Jun 3, 2019 - World

Israeli politics likely to delay key part of Trump admin's peace plan

President Donald Trump (L) arrives at the Israel Museum to speak in Jerusalem on May 23, 2017, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump said on Sunday he is unhappy that Israel will be embroiled in a new election campaign, as his administration prepares to launch its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan — the full release of which will likely now be delayed.

Why it matters: Trump has pushed the peace team, led by his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, to launch the plan already. They were waiting for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a coalition government before they launched it. A new government will not be formed before November — when Trump will be dealing with his reelection campaign.

  • Kushner will launch the economic part of the plan this month at a conference in Bahrain. He and his team planned to launch the political part of the proposal later this summer, probably in July. Now, with Israel preparing for a second election, it is likely to be postponed once again.

The big picture: After the Washington Post reported Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying at a meeting with Jewish leaders the plan was "unexecutable" and might not "gain traction," Trump told reporters Pompeo may be right. He said he still thinks the U.S. has a good chance to push the plan forward. Trump blamed the delay of the proposal on Israel's political crisis.

"Israel is all messed up with their election. I mean, that came out of the blue three days ago. So that's all messed up. They ought to get their act together. Bibi [Netanyahu] got elected. Now all of a sudden they're going to have to go through the process again till September. That's ridiculous. So we're not happy about that."

Go deeper: Trump disappointed Netanyahu failed in coalition talks

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