Did Kushner say Israel agreed before Trump plan not to annex ahead of election?

Settlers fume after Hebrew reports on Kushner comment to press indicate PM promised speedy annexation when he had already told US he’d wait. But Kushner made no such remark

Reports in Israel that quoted White House senior adviser Jared Kushner saying Thursday the Israeli government agreed before the US peace plan was published not to annex West Bank territory ahead of the March elections sparked an immediate storm among settler leaders, with one lashing out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But Kushner, who spoke to reporters after presenting the plan at a UN Security Council briefing on Thursday, made no such claim, The Times of Israel has established.

Army Radio reported Friday that Kushner “revealed this morning that Israel promised during discussions on the Deal of the Century not to advance annexation before the elections” on March 2.

The report suggested Netanyahu made such a promise before traveling to the White House for the release of Trump’s peace proposal last week, after which he vowed to move forward to start annexation within days.

Gush Eztion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman speaks at a ceremony opening a new Nature Reserve in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank, December 12, 2017. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)

Shlomo Ne’eman, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said Kushner’s purported remark flew in the face of an assertion he said Netanyahu made to settler leaders that “the problem was on the American side.”

“It can’t be that the prime minister agreed to delay the application of sovereignty until after the elections and we’re hearing otherwise,” Ne’eman told Army Radio.

However, according to an AFP reporter who was one of the six correspondents to whom Kushner spoke, the White House adviser did not specify that Israel made such a commitment before the rollout of Trump’s proposal.

“We’ve been having a very active discussion with the Israeli government, the current Israeli government, and I think that what everyone agreed was the right thing for now is there will be no annexations before the election,” Kushner was quoted by the AFP reporter as saying in a transcript seen by The Times of Israel.

The source of the controversy appeared to be a Fox News report that said “Kushner told reporters that Israeli government officials had agreed they would not make any annexations before their general election next month.” But Fox did not quote him saying Israel made such a commitment before the January 28 release of the US plan. Associated Press and AFP stories on the Kushner briefing did not quote that part of his remarks.

Netanyahu appeared alongside Trump at a White House ceremony to herald the proposal’s release, shortly after which he told Israeli reporters that he planned to bring his plan to annex the Jordan Valley and West Bank settlements for cabinet approval within days.

US President Donald Trump, left, listens as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, speaks during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, January 28, 2020, to announce the Trump administration’s much-anticipated plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Though US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman initially signaled American support for Israel moving ahead immediately with annexation, Kushner clarified the next day that the Trump administration expected Netanyahu to wait at least until a new Israeli government is formed sometime after the March 2 vote.

Netanyahu has since refrained from addressing a timeline for annexation, but at a campaign event Tuesday urged attendees to help him get elected, saying that a victory would allow his Likud party to gain approval for the Trump peace plan.

Those remarks appeared to be an acknowledgement that annexation would not be on the table before the national vote.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu reportedly told settler leaders Thursday he was still working on some degree of annexation before the elections, according to participants in the meeting.

Netanyahu’s promise of immediate annexation — and the White House pushback — have prompted scorn among some settler leaders for Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law.

(From L-R) Gush Etzion Regional Council chairman Shlomo Ne’eman, Jordan Valley Regional Council chairman David Elhayani, Binyamin Regional Council chairman Yisrael Gantz and Efrat Local Council chairman Oded Revivi watch the unveiling of the Trump peace plan from a Washington hotel room on January 28, 2020. (Yesha Council)

“Kushner took a knife and put it in Netanyahu’s back,” David Elhayani, head of the Yesha Council umbrella group and a Netanyahu ally, told the Washington Post on Tuesday.

“Kushner misled the prime minister. He misled everybody. He knew for a long time that Netanyahu wanted to declare sovereignty… Gentlemen just don’t act this way,” he added.

Like Ne’eman, Elhayani was one of several leaders who were invited to Washington by Netanyahu to receive updates in real time as the plan was unveiled last week.

The settler leaders were also briefed by a senior US official regarding the plan, Elhayani said at the time.

The Yesha Council initially rejected the US plan over its vision of a possible Palestinian state, with restricted sovereignty, on 70% of the West Bank, and later refused to take a position, leading to a rift within its ranks.

Breaking with past US administrations, the plan envisions the creation of a Palestinian state in West Bank areas, a handful of neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and some areas of southern Israel — on condition that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state and Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip disarm.

The plan also calls for granting Israel ongoing overall security control west of the Jordan River, and barring Palestinians from entering Israel as refugees.

The Palestinians, who seek all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem for an independent state and the removal of more than 700,000 Israelis from these areas, have angrily rejected the plan.