Gantz orders IDF to hasten preparations for annexation
Move a ‘rejection’ of ties with Arab world, says UAE
Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Monday instructed Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Aviv Kochavi to accelerate preparations for the possibility that Israel will apply its laws to parts of the West Bank after he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Trump administration officials.
Gantz updated Kochavi on diplomatic developments after the calls and told him to speed up preparations for “diplomatic steps on the agenda in the Palestinian arena.”
He met with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman on Monday morning to discuss diplomatic matters on the agenda. Soon after, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Friedman, senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner and special representative for international relations Avi Berkowitz.
“The call was cordial and productive,” a senior White House official said. “We do not comment on the substance of private diplomatic conversations.”
US President Donald Trump’s peace plan would allow for Israel to apply its laws to 30% of the West Bank. The coalition agreement between Gantz’s Blue and White and Netanyahu’s Likud says the prime minister can bring annexation to a vote in the cabinet or Knesset on July 1 at the earliest.
Speaking to the Blue and White faction in the Knesset on Monday, Gantz said he instructed Kochavi to prepare “for any possibility of these processes influencing the region” and present him with various scenarios and plans of action.
The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) plan to hold war games simulating possible responses to annexation, ranging from an increase in terrorism to a broad wave of violence, Channel 13 reported.
Gantz also plans to appoint a project manager to coordinate matters related to the Trump peace plan’s implementation, as well as a committee to coordinate the operative recommendations for the West Bank and Gaza. The police plan to hold meetings on the matter as well.
“President Trump’s peace plan is an opportunity to set and promote permanent borders for the State of Israel,” Gantz said in the faction meeting.
Gantz said he and Netanyahu have been in touch with the US government to promote the peace plan’s implementation.
“Striving for peace while maintaining security is foundational for every Israel citizens and for Blue and White in a concrete way,” he said.
Gantz emphasized the need to maintain Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, saying: “We are acting these days to promote [the peace plan] in parallel to protecting our strategic assets, the cooperation with states of the region, and of course we will be careful with the security of the citizens of Israel.”
Despite Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, also of Blue and White, repeatedly touting the importance of maintaining peace with Egypt and Jordan, senior Jordanian officials lamented that they have not had any serious discussions with Amman, KAN reported.
Gantz’s and Ashkenazi’s spokespeople would not confirm or deny any discussions with Jordanian officials.
The KAN report cited “senior Jordanian officials” who said there have not been any meetings or significant discussions of the possibility that Israel will annex the Jordan Valley or other parts of the West Bank, as the Trump plan would allow it to do.
The officials were reportedly discouraged by statements by Netanyahu and others and have reached the conclusion that they plan to move forward with annexation.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov met with Ashkenazi on Monday to discuss developments in the Middle East.
The UN “remains committed to the two-state solution [and] to working with #Israel, the #Palestinian leadership and our international partners on advancing #peace and much needed regional cooperation,” he tweeted.
The Arab world views Israeli statements about pending annexation of portions of
parts of the West Bank under certain conditions. And those countries did not slam the plan.
In fact, the UAE embassy in Washington put a statement on its website calling the plan “an important starting point for returning to negotiations within an international framework led by the United States.” The UAE ambassador to Washington called the plan “a serious initiative that addresses many of the problems that have emerged over the past years.”
On February 1, prior to an Arab League meeting that predictably rejected the Trump Plan, Gargash argued against reflexive dismissal, and in favor of a “constructive position” that goes beyond the regular condemnations.
And last year Gargash set off a firestorm of criticism in the Muslim world when he said in an interview with the UAE-based newspaper The National that the Arab world made a bad mistake in cutting off dialogue with Israel.
“Many, many years ago, when there was an Arab decision not to have contact with Israel, that was a very, very wrong decision, looking back,” he said. “Because clearly, you have to really dissect and divide between having a political issue and keeping your lines of communication open.”
So neither Gargash nor the UAE are reflexively opposed to the Trump plan.
As a result, Gargash’s tweet now against the annexation move is a signal both to Washington and Jerusalem that the slow process of cooperation between Israel and the Persian Gulf – a cooperation that serves the interests of Israel, the Persian Gulf and Washington in facing off against Iran – could be set back by a move to extend Israeli law over parts of Judea and Samaria. And that message from someone considered a moderate in favor of cooperation with Israel is likely to resonate louder than the predictable responses of Abbas, Abdullah and Borrell.
Gargash’s tweet must also be seen within the context of reports that moderate Sunni states were quietly accepting the annexation idea.
Last week a story in Israel Hayom, widely re-reported in the Arab media, read that despite the staunch and vocal opposition the Muslim world voiced toward the plan, quietly leaders of moderate Sunni states like Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are accepting it and see teaming up with the US and Israel against Iran and its Mideast influence as a greater priority than the Palestinian