By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Adam Boehler, the Trump administration negotiator who blew off Israel’s objections to his holding direct talks with Hamas by proclaiming the US is “not an agent of Israel,” has reportedly now been sidelined.
From Jewish Insider, “Adam Boehler sidelined from Hamas negotiations after media blitz, sources say”:
Republicans on Capitol Hill are privately frustrated by Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs, over his behavior during a media blitz last weekend about his direct negotiations with Hamas and subsequent handling of the fallout.
GOP sources told Jewish Insider the administration has pulled him off of the Hamas hostage file and said that he needs to be further sidelined.
Boehler’s appearances on “Fox News Sunday,” CNN’s “State of the Union” and several Israeli channels made headlines over his responses to questions about his direct engagements with Hamas on behalf of the U.S.; he told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Israel’s resistance to direct talks with the terror group stemmed from the possibility that he would meet Hamas officials and think “they don’t have horns growing out of their head … They’re actually pretty nice guys.”
Boehler said that he didn’t “really care about” Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s concerns regarding the Hamas talks, and decided to assert without provocation that the U.S. was “not an agent of Israel.” He also mused that additional talks with Hamas could be on the cards. “You never know. Sometimes, you’re in the area and you drop by,” Boehler told CNN.
The real story is that Israel “lashed out” at him, as the Times of Israel reported last week.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer “lashed out” at US hostage envoy Adam Boehler during a Tuesday phone call held after Israel learned of an unprecedented meeting that the Trump aide held with a senior Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya earlier that day in Doha to discuss the potential release of American hostages from Gaza, a Western official told The Times of Israel on Friday.
Dermer fumed over Boehler discussing the number of Palestinian prisoners Israel would release in exchange for the five Israeli-American hostages still in Gaza, one of them alive and four believed dead, without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s consent, the official said, confirming reporting in the Axios news site.
These were private negotiations that were likely leaked by some Israel Firster within the Trump administration seeking to undermine any possible deal and tip off Netanyahu.
Boehler tried to explain that these were only initial discussions with Hamas and that nothing would be finalized without Israel’s approval, the Western official said.
Hours after the tense call was held, Boehler’s meeting with Hayya was leaked to the media, in a move that the US believes Israel was behind and which has led to a further decrease in trust between the sides, the Western official added.
The US decision not to loop Israel in ahead of the Tuesday meeting came after Netanyahu expressed his opposition to the idea when it was first proposed to him by the Trump administration last month, the official said. Axios noted that Israel was particularly against such a meeting going ahead without any preconditions for Hamas to meet.
Boehler was right to engage in direct diplomacy to try and bring about a peace deal but his claim that the US “is not an agent of Israel” appears to have been a serious miscalculation.