Kushner, on a peace mission, arrives to find Israel in chaos

By Loveday Morris | Washington Post

JERUSALEM – Political chaos met presidential son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner as he visited Israel for meetings Thursday to bolster support for his peace plan, as the prospect of a second round of Israeli elections muddied the plan’s long-delayed rollout.

In a move that stunned Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a government by a Wednesday night deadline, and instead of giving a rival the chance to do so, his party forwarded a bill to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

The move means Israel will hold new elections on Sept. 17, less than six months after its April 9 vote. Netanyahu’s party led by one seat after the April parliamentary elections but had the only clear path to forming a coalition. That path was not as clear as Netanyahu had hoped, however, as he failed to reconcile the differences between ultra-Orthodox religious parties and his staunchly secular former defense minister Avigdor Liberman.

The White House is running short of time to release its plan for how to solve the decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestinians before the 2020 U.S. election campaign kicks into full swing. Analysts say Netanyahu is unlikely to want to address thorny political issues or the prospect of any concessions with the Palestinians during a campaign period.

“I think the Trump peace plan is on ice indefinitely now,” said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration. “They already understood that they couldn’t roll out a peace plan during an Israeli election or government formation, so now the same logic is going to apply. Anything in the plan that has the slightest hint of a concession or a hard ask to Israel will be political dynamite during a campaign.”

That could push back the release of the political component of the plan until at least November, Shapiro said, when it should be clear what the makeup of the Israeli government is. However, then President Donald Trump will be getting into his own reelection calendar. The White House is taking its first step of the rollout by holding an economic workshop in Bahrain in late June, with the political component of the plan expected to follow.

Kushner, who is traveling with U.S. Middle East envoys Jason Greenblatt and Brian Hook, is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu later Thursday. The team is visiting the region to bolster support before the Bahrain workshop, but the timing of the trip appears to indicate that Netanyahu’s failure to form a government took the White House by surprise.

“It’s basically a ghost economic summit,” said Shapiro. “There will be some ghost economic pledges in support of a phantom peace plan. It was already suffering from a significant lack of relevance and impact. Now it’s going to be even more so in light of the election year.”

Palestinian officials, who are highly skeptical of a peace plan from a White House that they say is the most biased in favor of Israel in U.S. history, are likely to welcome the prospect of a delay. Ayman Odeh, an Arab Israeli member of the Knesset who voted Wednesday night in favor of its dissolution, said he was doing so in part to block the “deal of the century.”

He said that allowing Netanyahu to continue to pursue the deal was not the right thing to do.

“The correct position is to shorten the political life of Benjamin Netanyahu,” Odeh said.

But some Israeli political analysts say that Netanyahu also does not want to see the plan rolled out. Even if it is immediately rejected by the Palestinians, it could raise questions on issues such as annexation for which there is an array of opinions among Israelis.

“It’s death for the peace plan,” said Gil Hoffman, a political columnist for the Jerusalem Post, referring to Netanyahu’s failure to form a government and new elections.

Addressing the country early Thursday, Netanyahu delivered remarks that sharply contrasted with his beaming speech at his campaign headquarters on election night. His failure to form a coalition with his traditional partners dents his reputation as a veteran political operator.

But there is also much more at stake. His party had been in the process of forwarding legislation that would shield members of parliament, including Netanyahu, from prosecution. In October, Netanyahu’s lawyers are scheduled to present his defense in a pre-indictment hearing to criminal charges including bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

Netanyahu squarely blamed Liberman for Israel’s move to a costly second round of elections, describing him as “part of the left.”

Liberman had refused to join Netanyahu’s government in a

Liberman shot back at Netanyahu, accusing him of being more left-wing. He said the “cult of personality” around Netanyahu has replaced “substantive debate.”

“Likud is not a national party but a cult of personality party,” he said, referring to Netanyahu’s party. “I recommend that Likud get itself a psychiatrist because of all of its hallucinations.”

Meanwhile, Israeli political parties began the task of preparing for a new round of elections. Among those most welcoming of the news are likely to be Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, former education and justice ministers respectively, whose party failed to make it over the election threshold to win any seats in the Knesset.

The Washington Post’s Miriam Berger contributed to this report.