Trump Mideast Plan Arose From a Secretive, Shifting Two-Year Effort by Felicia Schwartz - Wall Street Journal
In late December, President Trump’s aides had a decision to make about his long-delayed Middle East peace plan. Israel was headed for an unprecedented third set of elections, leaving an interim government running the country—and no consensus leader to serve as Washington’s partner on its peace plan.
Administration officials knew they had no prospect of Palestinian support, so they had long believed they needed a firmly established Israeli government to join them in unveiling the plan. But chances of that evaporated in December when parliament dissolved, with new elections due in March. At this rate, the officials feared, the Trump plan might never see the light of day.
The White House team working on the Mideast plan made the decision to shift: They would release the plan before the future of Israel’s government was settled—provided that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief rival endorsed it and that they gathered a palette of international support…