The euphoria surrounding Trump’s Deal of the Century appears to have been premature. That’s because the Trump administration seems to be throwing bureaucratic hurdles and vague timelines in the wheels of Israel’s annexation efforts.

Case and point – Although Ambassador David Friedman initially stated that Israel doesn’t have to wait to annex Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria, he now appears to be walking back his original and unambiguous statement. Friedman now calls for a US-Israel committee to review any annexation plans as reported in TOI.

“That committee will work with all due deliberation to get to the right spot. But it is a process that does require some effort, some understanding, some calibration. We need to see the dimensions and see that it is not inconsistent with the maps,” Friedman said in a Wednesday briefing.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Jared Kushner is calling to wait until after the March elections to begin annexing anywhere in Judea and Samaria – a 180 degree contradiction from Friedman’s original statements. And even once a government is formed (whenever that will be), Kushner is now demanding that the administration needs to work for “a couple of months” following the formation of the government. He then concluded an interview with Gzero Media saying “we’ll see what happens”.