Trump's Dealmaker: Steve Witkoff and Gaza
The Slow Newscast
Alice Sandelson
4.6 • 894 Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A week before Donald Trump's inauguration, a real estate mogul flew to Jerusalem to meet Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Within days, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was agreed. What happened that weekend and how influential was the businessman in the diplomatic negotiations?
Reporter: Donald Macintyre
Producer: Matt Russell
Sound design: Tom Burchell
Artwork: Lola Williams
Editor: Jasper Corbett
Slow Newscast Executive Producer: Matt Russell
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Tautus. |
| 0:10.5 | Hello, it's Claudia here and you're listening to the slow newscast from Tautus. |
| 0:14.9 | This week, Trump's man in the Middle East, the deal maker Steve Whitkoff. |
| 0:20.9 | That's the story that's being told anyway. |
| 0:23.5 | But who is the man behind the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas? |
| 0:28.2 | And how much of it was really down to him? |
| 0:31.6 | Donald McIntyre and Matt Russell investigate. |
| 0:36.8 | This Saturday, we managed after four hours to cross and the entrance of Gaza. |
| 0:45.9 | Amjed Shawa is on his way home, driving on ruined roads from central Gaza, where he's been living |
| 0:52.6 | since October, 2003. I don't know who designed this entrance, where he's been living since October 23. |
| 0:55.0 | I don't know who designed this entrance, but it's kind of message that this is your reception. |
| 1:02.0 | It's almost bubbles, mountains, and people are welcoming us and guiding us to the road, which is completely destroyed. No space. |
| 1:17.7 | It's been 15 months since he had headed south with his family. Then, Gaza was a land of orchards, |
| 1:25.7 | coastline and concrete. |
| 1:33.2 | Now, as they make their way home, everywhere around them, there's destruction. |
| 1:38.2 | And the thought crosses his mind, will they even have a home to return to? The last few weeks, you know, you get me back to such days that we count them by minute by minute. |
| 1:48.6 | It's only 10 miles, but the journey takes days. At one point they wait for 45 hours at a checkpoint, |
| 1:55.9 | the whole family is sleeping in the car. But finally, they're back. |
| 2:02.4 | Finally, I'm home. And this is not any home. This is Gaza. Whether it's rubbles, whether it's different |
| 2:11.5 | smell. This is the place that I belong to. I born, I grown up, my memories, my mom, everything for me. |
| 2:22.3 | And the same for my children. |
| 2:25.3 | So, yes, I could see the destruction. |
... |
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