by Barak Ravid and Mar Caputo at Axios
The seeds of the plan President Trump presented on Monday to end the war in Gaza were planted three weeks earlier, when Israel bombed Qatar in a failed attempt to assassinate Hamas leaders.
The big picture: The Israeli strike united Arab leaders in outrage at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and intensified calls within Israeli society for a deal to free the remaining hostages and end the war.
- At first outraged by the strike and the destabilization it could cause, Trump’s advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner soon saw the crisis as an opportunity to end the war, four sources with direct knowledge tell Axios.
- They noticed that “the Arabs were speaking with one voice,” even if it was to shout at Israel, a Trump adviser familiar with the discussions told Axios. “It became clear, particularly to Steve, that this rallying cry that seemed negative at first could be turned into something positive.”
Flashback: A day before the September 9 strike in Doha,…
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