David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, updated Blue and White chief Benny Gantz ahead of yesterday’s announcement by the Trump administration that it doesn’t view West Bank settlements as illegal, Channel 13 news reports.
According to the network, Friedman gave Gantz a heads-up to avoid any appearance of interfering in Israeli politics. Gantz is currently working to cobble together a government.
“If Gantz told us that within 24 hours he was going to form a government and asked us to wait, we wouldn’t have published the announcement,” an American official familiar with the conversion between Friedman and Gantz is quoted saying.
During the phone call, Gantz did not express any opposition to the move or ask that it be delayed, the report says.
Gantz hailed the US policy shift after the announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, left, Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, center, and then US peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, right, meeting at the US Embassy’s branch office in Tel Aviv on September 23, 2019. (Courtesy/Matty Stern/US Embassy Jerusalem)
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