Wild week for Netanyahu, facing trial before election
MOSCOW — When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the White House after the unveiling of President Trump’s Mideast plan, which hugely favors Israel, he and his entourage could barely contain their glee as they boasted of realizing their dream of swiftly annexing large swaths of the West Bank.
But by the time his plane had flown across the Atlantic Ocean, the mood had taken a downturn, with Netanyahu’s annexation plan suddenly in question and an embarrassing criminal trial casting a cloud over his reelection hopes.
Netanyahu’s sojourn to Moscow, to bring home an Israeli backpacker jailed on drug charges that the prime minister had convinced Russia to pardon, capped a rollercoaster fiveday journey during which he was also formally indicted on corruption charges.
It’s been quite a trip for Israel’s longestserving prime minister, who has portrayed himself as a master statesman as he fights for his political survival ahead of March 2 elections.
It began Jan. 26, with grand proclamations upon departure about the great mission he was on, and about “making history” with Trump. Last Monday, he beamed alongside Trump in the Oval Office, flaunting their friendship and lavishing praise upon the American president.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu withdrew a request for immunity before parliament could reject it, triggering the official launch of his trial on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust stemming from three longrunning corruption cases. He will now be the first sitting prime minister to face a criminal trial.
Hours later, Trump announced a plan to resolve the IsraeliPalestinian conflict that overwhelmingly favors Israel and appeared to pave the way for immediate annexation of large swaths of the West Bank, including Israel’s many settlements and the Jordan Valley.
Before an adoring audience of evangelical Christians and other supporters, he called Trump the “greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House,” and compared the moment’s significance to that of the birth of Israel in 1948.
But on Wednesday, the tide began to change.
In a series of interviews, Trump’s staunchly proIsrael peace team appeared to tap the brakes on the race to annexation, putting greater emphasis on the prospects of Palestinian statehood that Netanyahu was trying to sidestep. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who days earlier had led Jewish prayer services aboard Netanyahu’s plane, said a U.S.Israeli committee would need to be formed to insure that any move matches up with the administration’s “conceptual map.”
Jared Kushner, Trump’s soninlaw and the architect of the plan, said Israel should wait until after the March 2 elections before annexing territory.
Those comments were likely to stoke fears among Netanyahu’s hardline allies that the plan will only ever exist on paper.
The Americans appear to be treading cautiously in hopes of gaining international and Arab support for the proposal, which the Palestinians have adamantly rejected.