Day 524 - Is Steve Witkoff the only hope for a hostage deal?
Day 524 - Is Steve Witkoff the only hope for a hostage deal?  
Podcast: The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
Published On: Thu Mar 13 2025
Description: 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)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.