Abortive election renews focus on Donald Trump’s peace plan
Earlier in the week, when it still seemed Israel was about to embark on an early election campaign, one of the immediate repercussions was that the much-awaited Trump Peace Plan would be postponed again, due to more pressing events.
With the prospect of an early election now receding, there are heavy hints that the plan will be unveiled before the end of 2018 or in early 2019.
Washington insiders exposed to its details are now speaking of an extensive document numbering dozens of pages. The Trump administration’s Middle East team — including son-in-law and special advisor Jared Kushner, who has led the work, and Mr Trump’s former lawyers, senior representative Jason Greenblatt and ambassador to Israel David Friedman, — have been the main contributors to the plan.
Actual details, however, are still thin on the ground. Mr Greenblatt said earlier this month at a private event in London that “neither side will like everything in the plan, but we are confident both sides will understand why we came to the conclusions that we did — if they are willing to engage.”
It is expected that it will empha- sise the inclusion of other Middle Eastern players, like the Trump administration’s main regional allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in the process.
The plan is also expected to highlight the issue of economic development on the Palestinian side and to push more controversial issues, such as
Jerusalem and the refugees, off the immediate agenda. There remains a great deal of cynicism towards the plan, not least because it has been postponed time and again over the past two years. The latest delay was ascribed to this month’s midterm elections in the United States.
Other reasons for scepticism include the Trump team’s lack of diplomatic experience and the fact that the Palestinians have been refusing to engage with the US for the past year, ever since Mr Trump first announced that the US embassy in Israel would be moved to Jerusalem. President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected in advance what the Palestinians dismissively call “the deal of the century”.
While the Israeli government will not automatically reject anything presented by President Trump, and will certainly try and make the Palestinians appear to be the ones at fault for any failure of the plan, some Israeli ministers are not hiding their scepticism either.
At a conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said: “I want peace, like everyone else. But I don’t believe an agreement can be reached. I would tell Trump: ‘Don’t waste your time.’”