Hasidic movement officials campaigned against US peace plan over creation of Palestinian Arab state.
Officials from the Chabad Hasidic movement expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – the tabling of the plan to apply Israeli sovereignty over part of Judea and Samaria.
According to the Makor Rishon newspaper, the Chabad movement has waged a quiet and diplomatic campaign in Capitol Hill over the past few months against certain aspects of the Trump Administration’s ‘Deal of the Century.’
“We did not agree with the right-wing parties, which saw the sovereignty plan as a great salvation, thinking that agreement on the other clauses of the plan could be ignored, including a dangerous border map and the potential consent for a Palestinian state,” Chabad explained..
According to senior Chabad officials, “Chabad’s position on the sovereignty program was that it was like a poisoned apple – despite its sweet and beautiful appearance – and talks by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who spoke prophetically about such programs and the dangers inherent in them, were even quoted.”
The leader of Chabad’s campaign against the sovereignty plan was Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Aharonov, who currently serves as chairman of Chabad in Israel and who led Chabad’s campaigns against the Oslo Accords and the disengagement plan.
Not everyone in Chabad agreed with him on this approach, and there were even elements who argued that the sovereignty plan should not be dropped and that the struggle would damage Chabad’s relationship with the Trump Administration.
Last weekend, a meeting was held between Chabad emissaries in Florida and US Vice President Mike Pence. Chabad officials said that such a meeting could not have taken place if the ‘Deal of the Century’ had gone forward.
“Absurdly,” they added, “it was precisely the struggle against the Trump plan that caused Chabad to grow closer to the administration.”
(Arutz 7).