Day 524 - Is Steve Witkoff the only hope for a hostage deal?
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.4 • 864 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's Daily Briefing.
As Israel’s hostage negotiating team remained in Doha, Qatar overnight, Horovitz reviews the latest in the ceasefire situation and the sense that US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff appears to be the only person who can push Israel toward a second phase of a hostage deal. Horovitz discusses how it was Witkoff who pushed Israel toward the first stage of the deal that brought 33 hostages home, eight of them no longer living.
Horovitz also notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition are on a two-week deadline to pass the budget by March 31, and if they fail, his government will fall. Horovitz notes that Netanyahu has to mollify coalition partner Bezalel Smotrich, who has threatened to leave if Israel doesn't return to war in Gaza, as well as the ultra-Orthodox, who want a permanent IDF exemption for Haredi yeshiva students.
Another deadline looming for the prime minister's coalition is pushing through laws that will neuter the Supreme Court and give the political echelon control over how Israel's judges are selected.
Horovitz also talks about US President Donald Trump's statements about the future for Gazans, as he softened some of his previous comments regarding their relocation, underlining how complicated the entire topic is for all of the countries involved.
Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Steve Witkoff, Israel looks to you
Meet Adam Boehler, Trump’s complacent, confused and dangerously naive hostage envoy
Coalition to drive forward budget, judicial appointments bills in intense Knesset push
Trump says ‘nobody’s expelling any Palestinians,’ in apparent softening of Gaza plan
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.
IMAGE: Singer Kobi Oz and the Teapacks band perform for Einav Zangauker and Ilana Gritzewsky, mother and girlfriend of hostage Matan Zangauker on March 13, 2025 at the hostage family tent encampment on Tel Aviv's Begin Road outside the Defense Ministry (Credit Amir Yaacobi)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's daily briefing. It is Thursday, March 13th, and I'm Jessica Steinberg. |
| 0:10.1 | I'm speaking today with Times of Israel founding editor David Horowitz. Hi, David. Hi, Jessica. Hi there. |
| 0:16.8 | It is day 524 of the war. Israel's hostage negotiating team remained in Doha Qatar overnight, as Palestinian reports said |
| 0:27.3 | that the U.S. is pushing a 60-day ceasefire in return for the release of 10 hostages, |
| 0:32.7 | while Israeli officials retorted that the negotiating team hasn't received any proposal of that kind. |
| 0:40.2 | U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his plans for the Gaza Strip do not include any plan for expelling Palestinians. |
| 0:47.9 | And in Israel, the government coalition is gearing up for two intensive weeks in order to pass the budget and approve controversial legislation |
| 0:56.0 | regarding the judicial overhaul. We'll talk about those headlines and some others after a quick |
| 1:01.4 | break. With Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah degraded, what strategies and technologies will Israel need to defend itself |
| 1:11.8 | in a new Middle East? Join the American Technion Society for an exclusive briefing with Technion |
| 1:17.7 | Professor Brigadier General Jacob Nagel, as he shares key findings from his report to the government |
| 1:23.4 | on Israel's defence technology and security needs, and the Technion's vital role in this evolving |
| 1:29.7 | strategy. Register at link.ats.org slash security. |
| 1:38.2 | Okay, David, you wrote an open letter yesterday to Trump's Mideast envoy, Steve Whitkoff, asking him to do in Qatar |
| 1:49.7 | what he did two months ago in pushing forward the hostage deal that ended, in essence, two weeks ago, |
| 1:58.9 | or the release of hostages that ended two weeks ago. |
| 2:03.1 | And I wanted to ask you about your letter, the open letter aspect of it, |
| 2:08.4 | because, of course, release hostages keep on mentioning and thanking Steve Whitkoff, |
| 2:13.1 | and then you wrote this open letter to him. And I'm wondering what pushed you to do that? |
| 2:18.9 | Well, the fact is that for many, many months, really, from May of last year until January, |
| 2:25.1 | there was a proposal that Israel had approved that the prime minister had approved, that was |
| 2:28.5 | conveyed, that was basically presented by then-president Joe Biden at the end of May for a phased release of |
... |
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