Donald Trump unveiled a Mideast plan today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side (watch above). The New York Times says it’s “a proposal that would give Israel most of what it has sought over decades of conflict while creating what he called a Palestinian state with limited sovereignty.”
Mr. Trump’s plan would guarantee that Israel would control a unified Jerusalem as its capital and not require it to uproot any of the settlements in the West Bank that have provoked Palestinian outrage and alienated much of the outside world. He promised to provide $50 billion in international investment to build the new Palestinian entity and open an embassy in its new state.
A quick thread summarizing the basic aspects of the Trump anti-peace plan:
1) Palestinians get the trappings of statehood but no state whatsoever
2) Israel will maintain all security control, including over coastal waters, airspace, electromagnetic spectrum and everything.— Hussein Ibish (@Ibishblog) January 28, 2020
The president called it a “win-win,” but Palestinian leaders don’t see it that way. The AP reports:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said “a thousand no’s” Tuesday to the Mideast peace plan announced by President Donald Trump, which strongly favors Israel.
The Palestinians remain committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state with its capital in east Jerusalem, Abbas said at a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is headquartered.
“After the nonsense that we heard today we say a thousand no’s to the Deal of The Century,” he said.
Israel announced it will annex occupied Palestinian land on Sunday. This is the 1st outcome of Trump’s “peace plan,” This is an American president that has killed the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution and undermined international law and order. What a political circus pic.twitter.com/Gd0MbJl5D0
— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) January 28, 2020
Sen. Bernie Sanders adds:
It must end the Israeli occupation and enable Palestinian self-determination in an independent state of their own alongside a secure Israel. Trump’s so-called ‘peace deal’ doesn’t come close, and will only perpetuate the conflict. It is unacceptable.
The timing of this plan is also precarious. NPR writes:
The plan comes at a politically fraught moment for both Trump and Netanyahu. Trump is currently on trial in the Senate after he was impeached on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Netanyahu was formally indicted Tuesday on criminal corruption charges.
Israel’s prime minister “is trying to make this major diplomatic decision, even though his government is a temporary government, in part to shore up support for him domestically as someone who can champion Israel in the international arena,” Natan Sachs of the Center for Middle East Policy at The Brookings Institution tells NPR.