According to a report on Israel’s Channel 10, United States Mideast Envoy Jason Greenblatt said last week that Washington intends to pressure both Israelis and Palestinians to accept major compromises within the context of President Donald Trump’s new secret plan for the region.
“Neither side is going to like everything written in the peace plan,” Greenblatt said at a London event organized by the UK Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers. “And there will be a need to compromise.”
Greenblatt also said at the event that Trump will be releasing his Middle East plan soon.
The exact date for the new American plan’s release is still undecided but analysts suggest it could drop as early as December. French President Emmanuel Macron has been positioned to serve as Trump’s “bad cop” to pressure Israel, threatening to release his own plan for the Middle East if Washington continues to delay.
Macron said that if Trump doesn’t release his plan following US midterm elections, Paris would put forward its own. But France’s silence on the issue almost a week after the midterms suggest Washington might be waiting for something else.
The possibility of early Israeli elections for the Knesset is likely impacting the decision on the Trump plan’s release, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) would likely suffer politically from an American plan perceived as hostile to Jewish national interests.
For years, Netanyahu’s political opponents have claimed that he harms Israel’s relationship with Washington due to his resistance to American pressure to divide the Land of Israel into two separate states.
Netanyahu has so far appeared to enjoy a positive relationship with Trump, who has until now been vague regarding his commitment to Washington’s traditional two-state policy.
While the best political image for Netanyahu leading the Likud party into elections would be a leader both close to the administration in Washington and strong on Jewish national interests, a strong American push for partition would likely force the prime minister to chose between his relationship with Trump and his commitment to the Jewish homeland.
If early Israeli elections are on the horizon, Trump’s team might find it more beneficial to first allow Netanyahu an electoral victory and significant political mandate from the people before pressuring him to comply with Washington’s two-state agenda.
