On the Netanyahu-Witkoff meeting, or what did Trump put on the table for Israel?

I am not a physiognomy expert, but time and time again I was drawn back to the photo of Netanyahu and Witkoff after their meeting on 1/13/2025. ToI article described the meeting as “tense … Trump administration leaned hard on the Israeli premier to accept compromises necessary to secure a hostage deal by the January 20”. But does Netanyahu really look like someone who was just beaten down to the pulp? No, quite the contrary. The PM looks (to me) like a man who might have won a lottery. Why?

If I seem to pat myself on the back in the following, please forgive me. I am just an amateur armchair strategist / ToI addict. My family has to bear the brunt of this addiction. So anytime I come to a conclusion similar to that of Haviv Rettig Gur (referred to as “the Preacher” in my family chat, my TM, patting myself on the back again, I know) I feel that I should be very proud of it. The temptation to share such occasion with the rest of the ToI community, especially if I think the message may be helpful/therapeutic, is uncontrollable, my apologies. You can skip to the last two paragraphs, but there might be something useful in the rest as well.

Here is a string of my post to our family chat, Wednesday, 1/15:

1. Also, I haven’t seen the question: “what did Witkoff offer to Netanyahu in return for softening his position?” If I were Iran I’d be worried. Especially during the 42 days of the first stage. Wishful thinking perhaps?
2. Trump thinks of himself as a great negotiator. He is rumored to threaten Vlad to turn the Red Square into a glass rink. But he probably would not threaten to do the same to Jerusalem. Stop selling the weapons and cut off all military cooperation? Not in the US interests either. There must have been an offer of a positive proactive action(s).
3. The more I read about the deal (the first stage is both wonderful and pretty tough), the more I wonder what Israel was offered in return. Spinning it positively.

Then the question I sent for Haviv Rettig Gur for his Jewish Federations webinar yesterday, Hostage Deal Briefing; (they asked the registrants to submit questions but skipped the Q&A session). “Do you think/suspect that there was a promise of something substantial for Israel from the Trump administration during the meeting between Netanyahu and the Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in return for agreeing to the ceasefire proposal? Not just the pressure applied to force Netanyahu to go ahead with the deal. A guess for what that might be?”

And finally, in my post to fam chat on Friday:

“in today’s ToI’s podcast, “what matters to Haviv Rettig Gur”, The Preacher came through. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-matters-now/id1067953235?i=1000684286301     Haviv’s guess today is aligned with my hunch: “Number 2 – Iran.” I was hoping for a joint military action. Haviv is ok with “just stay out of the way”. I still think that the US strategic B-2 bombers with bunker busters will be very helpful/needed.”

And so there is most likely a lot more to the ceasefire deal than Hamas and Gaza and even hostages (my heart skips every time). PM is looking further into the future. Iran is where it’s at.