The White House Special Envoy for the Middle East, Jared Kushner, is expected to travel to Israel and Egypt next week, with the main item on his agenda being the implementation of the Road Map and Phase II of the Trump Plan, with the ultimate goal of ending the war in Gaza.
According to the American website Axios, the meetings that Kushner will hold in Israel—where he will most likely be accompanied by the Secretary-General of the Peace Council, Nikolay Mladenov, will aim to determine whether the U.S. and Israel are able to coordinate their response to the situation in the Palestinian enclave.
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Kushner’s meetings in Israel are taking place following Benjamin Netanyahu’s official announcement last Sunday (August 9) that Israel rejects the Road Map promoted by the Peace Council and its Secretary-General Mladenov. According to Axios, the U.S. side appears to understand the motives that prompted Netanyahu to take this step, which is attributed to the fact that Israel is in the midst of an election campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections on October 27.
“No more fait accomplis before the Road Map is implemented”
Based on a combination of information from both the U.S. and Israel, ALPHA Cyprus’s Middle East analyst, Gabriel Charitos, expressed the view that the U.S. side will ask the Israelis to scale back their military operations in Gaza in order to avoid further fait accomplis byOctober, which would likely make the practical implementation of the Road Map and Phase II of the Trump Plan for Gaza’s “day after” even more difficult.
Israeli Defense Ministry Decision Brings the West Bank Closer to Annexation
Meanwhile, the situation in the West Bank remains critical. Although IDF forces managed to destroy the makeshift structures that Jewish settlers had erected in the Palestinian villages of Kushra and Jialoud on the outskirts of Nablus in thenorthern part of the West Bank, the settlers managed to re-erect them overnight.
However, the situation became even more complicated when, this morning, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to transfer its authority to the Israeli police, in cases where it is necessary to restore public order within the West Bank, when Israeli citizens residing in the West Bank are involved. Although this ministerial directive gives the impression of being purely bureaucratic and “neutral,” in reality, it empowers the Israeli police to exercise authority in the West Bank, just as they do within internationally recognized Israeli territory.
Reactions from the Palestinian Authority
The Vice President of the Palestinian Authority, Hussein Al-Sheh, in a statement, condemning the decision and accusing the Israeli Minister of Defense of seeking, through this move, the Netanyahu government aims to implement yet another measure that will bring the West Bank closer to full annexation by Israel.
Watch Gabriel Haritou’s segment on tonight’s main news broadcast on ALPHA Cyprus with Nikos Symeou:
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