The Blue and White party is considering rejecting President Donald Trump’s invitation to Blue and White chief Benny Gantz to visit the White House next week, Israeli media outlets reported Friday afternoon.
According to reports by Amit Segal on Channel 12 and Barak Ravid on Channel 13, the center-left Blue and White party has not yet decided whether it will accept President Trump’s invitation to the White House, during which the much-anticipated Middle East peace plan is expected to be presented to party chairman Benny Gantz.
The party’s four leaders – Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, Moshe Yaalon, and Gabi Ashkenazi – are reportedly debating whether to accept or reject the invitation, and are planning to announce their decision at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night.
On Thursday, it was reported that the Trump administration had invited Gantz and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the White House for a meeting next Tuesday, apparently to disclose the details of the soon-to-be-released Middle East peace plan, dubbed the “Deal of the Century”.
Trump tweeted Thursday that he will unveil the plan next week, possibly before the two Israeli leaders’ visit to Washington.
A report by Channel 13 claimed that the deal would allow Israel to apply sovereignty to more than 30% of the territory in Judea and Samaria, including all Israeli towns in the area. All but 15 of the towns would be annexed as part of a territorially continuous bloc, while the remaining 15 towns would be annexed as enclaves surrounded by Palestinian territory.
Israel would be asked to accept the establishment of a Palestinian State – if the Palestinian Authority agrees to disarm Hamas, demilitarize the Gaza Strip, recognize Israel as the Jewish state, and to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city.
Trump later called media reports on the details of the plan ‘speculation’.
Header: Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid