An opportunity such as the one that has now presented itself to the State of Israel “comes once in history and cannot be missed,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement issued Saturday night.
The prime minister is scheduled to leave at 2 pm Sunday for Washington DC to meet with President Donald Trump, and expected to land in Washington DC early Monday morning.
Trump said last week that he would reveal the details of his administration’s Middle East Peace Plan sometime before his meeting with Israel’s prime minister and a separate sit-down with Blue & White faction leader Benny Gantz. The president will then discuss the peace plan with both men, separately.
It is possible that by the time Netanyahu lands at the airport, Trump will have already announced the details of his “Deal of the Century.”
Gantz, who is flying to Washington separately, has said he intends to return to Israel in time to participate in the Knesset debate on Netanyahu’s request for immunity.
“President Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ will go down in history as a significant paving stone on the way to a historic agreement between the various sides in the Middle East conflict,” Gantz said in a statement he released this weekend. “In order to move forward with the ‘Deal of the Century,’ it is our responsibility to march united under a prime minister who has the public legitimacy to enact it.
“There is reason to fear that a prime minister with three indictments against him will make decisions based on the personal interest of his own political survival. Therefore he cannot lead Israel into war, heaven forbid, or into diplomatic agreements, should they ripen.”
In addition to his meeting on Tuesday with the president to discuss the Middle East Peace Plan, Netanyahu will meet with Trump on Monday as well, to discuss routine foreign policy issues between the two nations. According to Haaretz, the two men will meet while the Knesset convenes to discuss the prime minister’s request for immunity from prosecution in three corruption cases.
“I am full of hope that we are on the verge of a historic moment in the annals of our state,” Netanyahu said in his statement on Saturday night. “I am leaving for Washington with a sense of great mission, of great responsibility and of great opportunity, which will not recur, to ensure the future of Israel.”