US President-elect Donald Trump named Adam Boehler as his special envoy for hostage affairs, in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.
Boehler thanked Trump in a post on X/Twitter, for the “opportunity and honor to serve you and our great nation. There is nothing more important than bringing Americans home. Under @realDonaldTrump’s leadership, there will finally be action and consequences. We will BRING THEM HOME.”
Thank you @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity and honor to serve you and our great nation. There is nothing more important than bringing Americans home. Under @realDonaldTrump’s leadership, there will finally be action and consequences. We will BRING THEM HOME. @marcorubio… https://t.co/hSyExSYzv2
— Adam Boehler (@aboehler) December 4, 2024
A source told Reuters that Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz, was set to meet with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Wednesday. They were expected to discuss the efforts to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal and the Iranian threat. A reporter for Axios, who had earlier reported the meeting, said it on X, citing a source familiar with the meeting.The meeting comes just weeks before Trump takes office on January 20 following campaign promises to end the wars in the Middle East and elsewhere, though he has offered scant details on how he plans to proceed.Boehler is a former chief executive officer of the US International Development Finance Corporation, Reuters reported.
Boehler was also the lead US negotiator alongside Jared Kushner for the Abraham Accords between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain. He led the normalization talks between Israel and Morrocco.
David Friedman, who served as US ambassador to Israel under the first Trump administration, called Boehler a "brilliant guy" in a phone call with The Jerusalem Post shortly after the announcement.
“I’m repeating myself now, but he’s incredibly smart, very dedicated, very serious, and is very well educated in the Middle East,” Friedman said. “He used to come [to Israel] often when I was ambassador. We spent a lot of time together, and I think he’s an excellent, excellent choice.”According to Friedman, Boehler will be able to develop “certainly, a strategy that’s far better than what we’ve had so far” to secure the release of the hostages.Friedman declined to say what actions Boehler should take between now and inauguration day for the hostages to be released since those are discussions that “generally need to be done quietly behind the scenes,” he said.
'All hell to pay'
The announcement came after Trump’s statement that if the hostages weren’t released by his inauguration day in January, there would be "all hell to pay."
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America,” Trump wrote, adding in a call to release the hostages as soon as possible.
Friedman said he thinks Trump means what he wrote, that the “message is to show how invested the president is in this outcome and how much he cares about it.”According to Friedman, the reaction of the US under Trump “will be overwhelming” if these hostages are not released. “I’m glad the message was conveyed,” he added. “And now I hope that some sanity will prevail among us.”Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, echoed Friedman’s sentiment.“If Hamas thinks Trump is bluffing, they have another thing coming,” Rubin told the Post. “Hamas has become accustomed to an elaborate pantomime in which the Biden White House pretends to care about the hostages and Hamas pretends to negotiate in good faith. Trump plays a different game.”Hamas may want to test Trump, Rubin added, but the terrorist group will find that they will pay the price.John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute of National Security of America, described Trump’s threat as “both ridiculous and constructive at the same time.“C’mon. Harder than an atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Harder than the firebombing of Tokyo or Dresden? Difficult to imagine,” said Hannah.That said, he continued, it is entirely plausible to believe that “depending on who he last spoke to or his mood on January 20,” Trump might really follow through with “extremely tough actions that far exceed anything the Biden administration ever considered.”Hannah said that includes strong military action against not just whatever remains of Hamas but also against Iran.That could also mean “threatening draconian economic sanctions” against other countries Trump views as having fallen short in using their full influence and leverage over Hamas to free the hostages, including US partners in Qatar, Turkey, and even Egypt, he added.“This is a classic case where even if you can’t take Trump literally, you can’t afford not to take him seriously – especially if you’re a potential target of his wrath,” Hannah said.As the promises of a ceasefire in the South echo, all the players are reeling and on edge from the one secured late last month in the North. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that fundamentally both Lebanon and Israel want to continue the ceasefire. He made the comments to reporters at a NATO news conference in Brussels.Blinken indicated the oversight mechanism operated by France and the US is operating as intended to assess allegations of violations.He declined to respond to “any private diplomatic conversations” between the US, France, Israel, and Hezbollah regarding possible violations.“All I can tell you is the mechanism that we established with France to make sure that the ceasefire is effectively monitored and implemented, is working, and we want to make sure it continues to work,” Blinken said.Blinken said he would not speculate about “what’s going to happen in the future” and that he can only talk about the clear interests of the parties: Israel is interested in making sure the terms of the ceasefire are fully implemented by Hezbollah, including moving Hezbollah back to the North.Israel’s interests include making sure the Lebanese Armed Forces are effectively deployed along the border and that they have the authority to deal with arms and infrastructure that they find.“That’s where we are. I’m again very focused on making sure that we carry forward,” Blinken said. “Let’s see where we are after the initial 60 days.”
Jerusalem Post Staff and Reuters contributed to this report.