Wait a minute - Part 2

Maybe I hadn't heard about Bibi's failure to form a government because it just happened. He had until today to get it done.

Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt arrived Wednesday evening in Israel.

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They arrived in the midst of a political crisis that threatens to throw Israel into another election as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struggles to form a governing coalition by the Wednesday night deadline.

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Kushner has arrived Tuesday in Morocco to seek King Mohammed VI's backing for economic elements of the Trump administration's peace plan. Morocco, alongside Jordan, has yet to offer any public position on either the peace plan or the Bahrain meeting.

The Palestinians hope Arab countries will support their position and reject the plan, which they believe will be one-sided and skewed in favor of Israel. The administration, meanwhile, hopes to convince as many Arab nations as possible to at least consider the plan as a basis for negotiations.

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[Jordan] has so far not announced whether or not it will participate in the economic conference on June 25-26, which will focus on the future of the Palestinian economy. The Trump administration will release the economic chapter of the peace plan before the conference, but not the political part, which deals with more sensitive aspects of the conflict.

  Haaretz

I still don't know just what "the plan" is.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their regional rival Qatar have already told the Trump administration they will attend. Meanwhile, a senior PA official stated Monday that both China and Russia will be boycotting the event.

The Russian foreign ministry took a dim view of the conference in a statement on Tuesday, saying the United States was attempting to "impose an 'alternative vision' of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement."

Benjamin Netanyahu’s future as prime minister of Israel will be put to test for the second time in six months after failing to meet the May 29 deadline to present a majority government. Seventy-four members of the Knesset voted in favor of a bill to disband itself minutes after midnight Wednesday.

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Benny Gantz, the de-facto opposition leader, blasted Netanyahu for dragging the country into another round of elections instead of admitting defeat and handing over the mandate to form a government to another member of Knesset. The reason, Gantz argued, is Netanyahu’s attempt to build himself a legal fortress to avoid indictment.

“In seventy years of continuous Israeli parliamentary democracy we have not had a situation such as this,” Dr. Einat Wilf, a former member of Knesset, explains Jewish Insider. “In the Israeli system, the prime minister is not the person who has the most votes, but the person who has the most friends — and this time around, Netanyahu did not have enough parties which were willing to come together and overcome their differences to forge a coalition supporting his prime ministership.”

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The Trump administration is expected to roll out the first phase of the Mideast peace plan in Bahrain next month. The rollout was initially delayed until June due to the Knesset elections, coalition talks, and out of respect for Ramadan. The political situation could now force the administration to halt its planning of the economic workshop in Bahrain or put off the rollout of the political part of the plan until a new government is in place — sometime in late October or early November.

“The Trump peace plan is on ice — maybe permanently,” Ambassador Daniel Shapiro tells Jewish Insider. “No one in the region is calling for it. Netanyahu didn’t want it before the April elections, and won’t want it before September’s. You can’t present it during coalition negotiations, so now you’re in November. Then Trump’s reelection politics become a factor. For now, we may see the Bahrain economic workshop take place, but it will be a ghost meeting — pretend pledges in support of a phantom plan that could only come into focus much later, if and when the political program can be resurrected.”

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Israel Policy Forum’s Susie Gelman: “I think it’s obvious that this means another delay for the Trump peace plan. I don’t see how they proceed. It does raise the question of whether or not they move ahead with the economic workshop in Bahrain on June 25th. But all of their plan seems to hinge on betting on a horse that may not even leave the gate now.”

  Jewish Insider

"Deal of the century."

“The Bahrain investors conference will go ahead as planned as proof of life. They can’t afford to cancel it. But if they’re smart, they’ll use the election to shelve part two, reassess after September 17. But are they smart? If the plan has enough goodies and honey in it maybe they will think it will help Bibi. But if there’s vinegar, watch out.”

Bibi and Donald are in similar situations.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.