The White House is pressing Israel to hold off on moving forward with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to apply Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria until Netanyahu wins the backing of senior coalition partner Benny Gantz, Kan reported Sunday evening.
According to the report, the US is urging the Likud to reach an agreement with Blue and White on the sovereignty plan, so as to maintain the Israeli government’s stability.
In addition, the report claims that the White House is trying to extract Israeli concessions to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria, in the hopes of using the concessions to bring the Palestinian Authority to the negotiating table.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was widely expected to bring his sovereignty plan to the government on July 1st, the first day he was allowed to do so under the coalition deal with Gantz.
Yet nearly two weeks since then, Netanyahu has neither formally unveiled the plan nor made any announcement on it.
Senior Israeli officials, including Likud Minister Ze’ev Elkin, have said the government is working closely with the US to reach an agreement on the sovereignty plan which will ensure US recognition.
