Incoming Foreign Minister Ashkenazi throws weight behind Trump plan

Incoming Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi has given a ringing endorsement of US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan, calling it a “historic opportunity” to shape Israel’s borders but stopping short of explicitly mentioning a possible annexation of West Bank territory.

“We’re in front of significant regional opportunities, primarily President Trump’s peace initiative. I consider this plan a significant milestone,” he says at a modest changing-of-the-guard ceremony at the Foreign Ministry conference room in Jerusalem.

“President Trump presented us with a historic opportunity to shape the future of the State of Israel and its boundaries for decades to come,” he says of the scheme, which envisions a Palestinian state on some 70 percent of the West Bank, pockmarked with settlement enclaves that would be annexed to Israel.

Sitting next to his predecessor as Israel’s top diplomat, incoming Finance Minister Israel Katz, Ashkenazi says the administration’s plan will be advanced “responsibly, with full coordination with the United States and maintaining all of the State of Israel’s peace agreements and strategic interests.”

Much of the international community, and especially Jordan, vociferously opposes Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to unilaterally annex large parts of the Jordan Valley. According to the coalition agreement, he can bring the annexation to a vote in the Knesset or the cabinet as soon as July 1.

— Raphael Ahren