Why Steve Witkoff cannot remain an envoy

Melanie Phillips has taken valid issue with Donald Trump's middle east envoy, Steve Witkoff, who's already led to the rightfully controversial release of convicted jihadists for freeing Israeli hostages of Hamas:

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, has called the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal an “inflection point” for peace in the Middle East.

He told Fox News that he hopes to broaden the Abraham Accords by bringing in every state in the Middle East, including Qatar and Egypt, which he praised for their key roles in negotiating the Gaza ceasefire.

Qatar, he said, had been “enormously helpful in this,” and the communication skills of its prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, had been “indispensable”.

While the commitment of the new administration to expanding the Abraham Accords — signed in 2020 under the first Trump administration — is a welcome sign, Witkoff’s remarks should provoke no little unease among those who properly understand what Israel is facing.

Qatar can never be a solution in the Middle East because Qatar is the problem. Far from being instrumental in bringing peace and security to Israel, Qatar has been instrumental in bringing it mass slaughter.

For Qatar is behind Hamas. It created it, funds it and protects its leaders. Qatar promotes the Muslim Brotherhood — the jihadi parent of Hamas — and hosts the Islamist propaganda news outlet Al Jazeera.

It’s an enemy of the west because it is governed by an Islamist regime that allies itself with other Islamist enemies of the west including Al-Qaeda, ISIS —and Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who had until last month a $10 million US bounty on his head.

Even Daniel Greenfield's taken issue with Witkoff's conduct:

In my article early last week, “Trump Should Pull Out of Gaza Nation Building”, I warned that this was coming.

If the Trump administration backs the deal, it will be forced to act as a ‘guarantor’ which will not only mean protecting Hamas, but an extended terrorist nation-building program bigger even than Iraq or Afghanistan. Phase 3 of the deal reportedly calls for a 3-5 year rebuilding program.

That timetable would have President Trump spend his whole second term rebuilding Gaza.

And the UN’s actual numbers are far worse. The UN Development Program is estimating $50 billion in costs to rebuild Gaza by 2040

Steven Witkoff, the real estate guy with a history of previous dealings with Hamas’s state sponsors in Qatar, appointed by President Trump to act as his Middle East envoy, is now parroting the UN’s numbers.

Witkoff, a real estate developer, assesses that the demolition and moving of the debris alone will take five years.

“There has been this perception we can get to a solid plan for Gaza in five years. But its impossible. This is a 10 to 15 year rebuilding plan,” he said.

That 15-year plan would put it at… 2040.

What that means is the U.S. would be dragged into this nation-building project in Gaza for President Trump’s entire second term and for, if he should get them, J.D. Vance’s two terms in office.

Madness.

It would also be abuse of the USA citizenry's taxpayer dollars. Witkoff cannot remain in the position he's been given. He's an embarrassment and has already caused plenty of damage that can be avoided. Not to mention that people as barbaric as the Muslims in Gaza turned out to be don't deserve to live there.