President Trump has just blown up the upcoming Israeli election by refusing to wait for its outcome prior to releasing the key details in his “deal of the century”
American Vice President Mike Pence was in Jerusalem today where he attended the commemoration ceremony for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviets. He took advantage of this opportunity to deliver to Israeli PM Netanyahu and the leader of the opposition Blue and White party Benny Gantz president Trump’s invitation to come next week to Washington DC and receive from him a personal briefing as to the main parts of the so-called “deal of the century”.
Speculation abounds as to the details of the deal. It appears that it will involve the extension of full Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria totalling perhaps 30% of the so-called “West Bank”. In the rest of that territory as well as in the Gaza Strip, there will be formed a Palestinian state, provided that the Palestinians agree to the following conditions: recognize Israel as a Jewish state, agree for their own (new) state including Hamas and other Gaza terror factions to be disarmed, and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Whether there is any substance to these speculations will be known soon, as president Trump is likely to release the details of the plan in the next days, just ahead of the White House visit by Messrs. Netanyahu and Gantz.
Israeli media reports that president Trump’s announcement has been coordinated with the major Sunni Muslim countries including saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco or at least they have been made aware of its timing.
If the leaked details are anywhere close to being correct, president Trump’s proposal will be more than welcomed by the majority of Israelis. In fact, this proposal is further to the right than all but the right wing of the Blue and White party in terms of the Israeli politics. As such, it is likely to have a transformative effect on the March 2nd Israeli elections, as it will be clear to the vast majority of Israeli voters that Israel will soon be in need of a stable government that would be able to take advantage of this incredible opportunity.
This is a developing story.
