21-05-2025
Trump's unlikely new Gaza middle man is a novice professor with a direct line to Hamas
Bishara Bahbah was as mystified as anyone else about becoming the main backchannel between the United States government and Hamas.
The Palestinian-American business consultant, who founded Arab Americans for Trump, received a phone call from a senior Hamas member in late April, asking him to pass a message on to Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration's special envoy to the Middle East.
Hamas was willing to release all the Israeli hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, said Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas's political leadership based in Doha.
So Mr Bahbah, who still lacks a Wikipedia page, picked up the phone and called Mr Witkoff.
'Obviously, if I were in Steve Witkoff's position, I would have said to myself, 'who the hell is he to be talking to me?' And I can understand that,' Mr Bahbah told Israel's Channel 12 news.
But Mr Witkoff did pick up the phone, and today the novice go-between finds himself at the centre of US efforts to end the war in Gaza, once more shuttling messages between Hamas and the Trump administration.
Credit: Israeli Prime Ministry
Official talks are under way in Doha. But an Israeli source told the Axios news website that these were a 'facade' and the 'real negotiations are happening elsewhere'.
It would appear that much rests on the shoulders of Mr Bahbah, whose résumé includes a stint at the Middle East institute of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, another at a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, and writing the book Wealth Management in Any Market.
Like many other political neophytes, the Harvard PhD was rocketed to power by his embrace of Donald Trump. In 2020, he voted for Joe Biden.
But after Israel launched its war on Hamas following the October 7 massacre, he became convinced the Democrats would do nothing to rein in the killing of Palestinians.
With Arab Americans for Trump, he urged Muslim voters to switch allegiance. And they did – Mr Trump swung Dearborn, the US county with the highest population of Arab Americans, in last year's election.
It was at a rally in Troy, Michigan, that Mr Bahbah first met members of the Trump team. One was Massad Boulos, the Lebanese-American billionaire who is father-in-law to Mr Trump's daughter, Tiffany.
Together, the two men began working to shift the president's views on Palestine, forming a bulwark against Israeli efforts to deepen US support for the war in Gaza.
Their rise reflects a 'broader transformation in the mechanics of American diplomacy', says Dr Habib al-Badawi, a professor at the Lebanese University in Beirut, foregrounding his 'reliance on parallel, personality-driven channels alongside official ones'.
The first coup was a letter from Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
During his first term, Mr Abbas had cut off all talks with the US, incensed by Mr Trump's proposal to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and a peace plan that favoured the Israeli perspective.
'Everything will be good,' Mr Trump replied to Mr Abbas's letter, which criticised the assassination attempts he had faced and expressed hopes for better relations.
The letter was Mr Bahbah's brainchild. 'I'm going to be meeting with the president. I would like to hand him a letter,' he told Mr Abbas' team.
They replied that the veteran PA president had already condemned the assassination attempts in a statement to the Palestinian news agency.
'Who the hell reads the Palestinian news agency?' Mr Bahbah replied, according to an interview he gave to the New Yorker.
Whether Hamas reads the New Yorker or not is unclear, but they chose the same avenue to reach the president in April. Suha, the widow of Yasser Arafat, the late PA president, gave Hamas Mr Bahbah's number, according to the Times of Israel. A call was arranged.
Having passed Hamas's message on to Mr Witkoff, Mr Bahbah gave the reply: there could be no guarantee the president would push for a total end to the war, but releasing Edan Alexander, the last US citizen held hostage, would build trust – and perhaps lead to renewed deliveries of aid.
Ahead of Mr Trump's visit to the Middle East last week, the IDF soldier was set free. Israel only found out about the bilateral negotiations through its own intelligence agencies, much to official dismay.
In total, some 20 messages were passed between the two sides via Mr Bahbah, Axios reported. The middleman even spoke directly with Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's chief negotiator.
Today, Israeli officials fear they have lost the president's ear. The latest US proposal, according to Axios, is for a 45 to 60 day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 hostages.
But it includes language that suggests the pause in fighting will be tied to a broader push to end the war permanently, approaching Hamas's key goal.
According to the Washington Post, the president's allies have warned Israel: 'We will abandon you if you do not end this war.'
Mr Trump himself has recently demonstrated a surprising willingness to spurn Israel's wishes, backing the bilateral negotiations over Mr Alexander's release and ending sanctions on Syria.
It has not all been smooth sailing for Mr Bahbah. Earlier this year, he broke with the president he helped to elect by renaming his group Arab Americans for Peace after Mr Trump said he would turn Gaza into the 'Riviera of the Middle East'.
In an interview with the BBC, he described talks with 'hawkish' members of the Trump team who asked him to come up with ways to end the conflict that did not involve a two-state solution.
There was none, he replied. But he said: 'I believe the president will deliver [peace]... irrespective of the stumbles and blocks.'
Another ceasefire remains some way in the distance. An end to the war further still. But if one comes about, Mr Bahbah will have played an important role – and can consider his gamble on the president to have paid off.
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