The Trump Stockholm Syndrome?

First President Trump’s special Mideast envoy, Adam Boehler, was sidelined from Gaza hostage diplomacy after saying his Hamas interlocutors are “nice guys.” Now Mr. Trump’s top negotiator, Steve Witkoff, is admitting he was “duped” by the same Hamas officials. It’s almost as if these diplomats are developing a psychological bond with hostile hostage-takers like the Swedes who were infamously held captive in a 1973 bank heist. Negotiating over Gaza at Doha, Mr. Witkoff recently proposed a deal that would free five living Gaza hostages, including American Edan Alexander, for a two-month cease-fire. Hamas demurred. “I thought we had a deal, an acceptable deal,” Mr. Witkoff told Fox News Sunday. “I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that’s just me getting, getting, you know, duped, but, but I thought we were there, and evidently, we weren’t.”Speaking earlier to broadcaster Tucker Carlson, Mr. Witkoff called the radical Qatari Hamas patrons “good, decent people.” There’s a fine line, though, between being duped and effectively accommodating adversaries: Today Hamas posted a cruel video of two hostages, indicating it might accept a new Egyptian proposal. It is remarkably similar to the Witkoff plan it had rejected earlier. Did Israel’s renewed military strikes help in concentrating Gazan minds? Meanwhile Mr. Witkoff, who also is toiling to end the Ukraine war, sounds like he’s buying much of what the Kremlin is selling. He doesn’t regard President Putin as a “bad guy,” he told Mr. Carlson, adding “no one wants to talk about” four areas in eastern Ukraine Russia has been occupying since the start of the war it launched in 2022. They’re “the elephant in the room,” Mr. Witkoff said, strongly indicating they could remain Russian. In Mr. Witkoff’s telling, the residents of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk “voted” to be part of Russia. Ukrainians counter that Moscow-forced referenda were conducted there as is Mr. Putin’s wont, complete with armed troops hustling residents to polls and forcing them to opt for the desired outcome. Can the envoy who presents himself as an honest broker put his thumb on the scales in favor of Mr. Putin? Mr. Witkoff also seems too eager to revive diplomacy with the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the process he has unwittingly made a concession. Mr. Trump’s letter to the Tehran leadership, the envoy said, demands “a verification program, so that nobody worries about the weaponization of your nuclear material.” Verification? The ayatollahs would leap on yet another ineffective oversight that would freeze their nuclear program in place. Mr. Trump’s vision could be more ambitious, though. As his National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, told CBS News yesterday, the goal of the negotiations is to ensure “full dismantlement” of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear infrastructure. Easily evading more than a decade of outside inspections, Tehran is now a flip of a switch away from a bomb. “Give it up or there will be consequences,” Mr. Waltz says, in what to us sounds like a sensible approach. We are not doubting Mr. Witkoff’s acumen. He’s been an ace real estate negotiator, and seems to be quite effective in executing Mr. Trump’s agenda. Yet, in the Carlson interview he was unable to even name the four disputed Ukrainian districts he claims are central to ending the war. Sure, fresh eyes, rather than old pros, might be needed in world affairs. We only hope they don’t suffer from that dreaded Stockholm syndrome.

The Trump Stockholm Syndrome?

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