Interview'This is President Trump's hostage deal now'

Former US ambassador: Trump will want Netanyahu to push next stage of hostage deal

In addition to Gaza plan and cooperation on Iran, the prime minister and the US president will discuss economic issues, including AI chip rules, Tom Nides says

Sharon Wrobel

Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.

Blackstone vice chairman of strategy and client relations Tom Nides (right), and Yifat Oron, Blackstone senior managing director at the alternative asset manager's Tel Aviv office on Feb. 3, 2025. (Courtesy)
Blackstone vice chairman of strategy and client relations Tom Nides (right), and Yifat Oron, Blackstone senior managing director at the alternative asset manager's Tel Aviv office on Feb. 3, 2025. (Courtesy)

US President Donald Trump is expected to exert pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance the Gaza ceasefire agreement to its second stage, former US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said ahead of Tuesday’s meeting between the two leaders in Washington, which he predicted will be crucial in determining the likelihood of securing the freedom of the remaining living hostages.

“Netanyahu is going to have to talk to Trump on the process to get the second phase done, and that’s not going to be easy because he is going to realize that Trump wants to get this deal done,” Nides said in an interview on Monday. “This is President Trump’s hostage deal now.”

Netanyahu will be the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the Republican returned to power last month. The meeting comes a day after talks on the second stage of the ceasefire were scheduled to begin. Trump, who prides himself on his deal-making ability, has claimed credit for sealing the ceasefire agreement after 15 months of war.

Under the first stage of the ceasefire deal, now in its third week, 33 hostages — eight of whom are thought to be dead — are to be released for nearly 2,000 Palestinian inmates, many of them hardened terror convicts. The second phase aims to secure the release of the remaining living hostages, with Israel withdrawing troops and ending the war.

“I hope that this meeting will kickstart those negotiations on the second phase, but I worry about what the plan is to do that, as Netanyahu is going to have all sorts of his own domestic political challenges,” Nides cautioned.

Netanyahu is facing heavy pressure from right-wing political allies within his cabinet to abandon the deal and resume the war to fully defeat Hamas, which has attempted to reassert its power in the Strip since the fighting was paused on January 19.

A large billboard with US President Donald Trump encouraging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war, in Jerusalem, January 13, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“This is a critically important meeting for Netanyahu and he will have several objectives on this trip,” said Nides. “Bringing the hostages back, and making sure Netanyahu has a plan for Gaza will be high on the agenda.”

Speaking to The Times of Israel during a visit to Israel, Nides said that the two leaders will also spend their time together discussing how to confront Iran and its proxies.

“Given the fact that Iran is in a much weaker state than they were before… Netanyahu is going to try to encourage the president to continue down that path,” said Nides. “Netanyahu will try to push the president to come up with a plan on Iran.”

Nides, who served as US ambassador to Israel during the previous Biden administration, expressed confidence that US military aid and assistance to Israel will continue.

“The commitment to the State of Israel is a bipartisan commitment,” he said. “I’m sure there’ll be some voices, but I have no doubt that the overwhelming numbers of the Senate and the House will support an extension for assistance to Israel — that’s the least of my worries.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) meets with US special envoy Steve Witkoff (3rd R) and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz (3rd L), accompanied by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer (2nd R), National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi (2nd L), Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter (R), and Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman (L) and military secretary Roman Gofman (bottom C) in Washington on February 4, 2025 (Avi Ohayon/GPO)

Nides said that a sustainable ceasefire agreement and plan for Gaza will be needed to advance the potential of Trump and Netanyahu’s long-coveted goal of securing a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia.

“We have a long way to go there because the first thing is the end of the war in Gaza, and the Saudis will have conditions to normalize ties with Israel,” he said. “Saudi normalization would be a game changer for Israel as the Abraham Accords [were] — it’s building on that.”

In January last year, Nides, a former Morgan Stanley executive, joined New York-based alternative asset manager Blackstone, which manages $1.1 trillion in assets and set up an office in Tel Aviv in April 2021 to tap into the nation’s growing tech firms.

Asked whether the new Trump administration will be good for the Israeli economy and tech industry, Nides was optimistic that the new president “is going to be great for Israel, as Joe Biden was.”

“Trump cares about Israel, its economy and security,” said Nides. “I have no doubt that Donald Trump will be good for Israel.”

The former US ambassador said he believes that Netanyahu and Trump will also discuss economic issues, including new US export rules to limit access to advanced AI computer chips proposed during the last days of the Biden administration. Israel is among 150 countries in the second-tier category — along with Mexico, Portugal and Switzerland — that under the framework would be able to import AI chips from the US but with strict limits on computing power.

“It was a rulemaking process that Biden set in place, which means there is a comment period and there will be plenty of time if the Trump administration decides to make amendments and change it,” he remarked. “I don’t think that they are going to try to eliminate the ability for Israel, our most important ally in the Middle East, to develop technology that they are so known for.”

Right to left: At the time US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, at an event in honor of the 247th US Independence Day at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, July 3, 2023. (US embassy in Jerusalem)

“If there is a will, there is a way. I’m not in the administration, but my working assumption is that it will be worked out,” he said.

The Wall Street veteran enthused that the prospect of normalization with Saudi Arabia, “on top of the Abraham Accords, makes Israel a phenomenally interesting place to invest.”

“Israel is safer today than it has been in 20 years, given the diminishment of the capabilities of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” said Nides. “I don’t think I have been this optimistic about Israel as a place to invest in and about its economic future that I am today.”

“Israel’s economy has shown remarkable growth for a country that’s been to hell and back,” he added.

During the height of Israel’s multifront war, Blackstone closed its biggest deal since opening its office in Tel Aviv in 2021. In May, the investment giant bought a majority stake in Israeli enterprise software company Priority Software at an $800 million valuation.

“For Blackstone to step up in 2024 and write a very big check on a company that the vast majority of its business is Israeli-centric is a big deal,” said Nides. “We did a deal in the middle of the war…there will be a lot of business when there is no war – we are quite enthusiastic about that.”

Commenting on prospects for investments in the Israeli market this year, Blackstone Senior Managing Director Yifat Oron, who is heading its Tel Aviv office, said that the asset manager was looking to have “some kind of a cadence of one or two investments per year.”

“Because we are not a VC, we are not trying to do a lot, but we are trying to do smart deals,” said Oron. “When we invest, these are mature, late-stage company stories.”

Nides shared that the incoming phone calls he receives from tech executives, entrepreneurs, and investors starting funds, attest that “there’s a level of excitement, drive, and focus on the Israeli economy.”

“The number of private equity firms that have expanded their staff in Israel, the number of VC firms, the number of startups that have been created, and the number of people who are calling me, trying to raise capital in the US –, it has been a hockey stick,” he said.

“As someone who spent half of his career on Wall Street, I’m convinced that if you want to make money, the place to invest is in Israel because it’s got the technology, it’s got the resilience, and it’s got the innovation.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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