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Netanyahu’s annexation plan now in Gantz, Ashkenazi’s hands

Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi must now make up their minds about backing annexation.
Israeli Defence Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz speaks to Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi as both wear masks during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem May 31, 2020. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RC2LZG93E5AX
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Two former military chiefs, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, hold the key to Israeli annexation of West Bank lands. The two have managed to position themselves in Washington as crucial to any decision on the annexation plan. Taking advantage of the leadership's preoccupation with the novel coronavirus and police brutality crises, they have managed to reach an understanding with the Donald Trump administration according to which President Donald Trump will support any Israeli decision on annexation as long as it enjoys the full backing of both government parties — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Gantz and Ashkenazi’s Blue and White.

The two Blue and White leaders enjoy direct access to close Trump associates such as his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz, who replaced Jason Greenblatt as the special US envoy to the Mideast. Presumably, one of the two informed Gantz and Ashkenazi that the Americans would support any decision Israel makes as long as Blue and White does, too. As an associate of Blue and White leaders put it to Al-Monitor this week on condition of anonymity, “We have received veto power; we are not sure we will use it.”

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