WarSclerotic

Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley defended the imminent unveiling  of the US peace plan and rejected the idea that the Trump administration was trying to help out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his campaign for the upcoming elections.

In an interview broadcast Sunday by Channel 12, Haley, who is visiting Israel, spoke about the long-awaited peace plan and her time in the UN, and hinted she could run for president in 2024.

US President Donald Trump is about to roll out the plan and meet with Netanyahu and his chief rival Blue and White party leader MK Benny Gantz in Washington in the next few days.

The timing of the release of the plan, which according to media reports is unprecedented in its concessions toward Israel, has led many politicians and commentators to say it appears to be an effort by the US leader to boost Netanyahu’s prospects ahead of the March 2 election.

Trump is in the middle of an impeachment trial.

She said the plan was worked on for a long time, with great care, and that there would always be some people would say “it was rolled out too soon or too late.”

“Israel is now going on its third election, it’s not like we could sit there and wait for those [repeated] elections to stop,” she said, referring to the political deadlock that has failed to produce a government in two previous votes.

Haley said she hoped the stalemate in Israel was resolved because she doesn’t want “the region to see Israel as vulnerable.”

Nikki Haley speaks at a UN Security Council Meeting on the Middle East on November 19, 2018 (Courtesy)

Of the peace plan, Haley said she had seen an earlier version and “it is well thought out.”

“It does not compromise national security for Israel, and it improves the quality of life for Palestinians,” she said. “I hope both sides will give it the opportunity it needs.”

Haley said the US had no intention of imposing the plan on either side, but was offering it as a way forward.

Haley, who stepped down in December 2018, won plaudits in Israel and among the pro-Israel community in the US while in office for her staunch backing of the Jewish state at the United Nations.

She admitted to Channel 12 she “didn’t know a lot about Israel” when she came to the UN but said that her goal was, “How do we change the culture?”

“What we can say is the session on Middle East is no longer an Israel-bashing session,” she said. “It now talks about the region.”

Haley, who has Indian parents, explained that her special connection to Israel comes from the similarities between Jewish and Indian culture.

“The more I learned, the more I loved [Israel], and I think it is because I feel kinship with the Jewish people,” she said. “They think very much like the Indian community; the education and family, the way of life is very similar.”

“I appreciate the desire to just want to be treated fairly,” she continued.

Former US ambassador to UN Nikki Haley prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on June 26, 2019. (Oren Ben Hakon/Israel Hayom)

Her decision to leave her position at the UN was motivated by her desire to spend more time with her family, she said.

Haley speculated that she survived the Trump administration, which has seen officials at all levels abruptly leave or be dismissed, by always telling Trump what she really thought.

“I told the president the truth, regardless of the situation,” Haley said, adding that the president “always listened.”

Haley was in Israel to partner with the Israel Center on Addiction, a cause she strongly supports.

Quizzed on her view of Trump’s ongoing impeachment trial, she made it clear she believes the president is innocent. Trump is suspected of withholding military aide from Ukraine to pressure that country into investigating a Democrat presidential candidate, and then obstructing a congressional investigation into his actions.

Asked if she thought that Trump had done anything wrong, Haley did not hesitate in responding “no.”

Haley emphatically denied rumors that she was planning on replacing Mike Pence as Trump’s choice for vice president in the 2020 elections, but was cautiously open to the idea of running for president herself in 2024.

“It’s just too soon,” she said. “It’s easy for people to talk about it. It’s hard to do, it’s hard to run for president of the United States.”

“If it’s meant to be, it will,” she said.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, at Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem on June 7, 2017. (Matty Stern/US Embassy Tel Aviv)

Among the major American initiatives and moves at the UN during her tenure were the decision to pull out of the Human Rights Council, ending funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and defending US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Both Netanyahu and Gantz are scheduled to meet with Trump, separately and privately, in the White House on Monday. Netanyahu and Trump are set for a higher-profile meeting Tuesday.

The plan, which Trump said he would release before his second meeting with Netanyahu on Tuesday, is expected to strongly favor Israel, and is unlikely to garner any international support if it is seen as undermining the prospect of a two-state solution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to “make history” as he headed to Washington for two meetings with US President Donald Trump during which the White House is expected to unveil its much-anticipated plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

“Over the last three years, I spoke countless times with President Trump — a huge friend of Israel — and his team about these vital security needs, about our security, about our justice,” Netanyahu declared. “I will meet with President Trump tomorrow, and on Tuesday, together with him, we will make history.”

As he boarded his Boeing 777 en route to to the American capital, Netanyahu contrasted his antagonistic stance toward the last US president, Barack Obama, with his strong alliance with the current inhabitant of the Oval Office.

“Five years ago, I went to Washington, to Congress, because I was forced to oppose a plan proposed by the American president, because I believed that this plan endangered Israel’s most vital security needs and indeed its very existence,” he said referring to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Obama championed.

US President Barack Obama, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, November 9, 2015. (AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB)

At the time, Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of US Congress to advocate against the deal.

“Today, I am going to Washington to stand next to an American president who is proposing a deal that, I believe, advances Israel’s most vital security,” Netanyahu said, referring to Trump’s so-called Deal of the Century.

The deal, which is expected to be released on Tuesday, has been deemed the most pro-Israel outline for Middle East peace ever presented by a US administration.

Also on Sunday, his main political rival, Blue and White party chief Benny Gantz, took off for Washington for a separate meeting with the US president.

Both Netanyahu and Gantz are scheduled to meet with Trump, separately and privately, in the White House on Monday. Netanyahu and Trump are set for a higher-profile meeting Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump, left, welcomes visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in Washington, March 25, 2019. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Gantz on Saturday surprisingly announced that Trump had invited him to meet “in person, as the leader of the largest party in Israel.” Previously, it had appeared that Israel’s de facto opposition leader was invited to join Netanyahu’s meeting Trump.

The fact that the novice politician managed to get a separate meeting is seen as unprecedented and as major diplomatic accomplishment.

Asked at Ben Gurion Airport whether he will endorse the plan or ask Trump to push off its release until after elections, Gantz demurred.

“I’ll hear from him about the plan and exchange views, but what is done behind closed doors will stay behind closed doors,” he told the Kan public broadcaster.

The meeting, set to be Gantz’s first with the US president, will be closed to the press, Blue and White said on Saturday.

The plan, which Trump said he would release before his meeting Tuesday, is expected to strongly favor Israel, and is unlikely to garner any international support if it is seen as undermining the prospect of a two-state solution.

According to Channel 12, the peace plan is the most generous US proposal ever for Israel, likely providing for Israeli sovereignty over all West Bank settlements and sovereignty throughout Jerusalem. The TV report, which was unsourced, said the plan also offers potential eventual recognition of Palestinian statehood, provided the Palestinians demilitarize Gaza and accept Israel as a Jewish state — conditions the Palestinians would presumably reject.

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz holds a press conference in Ramat Gan on January 25, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

At the weekly cabinet meeting earlier on Sunday, the prime minister said that Israel is in the middle of “very dramatic diplomatic events,” stressing that “the peak is yet before us.”

“I think that such an opportunity occurs once in history and we cannot miss it. For three years, I have spoken with President Trump and his staff about our security and national needs — many dozens of conversations, hundreds of hours. In all these talks, I have found an attentive ear in the White House to the State of Israel’s vital needs.”

“I am leaving for Washington with a sense of great mission, great responsibility and great opportunity, and I am full of hope that we will be able to make history.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

US President Donald Trump will reportedly tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chief Benny Gantz that they have until the Knesset elections to work on the administration’s long-awaited peace plan, potentially throwing the high stakes diplomatic gambit into Israel’s domestic political stew.

According to a report by the Reuters news agency, citing a US official, Trump will not announce details of the plan until after he receives buy-in from both Netanyahu and Gantz so that it does not lose any momentum.

According to the unnamed official, Trump will tell the two, “You have six weeks to get this [plan] going, if you want it.”

It is unclear what either side could accomplish in even jump-starting talks based on the deal with neither having the confidence of the nation until the March 2 election. However, a number of politicians have expressed fears that releasing the plan before the vote will turn it into a political football as electoral campaigns ramp up.

The last year has seen Netanyahu and Gantz facing off in successive elections for almost a year, with neither side able to form a majority government.

Both Netanyahu and Gantz are scheduled to meet with Trump, separately and privately, in the White House on Monday.

Netanyahu will meet with Trump at 11 a.m. (6 p.m. in Israel) for two meetings, including one without aides, and then Gantz will arrive at the White House at 12:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m.) for a 45-minute discussion.

Netanyahu and Trump are set for a higher-profile meeting Tuesday, which will include a joint statement.

Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz (C) speaks to reporters during a visit to the Jordan Valley on January 21, 2020. (Elad Malka/Blue and White)

The US source, who is familiar with the administration’s deliberations on the matter, told Reuters that by meeting with both Gantz and Netanyahu, it was hoped that Trump’s announcement of the proposal would not be seen as a political move.

“The rationale…is it depoliticizes this to the point that, no matter what happens on March 2, the two leaders of the two largest parties can potentially be supportive,” the source said.

The timing of the announcement has been criticized in Israel as an attempt to rescue Netanyahu from immunity proceedings. Many politicians and commentators also say it appears to be an effort by the US leader to boost Netanyahu’s prospects ahead of the March 2 election.

At the same time, Trump himself is in the middle of an impeachment trial.

On Sunday, former US envoy Nikki Haley said the administration had grown tired of waiting for Israel to move beyond its political deadlock.

Trump is expected to deliver remarks after his Tuesday meeting with Netanyahu, where he may reveal some details of the plan.

The plan, which Trump earlier said he would release before the Tuesday meeting, is expected to strongly favor Israel, and is unlikely to garner any international support if it is seen as undermining the prospect of a two-state solution.

Trump said his administration has talked briefly to the Palestinians, who reject the administration’s peace plan altogether. The Palestinian leadership has long called for the establishment of a Palestinian state along 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and a “just” solution to the refugee issue.

A Palestinian man rides a donkey on a main road in the Jordan Valley, near Tubus, in the West Bank, September 11, 2019. (Ariel Schalit/AP)

According to various Hebrew-language media reports, the peace plan is the most generous US proposal ever for Israel, likely allowing Israel to annex all West Bank settlements and backing sovereignty throughout Jerusalem.

According to the reports, the plan also offers potential eventual recognition of Palestinian statehood, provided the Palestinians demilitarize Gaza and accept Israel as a Jewish state — conditions the Palestinians would presumably reject.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Sunday noted his opposition to any elements of the plan which were at the expense of Jordan. Jordan, along with Egypt, is one of only two Arab nations to have a peace treaty with Israel. But relations between the neighbors have become increasingly tense, particularly with Netanyahu repeatedly vowing to annex the Jordan Valley.

Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to “make history” as he headed to Washington.

“Over the last three years, I spoke countless times with President Trump — a huge friend of Israel — and his team about these vital security needs, about our security, about our justice,” Netanyahu declared. “I will meet with President Trump tomorrow, and on Tuesday, together with him we will make history.”

US President Donald Trump, right, and visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walk along the Colonnade of the White House in Washington, March 25, 2019. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Netanyahu’s main political rival, Gantz, also took off for Washington on Sunday for a separate meeting with the US president.

Gantz on Saturday announced that Trump had invited him to meet “in person, as the leader of the largest party in Israel.” It was previously believed that Israel’s de facto opposition leader was invited to join Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump.

Asked at Ben Gurion Airport whether he will endorse the plan or ask Trump to push off its release until after the March 2 elections, Gantz demurred.

“I’ll hear from him about the plan and exchange views, but what is done behind closed doors will stay behind closed doors,” he told the Kan public broadcaster.

The meeting, set to be Gantz’s first with the US president, will be closed to the press, Blue and White said on Saturday.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the pro-annexation Yamina party, on Sunday said his party would support the plan if it allows Israel to annex large swaths of the West Bank “immediately.”

In a speech in the northern West Bank settlement of Ariel, Bennett called the plan a potential “once-in-50-years opportunity to apply Israeli law to half a million Israelis next week,” a reference to Israelis living in the major settlements of the West Bank.