucker Carlson and US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff reveals precisely why the logic of the US Trump administration led to the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire.
Admitting the potential results of failure, Washington is employing the polar opposite strategy to what is needed.
The hour-and-a-half-long Tucker Carlson Show podcast was far from short of headline-worthy quotes. Yet, the overarching takeaway was a more well-rounded picture of the failed approach being employed from Washington.
Amidst admissions that might make one believe the Trump administration had rightly identified the risks of failing to secure an end to the war in Gaza, Steve Witkoff also made it clear that the White House is not willing to pursue policies that aren’t dictated by the Israel Lobby.
In a Friday interview with Tucker Carlson, U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff stated that Netanyahu prioritizes war over Israeli prisoners.
He also noted that the Hamas resistance movement is not as portrayed in the West.#Hamas #Trump #Netanyahu #Gaza pic.twitter.com/wFY8a7uNIq
— Muslim Voice (@MuslimVoice_eng) March 22, 2025
During the interview, Witkoff repeats Israeli propaganda talking points about October 7, claims that there is an Israeli desire for peace, and uses this rhetoric to signal that the end goal regionally will be a series of normalization agreements.
While normalization of ties between Riyadh and Tel Aviv has long been the goal in Washington, even more interesting was that the US’s Middle East Envoy states such deals could be signed with Beirut and Damascus as well.
What the normalization talk, regarding Lebanon and Syria, indicates—based on the way the US envoy discusses them—is that their newly instated leaderships are clearly viewed as being aligned with American and Israeli regional interests to some extent.
However, where Witkoff seems to miss the mark on the topic of normalization is by making the exact same mistake as previous US leadership, completely sidelining the Palestinian people and their potential to greatly impact regional dynamics.
Without expanding on the subject in much detail, Witkoff admitted that if the issue of Gaza is not solved, it threatens the leadership of Egypt, Jordan, and even Saudi Arabia. This was also a concern pointed out by former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his second-to-last foreign policy address, given at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, DC.
“If we have a bad event in Egypt, it could take us back.”
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, during an interview with Tucker Carlson, stated that Egypt’s economic hardships and the ongoing genocide in Gaza could lead to instability within the country and destabilize the region. pic.twitter.com/BhZ9Mpc888
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) March 22, 2025
Blinken’s prescription for the potential fallout that will come from Israel’s refusal to end its genocidal war in Gaza, as well as its wider project against the Palestinian people, was the so-called “Two-State Solution.”
While this has been the standard “solution” that Western governments routinely give lip service to—and has been rendered implausible at this point—it at least makes some sense as a means to close the conflict and prevent a dramatic regional shift that spins out of US control.
Despite the fact that Witkoff correctly identifies the risks involved in failing to achieve a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, it seems he is incapable of seeing how Washington’s approach is doomed to fail.
At one point, towards the end of the interview, the US envoy tells Tucker Carlson that Donald Trump “doesn’t want to go to war” and that “he’ll use military action to stop a war.” Just these words alone point to how ridiculous the US government’s approach to foreign policy is.
It almost mirrors a story once told about former US President Ulysses Grant: that he witnessed a man whipping a dog and had the man whipped because he would not tolerate such violence.
“What we heard in the beginning of this conflict is that Hamas is ideological, that they’re prepared to die for a whole variety of reasons. I personally—and I talk to the president about this—said to him, ‘I don’t think they are as ideologically locked in.’ They’re not ideologically intractable. I never believed that,” Witkoff said in defense of US direct discussions with Hamas.
This part of the discussion was riddled with contradictions and appeared to be an attempt to justify why the Trump administration had to open discussions with Hamas, which was ultimately a result of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff told Tucker Carlson he realized Hamas is not a suicidal cult, despite how group was being framed by the Israeli prime minister, after reading “lots of intelligence reports” and participating in negotiations.
He added:
“We’re told Hamas… pic.twitter.com/nSqOGEyYCC
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 22, 2025
Although much is being made of Witkoff’s statements regarding how Netanyahu is no longer working in the favor of most Israelis, Witkoff is equally careful to offer every justification in the book for Netanyahu’s actions. Even the breakdown in the negotiation process is blamed solely on Hamas for not accepting Netanyahu’s last-minute proposal for a ceasefire extension that focused on the disarmament of Palestinian resistance.
On the issue of “challenging” Benjamin Netanyahu, it appears the Trump administration is now afraid of making public statements that are too critical. This is especially true after US Hostage Envoy Adam Boehler was quickly fired, following immense pressure from the Israel Lobby, after daring to publicly challenge the Israeli government and state that the US is not an agent of Israel.
The overall impression from the interview is of a US envoy who can identify the very real dangers ahead but is working for a government so tightly controlled by the Israel Lobby that he dares not even make reasonable proposals or criticisms in public.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
As long as the Israel/Zionist lobby is in charge of our ME policy, we will NEVER have success in achieving a just and lasting solution to this issue. Israel, and its agent lobby in the US, actually WANTS to continue bombing and killing Palestinians in the Occupied Territories because, otherwise, the perpetrators of these crimes will face accountability!