Trump to discuss launch of Mideast peace plan with advisers this week — report
US president will review proposal with top foreign policy, national security aides amid political turmoil in Israel
US President Donald Trump will meet with top advisers this week to review his administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and discuss the timing for its release, according to a television report on Sunday.
The meeting will be attended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, the Channel 10 report said. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman traveled to Washington, DC, to attend the meeting as well.
US officials told the news channel that Trump wants to see the plan rolled out by February, but his advisers favor taking a more cautious approach, in light of the political crisis engulfing Israel.
The potential collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would be a key factor in deciding when the US proposal should be unveiled, the officials said.
Officials said Friedman, along with some advisers, were warning against releasing the plan during an Israeli election campaign, in order to prevent the vote from becoming a referendum on the US plan.
Although the Trump administration has been touting its peace plan for months, details of it have been scant, and the Palestinians have vowed not to cooperate with US efforts.
The report came as Netanyahu’s government appeared on brink of collapse, likely moving up the next Knesset elections before their scheduled date in November 2019.
The coalition crisis was sparked by the resignation of Avigdor Liberman as defense minister last week, in response to the ceasefire deal that ended a military flareup between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
Even as early elections appeared increasingly likely, Netanyahu on Sunday rejected calls to dissolve his government and announced he would take on the defense portfolio in the wake of Liberman’s departure.
Netanyahu said heading to elections now, amid repeated violent confrontations with terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, was “irresponsible.”
Over the weekend, Hadashot news reported there was growing concern in the Prime Minister’s Office that the release of the Trump peace plan could hurt the ruling Likud party’s electoral prospects in the upcoming national elections.
Though the specific details of the plan have been closely guarded by the US, the TV report said Netanyahu’s camp was planning to reach out to the White House in an effort to push back the publication of the proposal until after elections.
Hadashot said Kushner has privately indicated in the past that the plan’s release might be postponed if Israel was embroiled in an election campaign.
Netanyahu’s office told the network in response to the report that the prime minister’s sole concern vis-a-vis the US peace plan is Israel’s security.
“The prime minister doesn’t know when the American plan will be presented, and when it is, the only factor he will take into consideration is the national interest, first and foremost the security of Israel,” his office said.
Trump has yet to reveal a date for the announcement of his peace plan but said during a meeting with Netanyahu in September he hoped to release it by early next year.
In addition to the increasing political uncertainty in Israel, the White House must also factor in how the peace plan will be received by the Palestinian Authority, whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, has boycotted the Trump administration since its recognition last December of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and has vowed to oppose the “deal of the century.”
The Times of Israel Community.