The United States gave consent to a historic move on Jan. 28, 2020, when as part of its peace plan, it recognized Israel's right to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlements in one-third of Judea and Samaria. 

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"We will form a joint committee with Israel to convert the conceptual map into a more detailed and calibrated rendering so that recognition can be immediately achieved," President Donald Trump said at the White House ceremony that day. 

Note his use of the word "immediately." That one word would determine the entire future of the sovereignty clause. 

Despite Trump's explicit statements and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's promises, to this day the plan has not been implemented. Despite Former Senior White House Adviser Jared Kushner's elusive commitments and Former United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman's assurances, the bold political move that was meant to turn the tide of history was shelved instead.  

How and why did the plan fail? 

Netanyahu started entertaining the notion of applying sovereignty in Judea and Samaria back in 2018. At a Likud faction meeting, he said he had been conversing with the US on the subject for some time. He stressed that one of the most important things was to maintain "as much coordination with the US as possible, a connection with whom is a strategic asset to Israel and its settlements."

In a response uncharacteristic of the Trump administration, the White House quickly denied the allegations. "Reports that the United States discussed with Israel an annexation plan for the West Bank are false," White House spokesman Josh Raffel said in a statement.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu and his advisers, including former Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, remained in close contact with Trump, Kushner, Friedman, and presidential adviser Jason Greenblatt about formulating the sovereignty deal. 

The plan was completed by the end of 2018, but Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman bolted the coalition, forcing Israel into an early election. In fear of being perceived as meddlers in Israeli elections, a matter that constantly bothered Kushner, the US decided to delay the plan until Israel formed a government. No one could have predicted that Israel was about to plunge into two years of political turmoil. 

Knowing the details of the sovereignty plan full well, Netanyahu shared them throughout his campaign, but many perceived his remarks as attempts to garner more votes ahead of the election.

Another year went by. Israel was in the midst of its third election by the end of 2019 and Trump was getting ready for a new presidential race. Nevertheless, despite the political situation in Israel, the leaders decided to unveil the plan, marking January 2020 as the month when the "deal of the century" would be presented to the public. 

Netanyahu requested that Friedman be the one to present right-wing leaders with the main points of the deal and mobilize their support, as he was well-respected and trusted in right-wing circles. Friedman agreed to what was considered a historic plan at the time. 

In the weeks leading up to the White House ceremony, Friedman spoke with prominent figures in the right-wing media and political system in Israel. One of his key promises was the "green light" that Israel would be given to "immediately" apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Until that moment, the notion of Israeli sovereignty over these regions was considered absurd, but after Friedman's promises, right-wing leaders sided with the move.

Then-Defense Minister Naftali Bennett called the plan Israel's "greatest political opportunity in the last 50 years." Journalists affiliated with the national camp spoke out in support as well. The prime minister applied pressure on the leaders of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of Jewish authorities in Judea and Samaria, to accompany him to Washington. 

On Monday morning, Jan. 27, Netanyahu arrived in Washington with his advisers, Friedman and Likud MK Yariv Levin, who turned out had been involved in the drafting of the plan all along. 

Levin called the sovereignty plan "groundbreaking on every level, an idea never before talked about."

"It was difficult at first to convince the US of the logic [behind the plan,] and the urgency of its implementation. But in the end, the conclusion was clear: they were going to recognize our right for sovereignty," Levin said. 

While after arriving in Washington Netanyahu began preparing for the next day's ceremony, Trump and his team were busy with a completely different issue. January saw the culmination of Trump's first impeachment trial when America was on the edge of its seat to find out whether former National Security Adviser John Bolton would appear in front of the Senate to testify against the president. That same day Trump was briefed on the country's coronavirus situation and tweeted, who would have believed, that the US was offering to help China in combating the virus. 

Netanyahu, Trump and their advisers were supposed to meet that evening for a last-minute meeting to discuss the deal, but due to the president's busy schedule, it was canceled. That cancellation marked the first malfunction in the plan. 

The ceremony was held the next day at the White House. Netanyahu seemed excited and enthusiastic, but Trump came across as impatient, perhaps due to the stress of the impeachment trial. 

Immediately after, Netanyahu held a media briefing at Blair House. He was over the moon. Three years' worth of hard work finally bore fruits. Such a historic breakthrough had been unparalleled since the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel was about to strengthen its position in Judea and Samaria. 

The briefing took a while. Netanyahu described the nitty-gritty of the plan and said that the following week the Israeli government would meet to discuss the implementation.

"Sovereignty over the settlements on Sunday," Netanyahu's adviser Yonatan Orich tweeted at the time. 

Kushner, who was being interviewed by American media at the same time as Netanyahu was talking to journalists at Blair House, expressed a different opinion. He clearly stated that the plan's implementation was not a matter of a few days. That inconsistency became the sovereignty plan's second malfunction. 

In Israel, Orich quickly deleted the tweet. In Washington, the situation continued to deteriorate. 

The Yesha Council representatives that had come with Netanyahu were Chairman David Elhayani, head of the Efrat Local Council in Samaria Oded Revivi, and Chairman of the Gush Etzion Regional Council Shlomo Ne'eman.

Arriving with Netanyahu was Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council.

Dagan was eager to meet with Netanyahu alone. But Elhayani had Netanyahu promise not to do so.  

Nevertheless, at about one in the morning, when Elhayani was stepping out of Blair House, he saw Dagan waiting outside. He got angry and drafted an opposition statement against the sovereignty plan on behalf of the Yesha Council. 

The White House found out about his statement soon enough. Friedman was shocked to read it. "The ambassador was very frustrated," an American official confirmed. 

The settlers and their leaders are idealistic people, but their behavior was childish. It reflected a lack of understanding of the political arena on their part. 

In any case, the most pressing issue at the time was the inconsistency between Netanyahu and Friedman's timeline versus Kushner's. The former said "sovereignty on Sunday," the latter "sovereignty later, after the election."

"To this day, I don't understand what happened there," Levin admitted. "It was clear to us that the plan should be implemented immediately. Nobody in the administration denied that had been our conclusion. When that same evening they requested a delay, the reason behind it was technical, to put the maps in order, but both at that time and later they showed no fundamental opposition." 

"There is no doubt that Ambassador Friedman and Envoy Greenblatt were enthusiastic about the idea [of sovereignty] and therefore it was added to the plan," a former White House official told Israel Hayom.

As for Kushner, "he was the boss. We briefed him many times on the plan, including the idea of sovereignty. Even if he was less enthusiastic than the others, he did not object [to the idea]. For if he had opposed it, the idea would never have made it into the plan."

"Jared is a smart man, with a knack for strategic thinking. Claiming that he did not understand, or that the entire idea of sovereignty was a political bluff by Netanyahu is complete nonsense," the former official said. 

The official explained that the remarks Greenblatt made to i24NEWS were proof of this. Greenblatt said that what Israel was considering to do [applying sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria] was entirely in line with the plan." 

The official added that after the Abraham Accords, when speaking to journalists on board the first commercial flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates on Aug. 31, 2020, Kushnir himself told journalists, "I don't see any probability that Israel is going to give up that territory."

An Israeli official familiar with the matter remarked that "if Netanyahu had known for a fact that that was indeed Washington's standing in the matter, he would never have gone as far as Washington to declare sovereignty. Why would he do that to himself?"

In later interviews, Friedman explained that the inconsistency that day resulted from a "misunderstanding." 

According to one US official, the misunderstanding occurred when Trump used the word "immediately" during his announcement of the plan. For Friedman and Netanyahu that meant "at the next cabinet meeting," for Kushner, who was aware of the internal political situation in Israel, that meant "after the election." 

Another senior official in the Trump administration told Israel Hayom that if the meeting the evening before the ceremony had taken place, the mishap could have been avoided. "It was embarrassing, but the plan was 180-pages long. It would make sense if one or two details were misunderstood."

Israel Hayom interviewed seven top officials both in Washington and Jerusalem, and all of them rejected the claim that Friedman and Kushner locked horns over the matter.

"Jared waged many wars in the White House and won every one of them," one of those officials said. "If he wanted to, he could have gotten rid of the ambassador. The fact that no such thing happened proves that was not the case. On the contrary, the ambassador greatly appreciated Jared's work. He even organized a farewell ceremony for him and named the courtyard of the US embassy in Jerusalem after him."

One way or another, both Americans and Israelis tried to use this opportunity and toe the line. Early on Wednesday morning, still in Washington, Friedman was woken up by a call from the White House for a second over-the-phone briefing on the peace plan. He explained that "a mapping committee will be established, but it is a process that requires [lots of] effort, understanding and coordination."

This was a compromise everyone agreed to: to establish a US-Israeli committee that will map out areas of Judea and Samaria that Israel may apply sovereignty over as part of the peace plan. Nevertheless, Kushner carried on talking about postponement until after the Israeli election, i.e., at least two months, while Netanyahu and his advisers continued their briefs to make a decision in the upcoming days. 

Later on Wednesday, the Israeli delegation departed for Israel, making a stopover in Moscow to visit Naama Issachar, who had been arrested by Russian authorities in April 2019 in Sheremetyevo International Airport. 

Onboard the plane, despite journalists' attempts to extract some criticism from Netanyahu for the embarrassment caused by Kushner, the prime minister only summed up the incident with the word "misunderstanding."

Several weeks had gone by and the coronavirus was beginning to reign over the world. The sovereignty missile, so to speak, was deviating from its course, but control centers in Jerusalem and Washington were still trying to take control of it. The US-Israeli mapping committee convened at the end of February in Israel. In the upcoming weeks, both before and after the Israeli election, the committee met several times and made significant progress. 

However, obstacles kept coming, including from those who were supposed to have been the move's biggest proponents. Elhayani, Dagan, and other settlement leaders competed against each other as to who could out-condemn the plan. MKs Bezalel Smotrich, Ayelet Shaked, and Naftali Bennett made sure to keep a safe distance from the sovereignty plan too. 

The Left, unsurprisingly, began its campaign against "the annexation." Israeli journalists advised Arab diplomats in the country to threaten to sever relations with Israel. The international community, and especially Western Europe, joined in the threats, and momentum was lost. 

And yet, despite all that, Netanyahu and the Trump administration continued to claim that the sovereignty plan was still on the agenda. The mapping committee continued its work, with many officials from Judea and Samaria butting in to influence the final version of the plan. 

Finally, by Jul. 1, a deadline set forth by Netanyahu, the committee had prepared four possible maps. 

Israel finally established a government at the end of June, but by then Trump's domestic and international status had been undermined by the coronavirus, making Kushner even more reluctant to take political risks. 

At the same time, the US gave Blue and White leader Benny Gantz the right to veto the political process. When speaking to settlers, Gantz might have shown enthusiasm and support for the possibility of sovereignty, even encouraging them, but to the US, his message was the complete opposite. The same happened with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. 

According to Levin, the plan could still have been implemented at that stage, but the continued opposition on behalf of the Yesha Council eliminated all chances.  "The leadership needs to learn its lesson from missing out on this incredible opportunity," he said. 

Earlier in June, UAE Ambassador to Washington Yousef Al Otaiba suggested a proposal to suspend the sovereignty plan in lieu of a peace deal between Israel and the Emirates. Before the article on the proposal was published in Yedioth Ahronoth on June 12, it had already been passed on to former presidential assistant Avi Berkowitz, who gave it the green light. 

At the end of June, Berkowitz arrived in Israel and met with Ashkenazi, Gantz and Netanyahu, each one separately. The first two spoke of their opposition to the plan, while the prime minister approved the conversion of the sovereignty plan into a peace agreement with the UAE, a process that had in any case been underway after years of behind the scenes negotiations. 

That day was the end of Israel's sovereignty plans, exchanged for a peace deal with the Emirates. 

Farewell to the sovereignty plan until the next announcement on the matter or a new Republican administration decides to put it back on track. 

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In response to the article, the Yesha Council said in a statement that "for years the Israeli Right has been fighting to establish a Palestinian state, which poses a great danger to Israel. We warned Washington, the prime minister and his staff about it, even before the plan was published. After the plan was published, it stated the establishment of a Palestinian state as one of its goals, and turned out we had been right." 

Head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan was unavailable for comment. 

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The idea has been presented to senior White House officials and is under discussion.

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At this stage, it is still unclear how understandings between Israel and the US about the Trump plan would be made binding. One possibility would be to issue a memorandum of understanding that would state that would state that the Trump plan is the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Another option would be to issue a binding document in the style of the Bush Letter, which promised that settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria would never be evacuated.

The administration puts great importance on ensuring that the Trump peace plan remains active and implementable, even if a new administration is elected in November. Talks about the wording of the announcement about Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalizing relations included considerable efforts to persuade all sides to adopt the Trump plan as binding.

Israel also has a strong interest in keeping the plan on the table. Many in Israel consider the Trump plan the best option ever presented by any American administration. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition partners Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as Opposition leader Yair Lapid, have all expressed support for it.

Thus far, the support has been verbal. The US and Israeli interest in making the plan binding for the future prompted the suggestion that both sides put their positions down in writing.

This would not be the first time that the US has taken such a step. In 1975, President Gerald Ford wrote to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and told him that the US would give serious consideration to Israel remaining on the Golan Heights. President George W. Bush said in a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the US recognized demographic changes in Judea and Samaria, and that the settlement blocs would remain in place. Despite the importance of such documents, they cannot obligate future administrations.

Both Jerusalem and Washington agree that there are no binding commitments in place for the Middle East other than the joint declaration by leaders of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the US about Israeli-Emirati ties. Netanyahu advisor Aaron Klein told Israel Hayom that "there is no other commitment and no other documents. Not about sovereignty or any other issue."

In an exclusive interview, Klein rejected the claim that there was any "deal" to cancel Israel's plans to apply sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and settlements in the West Bank in exchange for peace with the Emiratis.

"The administration asked Israel twice to postpone sovereignty. The first time was right after the ceremony in January, and the second time was recently. Considering that dynamic, the prime minister decided to agree to the request, and that is what led to the [normalization] deal. But there was no deal to give up sovereignty in exchange for a peace deal. They were two separate things," he said.

Klein, 40, has been working with Netanyahu for under a year and is known as a "shadow" advisor, meaning he has little contact with other members of the government. According to some reports, he is very close with Netanyahu. Speaking to Israel Hayom, Klein said that the agreement with the Emirates "puts Israel into a new era. Netanyahu has proven the Left wrong. While other Israeli politicians supported the Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu was sometimes the only one in the world to take a stance against it and against Iran. That is one of the things that helped the deal [with the Emirates] move forward."

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Klein says that many people thought that the only way Israel would make peace with Arab countries would be if it reached an agreement with the Palestinians.

"Since 2002, people have been saying that only the Arab peace plan, which included an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders and attracted a lot of attention, is the only formula for peace. In contrast, Netanyahu argued that we could normalize with Arab countries and they would push the Palestinians to drop their goal of destroying Israel. That's what happened. Now Israel and the UAE are making peace, and that is a change to the paradigm. It will take a few weeks, maybe months, for people to understand that change in thinking in the Middle East. That is the Netanyahu Doctrine," Klein says.

Q: Will Israel apply sovereignty, or is that just talk?

"Sovereignty is currently off the table, because the US administration asked that it be postponed temporarily. To anyone who is attacking Netanyahu for not going ahead with sovereignty, I say that it would be irresponsible of him to make a move like that without American support. I remind you that Netanyahu is the one who brought up the idea of applying sovereignty. He has changed the paradigm on that, as well, because before it, there was talk of a withdrawal, and now people are talking about sovereignty and settlement."

Q: If Trump wins the election, will Israel declare sovereignty?

"We need to look at it from a broad perspective. We've been waiting since 1967 and everyone understands that the postponement is temporary. The prime minister will keep working on it, and President Trump has already proven that he is the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House. So Israel will work with the US, and it will be brought up at the right time."

Q: What countries are next?

"I hope that the Emirates are just the beginning, and we'll see more Arab countries follow suit. That is the plan that the prime minister has talked about many times. After years of the Palestinians turning down everything they are offered, he talked about his belief that the Arab world would come to the table to make peace in exchange for peace, peace based on mutual interest and not a peace of retreat."

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 "We are facing a historic opportunity to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria,'" the Prime Minister's Office tweeted after the meeting had concluded.

It is further understood that the prime minister told them that "the situation between Israel and the Americans is different than what it was five months ago." The prime minister did not elaborate but participants in the meeting said that he was likely referring to the ongoing domestic problems facing the Trump administration as a potential distraction from the peace process.

The settlers' main objections to the plan stem from its planned expansion of Palestinian control and the potential creation of a Palestinian state in some 50% of areas currently held exclusively by Israel in Judea and Samaria.

But Netanyahu and US officials have stressed over the past weeks that the Palestinians will only get a state if they no longer pose a threat to Israel and if they meet a certain set of strict criteria over a period of four years.

During the meeting on Tuesday, Netanyahu stressed that the specific areas for applying Israeli sovereignty have not been mapped yet, but settler leaders said they were worried that some communities would be left out.

The national-religious Yamina faction, which comprises the New Right and National Union parties, met Monday with settler leaders who oppose the plan and have pledged to fight it.

"US President Donald Trump has proved to be a great friend to Israel and we are grateful to him," Yamina leader Naftali Bennett said. "Applying Israeli sovereignty to these areas of the land of Israel is a historic act, but establishing a Palestinian terrorist state at the heart of our country will be an existential disaster. Once the map and plan are finalized, we will make our decision [about whether or not to vote in favor of the bid]."

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President Donald Trump said he would likely release his long-awaited Mideast peace plan a little before he meets Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main political rival Benny Gantz. The Washington get-together offers political bonuses for Trump and the prime minister, but Trump's opponents doubt the viability of any plan since there's been little-to-no input from the Palestinians, who have rejected it before its release.

"It's entirely about politics," Michael Koplow, policy director of the Israel Policy Forum, said about Tuesday's meeting. "You simply can't have a serious discussion about an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and only invite one side to come talk about it. This is more about the politics inside Israel and inside the US than it is about any real efforts to get these two sides to an agreement."

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Jared Kushner, a Trump adviser and the president's son-in-law, has been the architect for the plan for nearly three years. He's tried to persuade academics, lawmakers, former Mideast negotiators, Arab governments and special interest groups not to reject his fresh approach outright.

People familiar with the administration's thinking believe the release will have benefits even if it never gets Palestinian buy-in and ultimately fails. According to these people, the peace team believes that if Israeli officials are open to the plan and Arab nations do not outright reject it, the proposal could help improve broader Israeli-Arab relations.

For years, the prospect of improved ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors had been conditioned on a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the administration believes that a change in regional dynamics – due mainly to rising antipathy to Iran – will boost Israel's standing with not only Egypt and Jordan, which already have peace deals with the Jewish state, but also Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf nations, these people say.

There have been signs of warming between Israel and the Gulf states, including both public displays and secret contacts, and the administration sees an opening for even greater cooperation after the plan is released, according to these people.

Trump, for his part, told reporters on Air Force One this week that "It's a plan that really would work." He said he spoke to the Palestinians "briefly," without elaborating.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, says that's not true.

"There were no talks with the US administration – neither briefly or in detail," he said. "The Palestinian position is clear and consistent in its rejection of Trump's decisions regarding Jerusalem and other issues, and everything related to the rejected deal."

Abbas ended contacts with the administration after it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital two years ago. The Palestinians' anger mounted as Trump repeatedly broke with the international consensus around solving the conflict and took actions seen as biased toward Israel's right-wing government.

The White House has cut off nearly all US aid to the Palestinians and closed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington. In November, the Trump administration said it no longer views Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as inconsistent with international law, reversing four decades of American policy. The Palestinians view the settlements as illegal and a major obstacle to peace.

Tuesday's meeting offers benefits to both leaders while they are under fire at home.

The meeting allows Trump to address a high-profile foreign policy issue during his impeachment trial, while Democrats are arguing for his ouster. Moreover, if the plan is pro-Israel as expected, Trump hopes it will be popular with his large base of evangelicals and maybe sway a few anti-Trump Jewish voters his way.

According to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of the American electorate, 79% of white evangelical voters in the 2018 midterms approved of the job that Trump is doing as president, while 74% of Jewish voters disapproved.

Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of the 8 million-member Christians United for Israel, said in a statement that Trump "has shown himself to be the most pro-Israel president in US history, and I fully expect his peace proposal will be in line with that tradition."

For Netanyahu, the meeting allows him to shift press coverage Tuesday when the Knesset convenes a committee that is expected to reject his request for legal immunity from charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes.

"The 'Trump peace plan' is a blatant attempt to hijack Israel's March 2 election in Netanyahu's favor," tweeted Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for Israel's far-left Haaretz newspaper and the author of a biography of Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival ahead of the election. The decision to bring Gantz along is likely aimed at forestalling any criticism that the US administration is meddling in the election. But in Israel, the meeting and the unveiling of the plan will be widely seen as a gift to the prime minister. The prime minister has noted that it was his idea to invite Gantz, putting his rival in a position where he could not say no to a meeting that could make him look like a bystander at the White House event.

In Congress, Trump's announced release of his Mideast plan has caused hardly a ripple against the backdrop of the impeachment drama.

Asked on Friday what he thought about the expected rollout, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said: "I'm on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and we've not heard anything about it."

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, the committee chairman, defended the administration's work on a plan.

"I think the people who are working on this are working on this in good faith," Risch said in the halls of Congress, shortly before Trump's impeachment trial resumed. "I think the people who are trying to do it really are acting in good faith, hoping they can come up with a solution."

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The officials didn't expand on the specific steps the administration would currently be taking if there was a government in Israel, but the statements were made in the context of the Middle East peace deal the White House has formulated.

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"Israel could have been in a better situation. We could have done much more," said one of the officials.

The officials emphasized that US President Donald Trump, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and outgoing special Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt care about Israel, have already done a great deal for the Jewish state since Trump entered the office, and would like to continue doing so. "With that," the officials said, considering the US presidential campaign next year, "we don't know if they will remain in their positions one year or five." The officials further intimated that Israeli leaders need to take into account the unique opportunity provided by the Trump presidency, but refrained from saying so explicitly.

The American officials were careful to avoid implying that the US was intervening in Israeli politics. They also said," Everything is under control, and there won't be a change to the peace plan as a result of the developments."

It appears, meanwhile, that the White House was leaning toward postponing the release of its peace plan until the political picture in Israel becomes clearer.

In discussions the administration has held on the subject, the general view was that it would be pointless to reveal the plan while the Palestinians were likely to reject it outright, and there was no government in Israel with the authority to address it.

The US Embassy in Israel declined Israel Hayom's request for a response.

Meanwhile, Greenblatt and Friedman on Monday held their first meeting with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. The sides said they "discussed various issues, among them the importance of US-Israeli relations, the security challenges in the region and the efforts to promote the peace process."

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The reason for the surprise visit is so Greenblatt and Netanyahu can discuss an appropriate time for US President Donald Trump to unveil his peace plan, given the uncertain political picture in Israel following this week's election.

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Greenblatt, one of the architects of the "deal of the century," announced some two weeks ago that he intended to resign. He added that if circumstances demanded it, he would help roll out the plan.

Officially, Greenblatt is in Israel to attend of the wedding of the daughter of US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. However, sources believe that Greenblatt and Netanyahu plan to discuss the possibility of introducing the Trump administration's plan sometime in the next few days.

Heading up to the election, Netanyahu said that Trump and his staff might not wait until a new Israeli government was in place before announcing the "deal of the century," and that the plan would be made public right after the Knesset election. Thus far, the Trump administration has not confirmed that report.

As of Thursday evening, Greenblatt had no meetings scheduled for his Israel visit, other than the planned one with Netanyahu.

The Blue and White party said in response to reports that Greenblatt and Netanyahu would be meeting on Friday that "Gantz would be happy to meet with any representative of the American administration, if he were asked to."

Political officials think that if the Trump peace plan is announced within the next few days, it could help Netanyahu in his fight to be the one who assembles the next government, since he is seen as having close ties with Trump and as someone who can refuse any demands of the plan that Israel sees as problematic.

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"Folks, it's time to reveal: This is the 'Islands Plan' of the 'deal of the century,' which will be imposed on us right after the elections," Bennett wrote on Facebook. "In black, Palestine. In white, isolated Israeli 'islands' in an ocean of Palestine, surrounded 360 degrees by Hamas, Tanzim, PLO."

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Bennett called the plan "hell for every resident of Ariel, Ofra and Kiryat Arba" and "an end to the settlement [enterprise]."

According to the image, Israeli towns and cities would be connected by narrow passageways to Israel. Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley would be part of Israel, according to the map.

During his announcement last week that Israel would extend its sovereignty to the Jordan Valley if he was re-elected this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had deliberately referred only to sovereignty in the "settlements" but not in Area C, said Bennett. The reason for this, he said, was that Netanyahu knows the Trump plan gives Israel the towns while providing the PA with all the land around them.

"[Netanyahu] promised no more evacuation of any settlements," said Bennett. "All this is technically true, but in practice, the plan consigns the land of Israel to oblivion. Because no Israeli will agree to live in an enclave surrounded by an enemy. This is just like Netzarim in Gush Katif [in Gaza] – a narrow road leading to a settlement surrounded by a wall. That's the plan."

Meanwhile, Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked told Channel 12's "Meet the Press" program on Saturday night that Netanyahu had also failed to "talk about how [the United States is] going to divide Jerusalem. The plan includes giving east Jerusalem neighborhoods to the Palestinians."

Shaked also asserted that some Jewish communities would fall under PA sovereignty according to the US peace plan, but did not provide details regarding the source of the information.

Bennett on Sunday accused Netanyahu of keeping Israelis in the dark on the details of the plan.

"Netanyahu only presented the cherry on top of the 'deal of the century,'" said Bennett, "sovereignty in the Jordan Valley. Did you ask yourselves, what did he pay for it? Why would Trump wait with publicizing the plan? … The answer is the 'islands plan.' It's coming. Wake up!"

Bennett also did not reveal the source of his information.

Likud spokesman Jonatan Urich took to Twitter to reject Bennett's claims, saying the map "isn't correct" and calling it "fake news," accusing Bennett of being "eager to undermine our sensitive relationship with the Trump administration for the sake of a tweet."

A senior US official also denied the accuracy of Bennett's map on Sunday, according to The Jerusalem Post.

"The map posted by Naftali Bennett today, and his claim that this represents the vision for peace of the Trump administration, [are] highly inaccurate," said the official, according to The Post.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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"This evening we learned that President Trump's 'deal of the century' would be published and presented to the world after the election," he told a campaign rally following an announcement by White House envoy Jason Greenblatt.

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"I can reasonably estimate that it will happen very soon after the election," the prime minister said.

Greenblatt said on Twitter: "We have decided that we will not be releasing the peace vision prior to the Israeli election."

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has been working behind the scenes on the plan to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although Palestinians, who say the Trump administration is too pro-Israel, say the plan is dead in the water.

A goal to raise tens of billions of dollars to fund the plan was announced earlier this year, but the political details have remained under wraps, with Kushner refusing to say even whether it would offer Palestinians a state of their own.

Trump's Middle East team, including Kushner, had wanted to roll out the plan during the summer but Netanyahu's failure to put together a governing coalition after the April elections prompted a delay.

Netanyahu now faces a fresh vote on Sept. 17 and, if successful, will try again to form a coalition.

Announcing a peace plan before Sept. 17 could have complicated a tight race in which Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and its strongest rival – Blue and White, led by former IDF chief Benny Gantz – are running neck and neck in the polls.

Netanyahu has praised Trump's policy moves such as the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and his recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

But any perceived concessions toward the Palestinians in the peace plan in the run-up to a ballot only three weeks away could potentially harm Netanyahu's chances of remaining in office.

Netanyahu has campaigned for votes partly by highlighting his close relationship with Trump, whom he has featured on election billboards.

"Who do you want to negotiate with President Trump on the 'deal of the century?'" Netanyahu asked the crowd at Wednesday's rally. "Me, at the head of a right-wing and Likud government, or Gantz and [Blue and White co-leader Yair] Lapid?" he asked.

"That's the question in this election because we will be faced, full force, with the [peace] issue in a few weeks' time," he said.

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Just last week, the president told reporters that the plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict likely won't be unveiled until after the Sept. 17 vote, but bits and pieces could be revealed beforehand.

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But speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in France on Monday, Trump said that both Israelis and Palestinians were interested in reaching a peace deal and this could prompt him to move faster.

"We're going to know who the [Israeli] prime minister is going to be fairly soon," he said. "[A deal] won't be before the election, I don't think… But I think you may see what the deal is before the election. And I think the deal will happen… Everybody says, that's the deal that can't be made… Israel and the Palestinians: there's tremendous hatred for many, many decades, and everybody says that is a deal that can't be made. So we'll see if we can make it."

"I think the Palestinians will be happy to get US funding again and make a deal," Trump added, referring to his administration's decision to slash funding for Palestinian agencies in an apparent effort to pressure the government into negotiating.

President @realDonaldTrump: I think Israel and the Palestinians would like to make a deal — after so many years and decades, I think they are tired of fighting.

https://t.co/xMwAOcBbDK pic.twitter.com/XbbT9mpOmw

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) August 26, 2019

While the economic component of the plan was laid out at a Bahrain conference in June, the political aspect was put on hold until after the summer due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inability to form a governing coalition, thus leading to an additional election on September 17.

Donald Trump's son-in-law and Senior Adviser to the President Jared Kushner and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt have spearheaded the administration's peace initiative and have let little slip about what the plan entails.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has been steadfast in their vows to reject any negotiation presented by the US after Trump's unilateral decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, naming it as Israel's undivided capital.

In turn, the Palestinians say they no longer view Washington as an unbiased peace broker and boycotted the Bahrain "Peace to Prosperity" summit.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS. 

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A US delegation led by Kushner and special Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt is touring the region to lobby support for the highly secretive US plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, administration officials said.

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Kushner arrived in Israel after stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, according to a White House official.

In Amman, Kushner met with King Abdullah and discussed "efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," according to a statement released by the Jordanian royal court on Wednesday.

Abdullah stressed "the need to achieve a just and lasting peace to ensure the establishment of an independent Palestinian state ... with east Jerusalem as its capital, living in peace and security alongside Israel," the court said.

He also said any deal would need to be based on the internationally backed two-state solution and in accordance with the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative which calls for Israel to withdraw from all land occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War in exchange for normalization between Arab states and Israel.

Also Wednesday, meanwhile, the White House denied Israeli media reports that the Trump administration was planning to unveil its Mideast peace proposal during a conference with Arab leaders at Camp David.

"No summit has currently been planned," White House officials told i24NEWS, denying the reports.

"The Middle East team will report back to [Trump], [Vice President Mike Pence], the Secretary of State [Mike Pompeo], and NSA [National Security Adviser John Bolton] upon returning to discuss the many potential next steps to expand upon the success of the Bahrain workshop," the official added, referring to the administration's summit unveiling the economic aspects of the controversial plan rejected by Palestinians.

According to the now-discredit report, if the conference were to take place, Trump will likely voice support for a Palestinian political entity to be established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip but not necessarily a state, and refer to an Arab presence in east Jerusalem, but not about it serving as a future Palestinian capital.

Palestinians are expected to reject the White House's proposal outright and have been lobbying Arab leaders to resist the White House's efforts in brokering a peace agreement.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

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