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