As US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in the early hours of Tuesday morning, even he appeared surprised by the scale of the popular welcome he received in the Middle East. Aboard Air Force One, he told reporters that his whirlwind visit to Israel and then Egypt had been “fantastic…a very important day, because nobody thought this was possible”.
But that is not entirely true. At least one man in the President’s inner circle embraced the impossible and then brought it to life. A man deeply underrated by the Washington foreign policy elites, who now find themselves profoundly embarrassed and – in some circles, shamed – by the successful return to Israel of all the remaining, living hostages from Gaza.
When Steve Witkoff was first appointed Trump’s Special Envoy to b