By Daniel Edelson, New York

Copyright ynetnews

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, has been engaged in sensitive ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Meanwhile, his sons Alex and Zach have been working to raise billions of dollars from sovereign wealth funds in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait — countries directly involved in those same diplomatic efforts. An investigative report by The New York Times outlines how the younger Witkoffs sought to capitalize on their proximity to power, with Alex pitching a multibillion-dollar real estate fund to Gulf nations, including Qatar, while Zach pursued investors for a cryptocurrency venture linked to both the Witkoff and Trump families. According to the report, Alex Witkoff approached the Qatar Investment Authority in 2024 with a proposal for a real estate credit fund focused on U.S. regions with affordable housing shortages. The fund was projected to generate about $80 million annually in management fees, or $400 million over five years, in addition to a share of any profits. The fund’s goal was to raise $4 billion. While a spokesperson for Qatar’s sovereign fund confirmed that Alex had made the pitch, she said the proposal was ultimately declined. Yet according to multiple sources familiar with his investor presentations, Alex continued to court other Gulf investors as recently as August 2025, claiming to have already secured funding pledges from Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait. Although Steve Witkoff remains a minority shareholder in the Witkoff Group — which he founded in 1997 — a company spokesperson said he has had no role in its operations since 2024. The family emphasized that plans for the fund were abandoned strictly for economic reasons, denying that media inquiries had any influence. Still, the timing and scale of the family’s fundraising efforts have raised questions about potential conflicts of interest, given Steve Witkoff’s concurrent diplomatic role. A White House spokesperson responded that he is finalizing his divestment and “takes seriously his compliance with the government ethics rules.” The Times also detailed the Witkoff family’s long-standing ties to Qatar, dating back to Trump’s first term. In 2017, amid a regional blockade and criticism from then-President Trump over Qatar’s alleged ties to terrorism, the Gulf state sought to build influence in Washington — particularly among Jewish Americans and those close to Trump. Joey Allaham, a Syrian Jewish restaurateur and lobbyist hired by Qatar, described Steve Witkoff as a “confidant” and “unofficial adviser” to Trump in a memo reviewed by the newspaper. The Witkoff Group’s relationship with Qatar deepened after 2022, when a trust managed by Apollo Global Management — partly owned by the Qatari government — began investing in Witkoff properties. These included a luxury apartment building in Brooklyn and a $623 million acquisition of the Park Lane Hotel in New York, a move that helped Steve Witkoff resolve substantial debt. The fund has since invested in other Witkoff projects, including a property in Palm Beach in May 2025. In early 2024, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani attended Alex Witkoff’s wedding in Palm Beach. Later that year, he sat down with Steve Witkoff in Doha as negotiations with Hamas continued. Qatari officials credited Witkoff and Trump with helping push the ceasefire deal “across the line.” There is no evidence, the report stresses, that the family’s business ties influenced Steve Witkoff’s diplomatic efforts. In response to the article, the Witkoff Group issued a full statement, which was not published in its entirety by The New York Times. A spokesperson told Ynet: “Many of the reported statements in this article are patently false and The New York Times intentionally chose not to include our full statement, which is not a surprise given the ‘journalist’ Debra Kamin who wrote it failed to disclose her clear conflicts of interest including her radical left-wing history of anti-Trump posts and donating to Democrats like Elizabeth Warren for President. We never went beyond preliminary discussions regarding forming this fund, never said to possible investors that funds were ‘locked down,’ and never even spoke to some of the purported investors mentioned. While the Witkoff Group routinely explores real estate opportunities, we chose not to proceed here strictly as a matter of economics. The idea that we scrapped this plan because of a media inquiry is genuinely laughable. Our founder Steve Witkoff has had no involvement in our company since 2024 and so despite the dishonest innuendo, the suggestion that any sort of ‘conflict of interest’ exists is categorically false. The Witkoff Group has been active in both real estate equity and credit since the 1990s and we will not be bullied by a left-wing smear campaign from the media to try to force us to stop doing the work we’ve done for 30 years — because our founder, who no longer has anything to do with the company, now works for the current administration.”