Qatar, a sponsor of Al Qaeda and Hamas, has brought up chunks of our political class like the old sheikhs used to buy out entire European department stores. The effects are all around us. What is amazing is how little we talk about it.
This story revealing that the Witkoff family was cashing in on Steve Witkoff’s baffling status as an international negotiator isn’t surprising. But it’s a New York Times story with a Qatari source which means that the only reason it exists is because Witkoff is Trump’s guy and because he wasn’t delivering what Qatar wanted.
That’s the sucker punch here.
As Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, conducted delicate cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas this year, his son Alex was on another mission. He was quietly soliciting billions of dollars from some of the same governments whose representatives were involved in peace talks with his father.
Alex Witkoff pitched Qatar, a mediator in the Gaza talks and a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, on a planned investment fund focused on commercial real estate projects in the United States, according to a spokeswoman for Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
He later wooed prospective investors by telling them that he had already secured pledges of billions of dollars from government-affiliated funds in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, according to people familiar with his pitches who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The real estate fund had the potential to yield hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for the Witkoff Group, which Steve Witkoff founded in 1997. He remains a partial owner of the company, after selling a portion of his stake this year.
No one “government-affiliated funds in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait” is talking except with the specific authorization of the rulers. Not unless they want to end up in prison or buried out in the desert.
So this is a hit job that the second paragraph already tells us comes out of Qatar. That doesn’t mean it’s not true. There’s a reason Witkoff Jr was at the Qatari real estate affair. (Ditto, there’s a reason why Tucker Carlson was pitching his viewers on the Saudi real estate fair.) Much like in the old Soviet Union, these Muslim countries seduce their useful idiots, offer promises of lucrative deals, and are then ready to burn them over it.
Now Qatar is burning or at least semi-burning Witkoff. Why? He’s not delivering the Hamas deal they want.
For now this is probably a warning. A full-court press will include stories in Al Jazeera, a hit by Tucker Carlson, who formerly promoted Witkoff, and a social media storm.
There’s a lesson here.
Qatar, the Saudis and the rest of the Jihad gang buy useful infidels by the dozen, but dispose of them when they don’t perform up to expectations.
“The spokeswoman for the Qatar Investment Authority, Melanie Dunn, confirmed that Alex Witkoff had pitched the sovereign wealth fund but said that after internal discussions it had decided not to buy in.”
The ‘internal discussions’ translate to bailing out Hamas. Witkoff either could not or hopefully would not deliver whatever Qatar wanted. Which is was an end to Israel’s assault on Hamas.
That is the real story here.
Qatar tried to corrupt the Trump administration. It should be treated that way.
In the fall of 2017, Mr. Allaham, whose Prime Grill restaurant in Midtown Manhattan was a popular venue for power lunches among New York’s observant Jews, prepared a memo for his Qatari bosses.
The memo, which The Times reviewed, described Steve Witkoff as a “confidant” and “unofficial adviser” to Mr. Trump and noted that “the president counts loyalty above all else.” Mr. Allaham added that because Mr. Witkoff is Jewish, a relationship with him would “provide credibility to others in the greater Jewish community.”
The memo suggested that the Qataris invest in Witkoff Group projects. “Real estate has long been an entree to a higher profile and domestic engagement for foreign investors,” Mr. Allaham wrote.
“We knew he needed the money,” Mr. Allaham said in an interview. He contacted a real estate lawyer whom they both knew and arranged for a sit-down. “It was an easy meeting to get.”
In late 2017 in a suite at the St. Regis, Steve Witkoff and Alex, who was being groomed to take over the family business, met with an entourage of Qataris led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad al-Thani, brother of the emir.
The men discussed the Park Lane and Mr. Trump. Steve Witkoff “described the president and described his long relationship with him,” recalled Mr. Allaham, who also attended the meeting. He said Mr. Witkoff made it clear that he had direct access to Mr. Trump. “We needed access to his friends,” Mr. Allaham said.
Qatar should have no access to anyone in America.
