When Adam Boehler, one of the figures closest to the decision-making circles in U.S. President Donald Trump’s first administration and a member of the small team that helped advance the Abraham Accords, returned to administration at the beginning of the year, he knew he was assuming a heavy responsibility.
His title, special envoy for hostage affairs, might suggest diplomacy and formal meetings, but in practice, it is one of the few positions in Washington where the title is not a metaphor, but a mission that can determine life or death.
Every word, every decision, every conversation can affect the fate of a person held in a prison or a dark basement somewhere in the world. The role took on an even more personal and complex meaning for him after Oct. 7, 2023, the day Israel and he, as an American Jew, entered a new reality.
According to Boehler, his path to this role was not planned. It began years earlier, during a meeting between the first Trump administration and Chinese President Xi Jinping. “I was sitting next to Robert O’Brien,” Boehler recalls in an interview with Israel Hayom, “and I watched him ask the president of China to deliver two Bibles to two Chinese-American citizens being held captive in the country.
“I asked what this was about.” O’Brien, then the hostage envoy before becoming national security advisor, told him about the job. “Here was something that could have a real impact on people’s lives, make a huge difference. It left an impression on me,” Boehler says.
After four years in which, in his words, “U.S. foreign policy, built painstakingly during the first Trump administration, steadily deteriorated under the Biden administration,” the moment arrived when Trump again won the presidency.
Not long afterward, Trump asked him, “What do you think about doing something broad in the Middle East,” Boehler recalls.
“I answered that we already have excellent people working on the Middle East, and that the hostage issue is one of the most meaningful we have, because there are many Americans, many allies, and in this case Israelis as well, in captivity.” The president liked the response. “And that was that.”
Seeing Oct. 7 as an American, as a Jew, “was devastating,” he says plainly. “I felt frustrated, because I didn’t think, and still don’t think, that this would have happened under President Trump. When he won again, I felt that finally we were going to do something about this. I didn’t feel we were aggressive enough under the previous administration.”
Boehler noted that during his meetings with the president, it was made clear that his mission would be far broader than the formal job description, which focuses on recovering Americans. “The president told me that all Israelis are included in my mandate,” he says.
“This was deeply important to me, because for us, in the broad sense, as Jews—seeing what happened, growing up with the memory of what happened to us in the Shoah, and then seeing a second Shoah …, we must ensure that we act, that we don’t forget the first, and now the second, and that from this pain some good may ultimately emerge,” he says, referring to the regional changes underway in the Middle East as a result of the war, a region he describes as “completely transformed.”
Criticism in Israel
Several months into his role, one move he took triggered a major storm: a direct meeting with Hamas’s negotiating team. In Israel, the step drew sharp criticism.
“There was concern that we would offer something or make a deal without the Israelis,” Boehler says. He insists on setting the record straight. “It’s important to understand: Nothing like this happens on my own authority,” he emphasizes. “These things were widely coordinated with the White House.”
As for any possibility of bypassing Israel, he is unequivocal: “That is something we would never do. It was an Israeli decision what to offer.”
Asked what led him to take such a bold, unusual step, he answers without hesitation: “Time is a killer for hostages. When you operate only through intermediaries, it can take longer. While I’m sitting here, I’m thinking about hostages trapped somewhere, and it weighs on you. Talking to anyone, even Hamas, speeds up things.”
In later rounds of negotiations with Hamas, particularly the most recent one that produced a ceasefire and the return of the living and all but one of the deceased hostages, both U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the president’s confidant and son-in-law Jared Kushner also engaged in direct contacts with the terrorist group’s representatives.
When asked how he felt as a Jew meeting with Hamas operatives, Boehler said: “In my meetings with Hamas, or any other terrorist organization, I always remember that I am not there in a personal capacity, but representing my country. I try to stay focused on the goal, which is to secure the release of the hostages as soon as possible and ensure that they are never taken again.”
Regarding media claims at the time that the Gaza portfolio was taken away from him after the controversy, Boehler rejects them outright. “Those reports are wrong for two reasons: First, I never held the ‘Gaza file’ to begin with. Second, my portfolio is across the board, hostage affairs, and I continue working on bringing American and allied hostages home.”
Boehler prefers to focus on the results: First and foremost, the release of American-Israeli Edan Alexander. He describes a phenomenon he saw with him and with others who emerged from captivity: At first, their faces “do not look good,” but within minutes of being in American hands, they suddenly come back to life.”
Boehler explains that this pattern repeated itself again and again: “We brought home 160 Americans and allies, and it’s almost always the same. It’s like a drug. You feel the presence of God in those moments.”
He shares other experiences as well. “On Trump’s inauguration day, we brought two people home from Afghanistan. I stood with the family of one of them at the inauguration ceremony; they were right behind the president,” he says.
Another story he shares with emotion is that of Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Israeli-Russian researcher kidnapped and held for two-and-a-half years by Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group in Iraq. Unlike other cases, Boehler chose a completely different approach—a public, sharp and rare confrontation with the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani.
The Iraqi response was swift. “It was as if they said, ‘OK, we didn’t realize you were this serious.’ And then they began to act.” Boehler stresses that in return for Tsurkov’s release, “I gave them nothing.”
As a result of the efforts, Iraq released not only Tsurkov but also the remains of another American held there for years, Staff Sergeant Ahmed Kousay al-Taie, a U.S. Army soldier who was captured in Baghdad in 2006 during the Iraq War and later killed by his captors. “Just like in Israel, it is deeply important for families that if a family member has died, they can receive their loved one’s remains; it means a lot.”
When asked how many Americans are held hostage abroad, Boehler answers: “Dozens. In Afghanistan, Russia, Iran.” But he remains ambitious: “We will bring them all home. We will continue applying pressure until every American is home.”
The conversation returns to the Israeli hostages. Of the 251 kidnapped on Oct. 7, one Israeli hostage remains: Ran Gvili, recognized as deceased. Boehler is asked how optimistic he is about bringing him home. “When we said ‘everyone,’ we meant every single one,” he says. “We are committed to that.”
Regarding the “day after” in Gaza, Boehler expresses cautious optimism. “I don’t think you could ask for anyone better than Kushner, Witkoff and the team working there. The president is committed, and that gives me great confidence.
“It’s incredibly hard, but no one knows how to navigate difficult situations like Jared Kushner. Everyone said the Abraham Accords were impossible. He proved otherwise.”
Originally published by Israel Hayom.
