Michael Koblo, an analyst at the Israel Policy Forum, said that he is confident that outgoing President Donald Trump will push Israel to annex large territories in the occupied West Bank, “partly to sow hostility between Israel and the Biden administration, but he may Israel will seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to seize more land. "
The "Israel Policy Forum" is an Israeli lobby organization in the American capital, Washington, which was founded in 1993 "to advocate a two-state solution that serves the security and democracy of Israel," according to the organization’s definition of itself.
In his interview with Mondoways website, Wednesday, November 11, 2020, Koblo said, “Members of the Trump administration will do everything in their power to push the Israeli government to move forward with annexation before January 20, 2021 (the day of the inauguration of the new president, Joe Biden), and the matter will be adopted on The end is on whether Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu thinks it is a good idea to work on it with a new presidency that he has to deal with starting from that date, or whether he thinks it would be wise not to burden President Biden with such a burden and a bad position from day one. .
"I think the likely scenario here is that we will see the green light from the Trump administration that will try to push the Israeli government to move forward with some aspects of annexation, and the Israeli government may be smart enough not to go ahead with this plan, but we are living in two months of chaos, on that front," says Koblo. And many other fronts, "referring to the current transitional period.
It is noteworthy that President-elect Biden was clear throughout his election campaign of opposing annexation and settlement, and he is expected to issue a very clear and unambiguous statement in this sense if Israel responds to the wishes of Trump and his ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, or pledges to annex.
Netanyahu may decide that it would be beneficial for his own efforts to stay in office and stay out of jail by taking a hostile approach toward Biden, according to Cobblo.
Aaron Weinberg, Coblo´s colleague and director of government relations at the Israel Policy Forum, echoed the view that the Trump administration will push for annexation in the next few weeks, and “but it is not clear yet whether Netanyahu will take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To move forward and to what extent he wants to be against the Biden administration. "
Weinberg adds, "Of course, Netanyahu and Biden have a long relationship, and this was not the case when Obama took office (1/20/2009) when Netanyahu was" opposed "to the Obama presidency and openly supported his Republican rival John McCain, but this may not matter. ... Netanyahu may wish to use the opportunity, based on his own calculations, to preserve his grip on the right-wing power structure in Israel. "
Weinberg says, "Everyone should prepare for the worst and be surprised if it is better than that ... I think there are a lot of calculations and instability in the future ... There will be some movement on this issue by the White House before the end of the Trump administration, and the matter is only if Netanyahu would have taken the bait. "
Both men also said that, "while Biden will not seek to reverse and reverse many of Trump´s actions in Israel and Palestine," Trump´s peace plan known as the "Deal of the Century" that he launched on January 28, 2020 will become a dead letter with Biden´s receipt, and will create This position also tensions between Israel and Biden. "
"I think it (the deal of the century plan) will be a dead start for the Biden administration," said Koblo, who has direct contact with the Biden team. Launching for the Biden administration. But for the Israeli government, this (deal of the century) will be the baseline and the new starting point, and will inevitably lead to difficulties in moving forward (between Biden and Israel), because the Israeli expectations have been reset and I am sure that within the corridors of the Israeli government it may be There is an approach that says all we need to do here is wait for things to end until the next Republican administration, which will move forward from where Trump´s plan left off. "
Weinberg believes that Israeli and Republican politicians will conspire against Biden using the Trump plan.
"I think the deal of the century is completely and completely dead and will come to an end ... yes the most conservative and right-wing Republicans in Congress will stick to it ... they will stick tightly to it, and talk will continue in the House and Senate about Trump´s plan as a basic line, and whenever the Biden administration takes any steps about the conflict or Dealing with Israel at all, it will inevitably emerge and I am sure there will be great coordination of talking points on this subject between the many people across the ocean who have worked together on this aspect. But I think you will start to see ordinary Republicans see this plan simply as not. A serious offer, because it never was and I think we will quickly move to a different path "on Palestinian-Israeli peace.
Cobblo also asked whether Trump really cares about Israel, referring to Netanyahu´s apparent horror at Trump´s anger, when he (Netanyahu) waited 12 hours to congratulate Biden on his victory in a tweet in which he did not describe Biden as a "president-elect" but said: Congratulations to Joe Biden and Camille Harris .
