Friedman to 'Post': To annex, Netanyahu must tell Abbas he’ll negotiate state

An interview with Friedman in honor of the second anniversary of the US moving its embassy to Jerusalem will be featured in Friday’s Jerusalem Post.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) greets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Monroe Room of the State Department in Washington September 2, 2010. (photo credit: REUTERS/JASON REED)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) greets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Monroe Room of the State Department in Washington September 2, 2010.
(photo credit: REUTERS/JASON REED)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must negotiate with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas over the establishment of a Palestinian State in 70% of the West Bank for the US to support Israel annexing the other 30%, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told The Jerusalem Post.
An interview with Friedman in honor of the second anniversary of the US moving its embassy to Jerusalem will be featured in Friday’s Post.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to visit Israel for one day next week, a source confirmed. It would be the first diplomatic visit since Israel closed its borders because of the coronavirus outbreak.
He is expected to discuss annexation with Netanyahu, though that is not the purpose of the visit, an American source said.
Pompeo would not confirm the trip at his press briefing on Wednesday, but he said there will be an announcement in the coming days.
Regarding Israel, Pompeo said Iran needs to leave Syria, where it is endangering the Golan Heights.
The first condition for the US to back Israel applying sovereignty to all settlements, biblical sites and the Jordan Valley is the completion of a map by the joint US-Israeli committee, which began working in February, Friedman said. The committee met in recent weeks, he said. It is on track to finish the mapping, pending “judgment calls in Israel’s court,” by July 1, the date Netanyahu set for annexation in his coalition agreement with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.
The second condition, about which there had been some confusion, is that Netanyahu show he is committed to US President Donald Trump’s peace plan and all it entails, including freezing settlement activity outside the 30% of Judea and Samaria delineated by the mapping committee, and express a willingness to negotiate with the Palestinians to form a state in the rest of the West Bank.
“Netanyahu needs to communicate that to Abu Mazen,” Friedman told the Post on Tuesday, referring to the PA president. “The expectation is that the prime minister will agree to negotiate, and if the Palestinians show up, he will negotiate in good faith based on this plan.”
“I don’t see this as anything more than a commitment by the prime minister,” he said, adding: “As a new government is formed, it would be appropriate for [support for the Trump plan] to be re-upped by the leader and then to proceed in good faith on that basis.”
US support for settlement annexation is not contingent on the Palestinian response to Netanyahu’s willingness to hold talks, Friedman said.
“If the Palestinians refuse to show up, I’m not sure what else the prime minister can do,” he said. “But I think there ought to be an unequivocal communication to the Palestinians that they are invited to negotiate in good faith on the president’s vision.”
Friedman said he thinks Israel’s “commitment will endure through the rotation.” He expressed hope that the Palestinians would respond to an invitation for peace talks.
No vote in the cabinet or Knesset on allowing for a Palestinian state would be necessary unless something came of the negotiations.
“I’m not going to prejudge what good faith means,” Friedman said.
He expressed confidence that Israel could annex the parts of the West Bank mentioned in Trump’s plan with US approval by July 1.
But Israel is the one who has to make it happen, he said.
“We will be ready to address this issue if Israel is ready,” Friedman said. “Ultimately, as Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo said, it’s Israel’s decision. They have to decide what they want to do.”
The Trump administration’s “vision for peace” would allow Israel to annex 30% of the West Bank, including all settlements – about half of Area C, which Friedman emphasized includes “areas essential to Israel’s biblical DNA” – and the entire Jordan Valley.
The plan would also would provide the Palestinians with a massive economic-aid package and support their establishing a state if they meet certain conditions, including demilitarization, instituting civil rights, stopping incitement and ending their payment scheme for terrorists.
The coalition agreement between Likud and Blue and White states that annexation can be brought to a vote in the cabinet or Knesset on July 1 at the earliest, “after discussion between the prime minister and alternate prime minister” and American agreement.
The agreement will be implemented, “while aiming to protect Israel’s security and strategic interests, including the need to preserve regional stability, peace agreements and working toward future peace agreements.”
The agreement also says Gantz and Netanyahu will “promote peace agreements with all of our neighbors and promote regional cooperation in a variety of economic areas and in the coronavirus crisis.”


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