שיחה עם היועץ של טראמפ - אבי ברקוביץישראל היום

During the digital international symposium of Israel Hayom titled "The Abraham Accords: Towards a New Middle East?", Avi Berkowitz, special advisor to President Trump related to one of the big questions regarding the "price" of the Abraham Accords - did Israel give up the vision of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria?

"When the plan was put out it was put out because the administration has a fundamental belief on the best realistic way to resolve this conflict", Berkowitz explained, "And the vision for peace is the administration's position and it remains its position".

Regarding the idea of applying Israeli law to areas in Judea and Samaria, Berkowitz emphasized that "it is not something that we fundamentally disagree with". "In fact", he added, "it is something that we fundamentally would support".

"But after doing that", he added, "after putting out that vision, what became apparent was that in order to capitalize on this momentous historic opportunity, it was necessary to suspend a component of the vision for peace".

However Berkowitz stated clearly: "Now that is not to say that in the foreseeable future it could not come back and it is not to say that we fundamentally disagree with what our position was initially, and in fact we still stand behind that position and it is very important to us, and I think everyone should understand that, but understanding that certain opportunities arise when they do and taking advantage to capitalize on them, i.e. the Abraham Accords, was also paramount in this case".

"The vision for peace is the Trump administration's plan", Berkowitz concluded on the issue, "it is something that we will always stand behind, and it is my sincere hope that we have the opportunity to stand behind it for the next four years, and work toward its implementation. However for the time being the application of Israeli law has been suspended so that we can focus on capitalizing on normalization and peace agreements".