The real estate that became a key figure in the Middle East: Steve Whitkoff, Profile

How did a 67 -year -old businessman, who recently focused on selling penthouses in Miami and New York, became the motive power behind one of the most complex crises in the history of the Middle East?

“He understands the picture, came to win”

The State of Israel has been very excited in recent weeks, with the release of the kidnapped and abductants from Hamas. Whitkoff, the special messenger in the Trump administration to the Middle East, was excited. In the documentation distributed in the networks, the discharged seem to sing “The people of Israel lives” in a meeting with him. “We want to say thank you, you and Trump, everyone,” Liri Elbag told him. Whitakoff, on his part, replied excitedly that “the United States with you, the president with you. And we have a common goal – to bring everyone home.”

Even before Trump was officially sworn in as the US president, Whitakoff was already present in the negotiations in Tiza, Cairo and Jerusalem.

Factors who met Whitakoff on a recent visit to Israel told Globes that they were impressed that “it is a in -depth man who understands the full picture, knows ‘a quarter of a circle’ and came here to roll up sleeves and win. Whitkoff understands the complex reality and leaves no possibility that Hamas will remain in Gaza.”

According to Wall Street Journal, Whitkoff told Netanyahu at the decisive and final meeting before the prime minister approved the Israeli negotiation team to move forward in contacts, because he should make decisions and should approve the mediators to make them – but if the prime minister does not want to do so, then all involved in conversations should To pack and return home.

What was unsuccessful for months suddenly worked. The parties signed and within a few days the transaction was implemented.

Crisis in the Middle East: “Like a huge real estate”

So who is Steve Whitkoff who suddenly came into our lives so significantly? The man traveling throughout the Middle East meets prime ministers and presidents, threatening Hamas and Turning of Qatar’s hand is a safest businessman, but more importantly – he is a close personal friend of Trump.

Whitkoff, 67, the son of a women’s coat manufacturer who grew up in the New York Bronx Quarter, married and a father of three sons. Tragicly, his youngest son Andrew died in 2011 from opiates, when he was only 22 years old. Whitkoff was authorized as a lawyer but moved to the real estate sector in the 1980s, so he started his business way in purchasing old apartment buildings in Harlem and Bronx.

In 1997, he established the Whitkoff Group, where his wife and two of his sons also work. The prestigious Porcen Magazine recently estimated the company’s value for half a billion dollars, while prosperous with South Florida projects and tight connections to investment funds such as Belxton and Apollo. Those who actually run business operations in the company are his son Alex and his grandson Zach.

Since then, Whitakoff has climbed to the top of the New York and Florida real estate world, and along the way has promised himself a critical and unprecedented place in Trump’s close circle. Today he is considered one of Trump’s closest and most loyal friends, and who accompanied him on his way back to power.

It is precisely the appointment of a real estate man, instead of an experienced diplomat, demonstrates how much President Trump sees a crisis in the Middle East a matter similar to negotiations in a complicated real estate deal. The Journal says that close associates say that he also shares this view, and sees it as “one huge real estate deal.” According to internal factors, the choice of a person close to a family guarantees some continuity to his predecessor’s approach to the Middle East, Trump’s son -in -law Jared Kushner.

Even Trump’s ambitious plans for the Gaza Strip are seen as a real estate project. .

Prof. Eitan Gilboa, a US expert at Bar Ilan University and diplomacy at the University of Southern California, explains in a conversation with Globes that Trump believes in a business approach to diplomacy and international relations, so choosing a real estate man for the role of her messenger is not surprising.

“He is sure that there are multiple launch points between business negotiations and diplomatic negotiations, so he calls the agreements ‘transactions.’ Political, cultural sensitivities. Here as a president, and when you send, you come to a clean topic of all these considerations. Sometimes the results are great and sometimes less. ”

The companies between the two are also expected to help Vitkoff, Gilboa says. “First of all, this is a matter of trust. Trump owes someone who is in 200% in a sensitive role, Whitakoff meets this condition. To make quick decisions, and gives his word much more meaningful to his hearers.

And yet, Prof. Gilboa believes that the current deal was mainly due to Trump’s threat: “He told the metrics to reach the deal by January 20, and Witkoff simply took advantage of this lever to reach the desired results.”

Bought Trump sandwich in the 1980s and became a true friend

Like Trump, Whitkoff is a typical New York who made his fortune in the city, put his children in the real estate business, and after a certain age he moved to Florida. Like Trump is an enthusiastic golf lover. And my talented in an uninhabited approach.

The two spend quite a bit of time together, from family weddings to shared golf games – including the game last September, during which a potential assassin was arrested near Trump’s private golf club in Florida. In an interview with the AP Agency after the assassination attempt, he said: “I was privileged to see a person who was full of self -quiet, brave, preferred his friends’ peace across his own. Everyone would see a real leader. ”

The two first met in 1986, when Whitkoff, then a lawyer, worked in the office that Trump was one of his clients. Whitkoff previously said that their companies started thanks to a sandwich. He met Trump in the deli after working on a deal together. Trump had no cash, so Whitkoff invited him a pork sandwich and Swiss cheese.

Over the years, companies have only deepened. Whitkoff praised Trump’s loyalty after his son died of an overdose in 2011, saying in his speech at the Republican Party conference this year that “Trump’s presence brought a real comfort at a dark time.” He defined Trump “a kind and compassionate man as I haven’t met.”

Whitkoff, for his part, enlisted to help Trump in Manhattan fraud. He was the first to testify to his defense, while a lot of his supporters turned his back. Whitkoff was also among the biggest donations for Trump, and thanks to the campaign he received tens of millions of dollars to fund his activity. According to Wall Street Journal, Whitakoff, though he stayed with Trump in his estate Mar -Lago the week before Election Day.

“Whitkoff is aware of himself and what he does not know”

Whitkoff is a warm Jew and has always been an enthusiastic supporter of the State of Israel. So much enthusiastic that he came to Congress to watch Netanyahu’s speech a few months ago. He has been considered Prime Minister Netanyahu.

His connection to the Middle East is also business. For example, last year, he sold the Manhattan Park Hotel in Qatar’s investment fund for $ 623 million. Abu Dhabi’s investment fund was also involved.

However, most of the Whitkof Group’s real estate activity is of course in the US. The main projects include Shore Club in Miami, where the Penthouse apartment was sold for $ 120 million this year. The Journal knew that Whitkoff purchased the property and then changed the plans after the previous entrepreneur went bankrupt. He also applied a similar strategy in the prestigious New High Line project in New York.

In a profile article on him a few weeks ago Wall Street Journal, a number of businessmen were quoted as close to Vitkoff. “He is very aware of himself – why he knows and what he does not know,” a real estate lawyer who knows Whitakoff, describes him as a person who “understands both the Hungarian cube and the people who turn it around.”

His negotiations, his colleagues in the real estate market, “have never been my confrontation.