Jared Kushner told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in an interview to be aired in full on Oct. 19 that U.S. President Donald Trump felt the “Israelis were getting a little bit out of control” after Israel’s botched Sept. 9 strike on Hamas’s leadership in Doha. U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East
Steve Witkoff, who was interviewed along with Kushner, agreed. “I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed,” said Witkoff of Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders gathered in the capital of Qatar, a key mediator in the ceasefire negotiations, reported the Times of Israel.
“It had a metastasizing effect because the Qataris were critical to the negotiation, as were the Egyptians and the Turks,” said Witkoff. “We had lost the confidence of the Qataris. And so Hamas went underground, and it was very, very difficult to get to them.”
Kushner, referring to Israel, said the strike led Trump to realize “that it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”
ToI notes that Opposition Leader Yair Lapid later wrote on X that the interview was an “earthquake” and, referring to Kushner’s latter comment, said that “no Israeli government has ever been described this way by an American administration.”
“After the failed attack on Doha, Trump thought Netanyahu had lost control, and imposed a deal on him that Netanyahu didn’t want,” said Lapid, who hailed the Doha strike at the time. “The ‘60 Minutes’ interview proves that it could have been arranged for Egypt to govern Gaza and help us fight Hamas. Instead, Netanyahu’s lack of control led to the entry of Türkiye and Qatar, two of Hamas’s ideological partners.”
