New Foreign Minister Ashkenazi prioritizes Jordan amid tensions

Trump’s plan grants Israel “a historic opportunity to shape Israel’s future and its borders for the coming decades,” Ashkenazi said.

By LAHAV HARKOV, ANNA AHRONHEIM
Israel's new Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (photo credit: FOREIGN MINISTRY)
Israel's new Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi
(photo credit: FOREIGN MINISTRY)
Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi expressed support for US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, emphasizing that they will strive for peace at the welcome ceremonies in their new ministries on Monday.
The Blue and White leaders’ remarks come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu focuses on the settlement annexation aspect of the Trump plan, saying twice on Sunday that he would work to apply Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank soon. The coalition agreement between Likud and Blue and White states that Netanyahu can bring annexation to a vote as early as July 1.
Gantz, who is also alternate prime minister, said that he would work to promote the Trump plan and everything it contains during his term.
“As someone who is active in the political sphere, I am committed to doing everything possible to advance political arrangements and strive for peace,” he said during the ceremony at the IDF’s Kirya Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv, where he took over from Naftali Bennett.
“Peace has been and remains an important part of the Zionist spirit. We will advance the US government and President Donald Trump’s peace plan,” Gantz continued.
Similarly, Ashkenazi highlighted the need to maintain Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan in his first remarks in his new position, expressing what has long been the concern in Blue and White over annexation plans.
“I see a great importance in strengthening the ties with the countries with which we have peace, Egypt and Jordan,” Ashkenazi stated at a Foreign Ministry ceremony welcoming him to his new post. “They are the most important allies in dealing with regional challenges.”
Peace is a strategic asset for Israel that must be maintained, like military strength, the former IDF chief of staff said, several days after Jordanian King Abdullah II said his country’s peace treaty with Israel could end.
Abdullah said in an interview with Der Spiegel published on Friday that “if Israel really annexes the West Bank in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.”
Asked if he would suspend the peace treaty with Israel, he responded: “I don’t want to make threats and create a loggerheads atmosphere, but we are considering all options.”
Ashkenazi said that Trump’s peace plan, which includes Israeli sovereignty over about 30% of the West Bank, “will be promoted responsibly and in coordination with the US, while maintaining the peace treaties and strategic interests of the State of Israel.”
The new foreign minister praised the peace plan as “a significant milestone.
“We stand before significant regional opportunities, foremost of which is President Trump’s peace initiative,” Ashkenazi said.
Trump’s plan grants Israel “a historic opportunity to shape Israel’s future and its borders for the coming decades,” he added.
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs president Dore Gold, a former envoy to Jordan in Netanyahu’s first term as prime minister, said the Jordanian king’s comments need to be understood in the context of Israel and Jordan as countries that are “interdependent.”
“That the Jordanians have all these reservations about the Trump plan is nothing new, but they need to have a strong Israel as a western neighbor,” Gold said. “I see a lot of messages being put out there that are not particularly pleasant, but at the end of the day, I see Jordan needing to cooperate with Israel as much as Israel needs to cooperate with Jordan.”
As such, Jordan is less likely to end the peace treaty with Israel, because of its security considerations.
“Jordan faces a difficult Middle East in the years ahead. Iran has taken over large segments of Iraq, which brings the Iranian threat to the Jordanian border, and if you look at Syria, it’s the same thing… [Jordan’s large Palestinian population] is a very real problem, too, but I think these other considerations will affect their calculations in the future,” Gold said.
Gold suggested that Israel and Jordan “resume a quiet dialogue and communicate,” and said that this is the most important thing they can do to maintain the peace treaty.
However, Ksenia Svetlova, a former MK and currently a senior policy fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the IDC Herzliya, said Abdullah’s threats should be taken seriously.
“The king’s remarks were very sharp compared to his usual moderation,” Svetlova said. “He’s not the kind of person who makes threats, and it’s not that kind of relationship between the countries.”
Jordan’s warnings make the ramifications of annexation “clear from a security standpoint,” she added.
Svetlova argued that “no Arab country has given a positive response to the annexation idea… Some support parts of the [Trump plan], which some people have confused and think it means a green light for annexation.”
By emphasizing peace with Jordan and Egypt, “Ashkenazi is saying, let’s slow down, no one is forcing us to hurry into annexation,” Svetlova posited. “He wants to satisfy the Americans and says he’s for the [plan], but that is not equal to supporting annexation.”
In his remarks to the Foreign Ministry, Ashkenazi also addressed the role of diplomacy in countering Iranian nuclear ambitions.
“The diplomatic battle to stop the Iranian threat was and still is our main mission,” he said. “We must continue acting with all the tools we have in the diplomatic field, along with actions in the defense field.”
Ashkenazi said he sees the Foreign Ministry as an “inseparable part of the State of Israel’s national security, and its people as fighters without uniforms.”
Gantz concluded his speech by saying that while the strength of Israeli society is measured not only by “the strength of the homefront and the strength of the entire society,” he is concerned over the growing mistrust in government institutions and feelings that some are “trying to ignite, God forbid,” a civil war.
“These are the days of undermining trust in government institutions. One of the reasons for forming the current government as far as I am concerned is the felling of those trying to ignite a civil war... I have won battles, I have fought in wars and this is one war that I must prevent,” he said.


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