Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff: April 11, 2019

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ULTIMATE DEAL WATCH ― The Trump administration is expected to release the much-anticipated Middle East peace plan only after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forms a coalition government, Reuters’ Steve Holland reported on Wednesday. According to a White House official, only four people ― Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt, Ambassador David Friedman and Kushner’s aide Avi Berkowitz ― have regular access to the content of the plan. Trump is briefed regularly on the contents but is not believed to have read the entire document of dozens of pages, the official added.

National Security Advisor John Bolton said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show on Wednesday morning: “We’ve been working, President Trump, Jared Kushner and others, for a couple of years now on a Middle East peace plan. We’ve been in the preparatory stages to getting it ready. And I think we’re going to see that coming out in the very near future.”

Rob Satloff,  Executive Director of The Washington Institute, argues that the Trump administration would be wise to shelve the peace plan, given the circumstances. “The Trump administration should not give Iran and its local Islamist allies a political victory by issuing a Middle East peace plan that is likely to earn swift rejection by the Palestinians,” he writes in Foreign Policymagazine. The Trump administration should not give Iran and its local Islamist allies a political victory by issuing a Middle East peace plan that is likely to earn swift rejection by the Palestinians and strong criticism even from longtime U.S. allies. It makes little sense to hand Iran’s supreme leader and his regional partners a propaganda coup at a moment when the U.S. pressure campaign might actually be bearing fruit… Issuing the Middle East peace plan in the current environment is a lose-lose-lose proposition.” [ForeignPolicy]

Dov Zakheim writes… “The high price for supporting Bibi Netanyahu: Trump confronts a serious dilemma. If he continues to support Netanyahu, he loses his vaunted peace deal and wrecks his self-molded image as the greatest of all deal-makers. If he betrays Netanyahu, which would not be contrary to his character, he risks losing support not only of the large percentage of Orthodox Jews who are his only real Jewish support, but of the millions of evangelicals who are the bedrock of his base.” [TheHill]

VIEW FROM JERUSALEM — Likud minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel Radio on Thursday that the Likud-led government won’t take unilateral action on annexation until after the unveiling of the Trump peace plan. “We have no interest in annexing three million Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria and turning them into citizens of Israel and changing the makeup of the Jewish and democratic state,” says Hanegbi.

HEARD YESTERDAY — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deflected on whether the U.S. supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in an exchange with Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), during a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Sen. Kaine: Tell me what U.S. policy is right now: Would we support an annexation of the West Bank, do we oppose it, or are we indifferent to whether that happens?

Sec. Pompeo: “We are now working with many parties to share what our vision is for how to solve this problem. Senator, you would concede that for decades now there have been all of these wonderful experts that have tried resolve this crisis in the Middle East, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people, and they have each failed. So the old set of ideas aren’t worth retreading… We are hopeful that our vision, our ideas of what this might look like, how we might proceed to do that, will create the conditions where the Israelis and the Palestinians can resolve this. So I am not going to get in front of what’s in there.”

Kaine: Do you think the two-state solution is an old idea whose time has gone?

Pompeo: “It’s certainly been an idea that’s been around a long time, Senator.”

Kaine: Yeah, but you talked about all the ideas that we have to set aside. Is the U.S. policy to set aside the idea of a two state solution that was at the origin of the United States’s recognition of the state of Israel?

Pompeo: “I would argue that millions of man hours have been spent to try and build out a two state solution. It hasn’t worked to date. It may work this afternoon, but it hasn’t worked yet.”

Kaine: Is that still a goal of the U.S. or is that no longer [a goal]? 

Pompeo: “You can probably ask me fifteen other ways too, Senator. I am going to allow this process that we have, engaging with the parties, work its way through.”

Kaine: How about if I say it this way: ‘It has been a policy of the U.S. I agree with that. I think it should be the policy.’ Do you agree with me or disagree with me?

Pompeo: “I think, ultimately, individuals in the region will sort this out. We want good things for the Palestinian people.” [CSPAN]

TRUMP TEAM ― President Trump welcomed the reelection of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, congratulating him on a winning an election, in which the president himself called the candidates ‘two good people.’ “I’d like to congratulate Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Wednesday morning. “He’s been a great ally and he’s a friend. I’d like to congratulate him. That was a well fought-out race, I can tell you.”

Trump added: “The fact that Bibi won, I think we’ll see some pretty good action in terms of peace. Look, everyone said — and I never made it a promise — but everybody said you can’t have peace in the Middle East with Israel and the Palestinians. I think we have a chance. And I think we have, now, a better chance with Bibi having won.”

Trump called Netanyahu aboard Air Force One: “The two leaders agreed to continue working in the coming years in the closest way for Israel and the United States,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. Trump added in a tweet, “Spoke to Bibi Netanyahu to congratulate him on a great and hard-fought win. The United States is with him and the people of Israel all the way!”

Trump also posted on Twitter: “Trump flags being waived at the Bibi Netanyahu VICTORY celebration last night!” [Pic]

Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s oldest son and advisor, replied: “God bless you Mr. President! God bless America and God bless Israel! !