Pro-Netanyahu commentators in the Israeli media started on Sunday what looked like an orchestrated campaign against President Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner, attacking him for stopping the Israeli prime minister from annexing parts of the West Bank after the unveiling of the White House peace plan last Tuesday.
Why it matters: The right-wing commentators who were attacking Kushner on various media outlets in Israel on Sunday are Netanyahu supporters and surrogates. When comparing their tweets and remarks on the air, they largely used many of the same talking points.
In mid-2013, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal from the Sultanate of Oman to mediate a back channel between Israel and Iran, believing it would legitimize the secret U.S.-Iran talks that ultimately led to the 2015 nuclear deal, according to four former Israeli officials involved in the negotiations.
Why it matters: Knowledge of the dramatic Omani initiative had until now been restricted to a small group of Israeli officials. When he came into office in 2009, Netanyahu banned the Israeli Mossad from engaging in any direct or indirect talks with the Iranians without his clear approval, Israeli officials told me. Such an order doesn’t exist for any other country in the world.
An image of the clock face of Big Ben was projected on 10 Downing Street, residence of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as Britain officially left the European Union at 11 p.m. London time.
Why it matters: "In its biggest shift since losing its global empire, [the U.K. turns] its back after 47 years on the post-World War Two project that sought to build the ruined nations of Europe into a global power," Reuters writes.
The foreign ministers of the member states of the Arab League unanimously adopted a resolution on Saturday rejecting the Trump Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and said that "it does not satisfy the minimum of the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people."
Why it matters: The Trump administration was counting on a coalition of Arab countries it has built over the last several years to prevent such a resolution and press the Palestinians to go back to the table. Those efforts did not materialize.
