Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday with National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, after the latter viewed a 47-minute film detailing Hamas atrocities in the October 7 attack.
Breitbart News was in the first-ever screening of the film, held for foreign journalists in Israel in late October 2023. The footage is largely compiled from Hamas’s own cameras, as well as security cameras and victims’ smartphones.
Breitbart News learned that Witkoff, who leads hostage negotiations for the Trump administration, urged Trump to see the film himself before meeting with Netanyahu on Tuesday in a high-stakes meeting about shared policy goals.
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement (translated from Hebrew) about Netanyahu’s meeting with Walz and Witkoff on Monday:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Washington with US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
The meeting was positive and friendly.
Pursuant to the meeting, Israel is preparing for the working-echelon delegation to leave for Doha [the capital of Qatar] at the end of this week in order to discuss technical details related to the continued implementation of the agreement.
Upon his return from the US, Prime Minister Netanyahu will convene the Security Cabinet to discuss Israel’s overall positions regarding the second stage of the deal, which will guide the continuation of the negotiations.
The delegation to Doha is part of the hostage deal, and has been delayed by Netanyahu’s U.S. visit.
There was previously concern among Israelis that Witkoff had adopted a somewhat tough approach to Israel, and had picked up where the Biden administration had left off by accepting partial, rather than total, hostage releases.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Trump is seen as a high-stakes encounter, given past tensions between the two leaders, and the prospect that the encounter could help determine the future of U.S. policy in the Middle East.
But Trump broke through those fears with an impromptu explanation to reporters of Israel’s strategic position, using a pen on the Resolute desk as a model for Israel’s tiny geographic size, winning praise from the Israeli delegation.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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