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US-Israeli sovereignty committee ready to work as Trump appoints members

It is tasked with mapping the areas to which Israel will extend its sovereignty under the newly revealed Mideast peace plan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on the first night of Hanukkah, on Dec. 22, 2019. Photo by Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on the first night of Hanukkah, on Dec. 22, 2019. Photo by Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90.

The joint U.S.-Israel committee tasked with mapping the areas to which Israel will extend its sovereignty under the Trump Mideast peace plan is ready to start working.

A senior official in the U.S. administration confirmed to Israel Hayom that U.S. President Donald Trump has appointed to the committee U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Friedman’s senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone, and Scott Leith, director of Israeli and Palestinian affairs at the National Security Council.

The appointments were announced a day after Israel announced its own appointments to the committee: Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer and Ronen Peretz, director of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The joint committee, which was announced by Trump during the rollout of his peace plan at the White House several weeks ago, was tasked with drawing a map of the specific areas that will come under Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, as well as in Judea and Samaria, under the plan.

U.S. and Israeli sources said immediately after the release of the plan’s details that the map it included was only conceptual and did not reflect the exact future borders. The map is also called a conceptual map in the plan itself.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

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