TEL AVIV — Tuesday’s daily caricature in the liberal newspaper Haaretz sums up the tense state of play between the Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: A staffer poking her head into the prime minister’s office to announce the arrival of presidential envoy Steve Witkoff as Netanyahu sneaks out a side door. 

While Witkoff is charging ahead to resume the mediated Israel-Hamas negotiations on a return of all Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity and an end to the 16-month Israel-Hamas war, Netanyahu is stalling.

Negotiations on the second stage of the Jan. 19 ceasefire agreement were scheduled to begin almost two weeks ago in tandem with the phased release of 33 hostages included in the first tranche. But Netanyahu promised hard-line Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that renewed talks with Hamas would await a decision by the government’s top security forum, which he did not convene until Monday after Witkoff appeared to force his hand. 

"I spoke with the Israelis, the Qataris and the Egyptians this morning about setting a timetable with which we will begin the second stage, and in a very substantive way we will start talks on the second stage,” Witkoff told Israel's Channel 12 on Sunday. “Everyone is receptive to that, and I hope that's what is going to happen this week."