Steven Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, at the Altneu synagogue grand opening on Jan. 26. Photo by Screenshot / GPO video by Roi Avraham and Nir Sharf

By Jacob Kornbluh January 27, 2025

Steve Witkoff, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, said Sunday that his son’s 2011 death from an opioid overdose has deeply connected him to the struggles of Israeli hostage families, including seven who welcomed their daughters home last week after more than 450 days in captivity. President Donald Trump’s confidante and longtime golfing buddy, Witkoff is set to visit the region to oversee the ceasefire-for-hostages agreement and help lay the groundwork for talks on a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of all hostages.

“I’m always comparing my family and what it went through when I lost my boy, Andrew, and what it must have been like for these families not knowing what was going to happen to their girls,” Witkoff said in brief remarks at the ribbon cutting ceremony for The Altneu Synagogue Sunday night in Manhattan. “So when the president asked me to do this, I thought to myself, this will be the most worthy thing I could ever do in my life. Nothing else would matter beyond this.”

Witkoff, 67, a prominent real estate developer and Jewish philanthropist, was tapped for the role to achieve Trump’s Middle East goals — ending the more than yearlong war in Gaza that started with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel, brokering peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and expanding the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia. Witkoff was by Trump’s side last September when a would-be assassin targeted him during a round of golf in Florida before the Secret Service intervened. Witkoff offered a personal endorsement of Trump during the Republican National Convention in July, describing him as a “kind and compassionate” person who helped him cope after his son’s death.

In his remarks at the Sunday event, Witkoff said that Trump, who attended his son’s funeral, knew when he asked him to take the role of Middle East envoy that he was “a member of the club of parents who had buried a child. And there could be nothing worse than that — because we would all give our lives for our children.”

Trump also appointed Adam Boehler, a former Abraham Accords negotiator, as an ambassador-level hostage envoy.

The six-week ceasefire in Gaza, secured in the final days of the Biden administration and with Witkoff’s mediation, has been widely praised as a significant diplomatic achievement for the new administration. The parents of the four female hostages – Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Naama Levy and Daniella Gilboa – who were released on Saturday, thanked Trump for his role in finalizing the deal. Witkoff shared a photo with Trump of Levy, one of five IDF soldiers kidnapped from their Nahal Oz outpost on Oct. 7, holding a blackboard on her helicopter ride back to Israel that read, “Thank you, President Trump.”

“He had tears in his eyes,” Witkoff said of Trump’s reaction.

WH Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, at Altneu synagogue grand opening, says he’s doesn’t know if he’d be able to hold role for 4 years.

“Although President Trump would probably be able to convince me, or anyone else, to continue on in this endeavor.”

🎥 Roi Avraham, Nir Sharf /GPO pic.twitter.com/dA2Bk9pANs

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 27, 2025

Witkoff said he was “thrilled” for the opportunity to help bring these families the closure and peace they deserve and expressed his hope that the deal would be durable. Keith Siegel, one of three Americans believed to be alive, is reportedly next on the list – along with Arbel Yehud, a civilian woman, and Agam Berger, a soldier — to be released in the coming days.

However, he tempered expectations about his long-term future in the role, acknowledging the personal toll it takes. “I don’t know if I could do it for four years,” Witkoff said. “Although President Trump would probably be able to convince me or anyone else to continue in this endeavor.”

Before heading to Israel on Wednesday, Witkoff will lead on Monday a U.S. delegation to Poland to participate in events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The delegation includes Howard Lutnick, the nominee for commerce secretary; Ellen Germain, the special envoy for Holocaust issues; Charles Kushner, Trump’s pick for ambassador to France and the father-in-law of Ivanka Trump; businessman Isaac Perlmutter, and Boris Epshteyn, a senior advisor to Trump.

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