United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt has returned to Israel for continued talks on the Trump administration’s proposal to partition the country into two states.
“Looking forward to being back in Israel this week as part of our commitment to productive engagement,” Greenblatt tweeted as he arrived.
Greenblatt and his team, led by Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, announced that they have essentially finished putting together their plan.
The president has adopted a more aggressive tone in recent weeks and has said he wants his administration’s plan published by the start of 2019.
French President Emmanuel Macron has meanwhile continued to make public statements that Paris will release a plan of its own if Trump does not make public his plan and begin its implementation following the November 6 US midterm elections.
Macron, who has been brought in as a “bad cop” to help the Trump administration pressure Israel, made his intentions clear to members of the Israel’s Knesset last week.
Macron’s role in Trump’s plan is clever as it allows the American president to maintain a “pro-Israel” image while forcing Israel to comply with Washington’s two-state agenda.
Macron is likely to propose a partition plan less sympathetic to Israel’s needs than Trump’s if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) attempts to stall for time as he successfully did during former President Barack Obama’s eight years in office.
With the danger of Macron’s plan looming, Trump likely expects Netanyahu to be more compliant to the dictates of Greenblatt’s team.
