By Herb Keinon, JPost—
In a twist to the “after-the-hagim ” line ubiquitous here around Passover and Rosh Hashanah, Jared Kushner – US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser – said Tuesday that the long-awaited Trump peace blueprint will be rolled out “after Ramadan.”
“We were getting ready at the end of last year, and then they called for Israeli elections,” Kushner said at the 2019 TIME 100 Summit trumpeting the magazine’s selection last week of the 100 most influential people in the world. “Prime Minister Netanyahu had a great victory, and he’s in the middle of forming his coalition. Once that’s done, we’ll probably be in the middle of Ramadan. So we’ll wait until after Ramadan and then we’ll put our plan out.”
This is not the first time the “after Ramadan” timetable has been used by this administration in reference to when it will present its “deal of the century.”
In the beginning of 2018, reports emerged that the plan would be released in the spring; in the spring the reports were that it would be released after Ramadan in June; after Ramadan the speculation was that it would be released in early fall. By then, however, people speculated – correctly, as it turned out – that it would not be released before the US midterm elections on November 6, so as not to do anything to alienate Trump’s strongly pro-Israel Evangelical base.
In September, Trump said that he would be releasing the plan in two to four months. But then the new Israeli elections were called in December, and it became clear that the plan would not be issued during the campaign, so as not to complicate matters for Netanyahu.
If Netanyahu now needs all 42 days at his disposal to form a government, that period will end on May 29. Ramadan is expected to begin this year on May 7, and end on June 4. Which means that on June 5 the moon and stars will be aligned just right for the rollout of the plan.
Realistically, there will then be about a three-month window for the plan to be presented, until America’s Labor Day, September 2, when the US presidential election campaign will shift into high gear before the primaries in the first six months of 2020. And during that campaign, Trump will again be averse to doing anything that might alienate his strongly pro-Israel Evangelical base.
Kushner sounded resolute Tuesday about presenting the plan, but so did Trump himself last September, only to be overtaken by events. New reasons may be found after Ramadan to postpone its presentation as well. Continue Reading….
