Benjamin Netanyahu rows back from pledge to annex West Bank territory

Just a week earlier, shortly after the White House unveiling of Donald Trump’s peace plan, Mr Netanyahu was promising that sovereignty over “all the settlements” was imminent — indeed, that it was to be voted upon at Sunday’s cabinet meeting.

What followed was an embarrassing 48 hours in which Mr Netanyahu was forced to lower expectations as Mr Trump’s special advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, author of the plan, made it clear that the administration was adamant that no annexations were to take place until after the election and the formation of a new Israeli government, and not before a joint US-Israel committee was convened to coordinate the move.

Despite the president saying quite clearly at the unveiling that a committee would have to be formed first, the prime minister thought he could get away with an election annexation.

He was encouraged to go ahead by the pro-settler US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, but Mr Kushner, who also oversees the administration’s ties with the pro-US Arab regimes, was concerned of the damage it could do and slammed on the brakes.

Now Mr Netanyahu is stuck between the expectations of the Israeli hard-right and his desire not to anger the Trump administration, which he has showered with such praise as “the most pro-Israel in history.” He has now been reduced to promising he will do it after the election.

Just vote for him, he said in Bet Shemesh and he “won’t let such a great opportunity slip. We brought it and we’re here to make it happen.”

But it wasn’t enough to win a majority in the two elections of 2019 and may not be this time either. His call to be allowed to go ahead with at least a “symbolic” annexation of one settlement was rebuffed by Mr Kushner, who is instead trying to help him secure a pre-election meeting with an Arab leader in the Gulf.

But that is hardly likely to assuage the yearnings of the settler lobby. A photo-opportunity in Bahrain or Oman does not equal to sovereignty in Ariel or Yitzhar.