According to Channel 13 News and Axios reporter Barak Ravid, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer in recent weeks has been lobbying senior White House officials, Republican lawmakers, and rightwing journalists, to convince them that Israel must act quickly to annex the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria settlements. Ravid cited three Israeli and American sources familiar with the ambassador’s efforts.
NEW: Israeli ambassador lobbies for West Bank annexation before November elections, fearing Biden victory. My story on and https://t.co/0Au9KRFiDy
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid)
Dermer said in closed briefings in Washington that “we must move forward with the annexation now because we don’t know what will happen in the US presidential election in November – Biden may win. There’s a window of opportunity now and therefore we should do it now.”
Dermer argues that annexation must be promoted and facts set on the ground before the presidential election, since victory for Democratic candidate Joe Biden could dramatically alter the Israeli position on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
“There’s a one-time opportunity to promote annexation as long as Trump is in place,” Dremer advocates in the talks he has been holding.
According to Ravid, Dermer is also campaigning hard for speeding up the annexation process because he is aware of the disagreements within the Trump administration over annexation, and the fact that top White House and State Dept. officials have expressed their reservations about annexation and believe it should wait.