Shortly after Friedman and Netanyahu finished their briefings, at 3:30 p.m. in Washington, Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the president and the chief architect behind the peace plan, went on CNN and said that he was not aware of immediate annexation plans."I don't believe that's going to happen this weekend, at least not as far as I know," he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour."Israel does not have to wait at all," Friedman said. "The waiting period would be the time it takes for them to obtain internal approvals." Netanyahu said he will submit annexation of Jewish settlements for approval as early as Sunday, per @kbenme
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) January 28, 2020
Shortly after the Kushner interview aired, Urich deleted his tweet. He did not give an explanation why.Will Israel immediately start imposing Israeli law on the territories assigned to it in the new proposed White House peace plan?Jared Kushner: "Yeah, I don't believe that's going to happen this weekend. At least not as far as I know." pic.twitter.com/u8B09nIoUn
— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) January 28, 2020
Final word on the walk back of Netanyahu’s annexation promise came on Wednesday morning when Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who was in Washington with the prime minister, went on Army Radio and said that the proposal would not be brought to the cabinet on Sunday due to “technical reasons.”At 7 a.m. in Washington on Wednesday, sources close to Netanyahu said that he will bring the proposal to the "next cabinet meeting" but not on Sunday. Why not Sunday? Apparently there is no cabinet meeting that day. What happened? Did Netanyahu walk back his promise – and if so, why?The full story has yet to be revealed, but diplomatic sources said late Tuesday night that the US was surprised by Netanyahu’s promise – just after the unveiling of the plan – to immediately annex West Bank territory.The US officials thought that while Israel would move forward with annexation, it would take time, due to planning issues and other bureaucratic hurdles that the government would first need to overcome. They did not realize that it would be so immediate, a decision likely prompted by Netanyahu’s legal and political troubles.The Americans were apparently expecting a number of Arab states to issue statements that were supposed to voice support for the plan. Some countries did cautiously welcome the plan – Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia – but Oman and Bahrain – which took the extraordinary step of sending their ambassadors to the White House’s roll-out ceremony – remained silent, possibly due to the annexation announcement.Will Netanyahu bring annexation to the government within the coming week or weeks? Unclear. For now, it seems that the White House has asked Jerusalem to hold back on unilateral steps and to first give the plan a chance to advance.It appears that Mr Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mr Urich, has deleted his tweet announcing plans for full #Israel annexation on Sunday.Here is a screenshot: pic.twitter.com/sSJ3ZshKhI
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) January 28, 2020