Mideast plan buoys Trump, Netanyahu
Palestinians say hope of peace now sunk
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump made sure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was standing beside him at the White House on Tuesday as he presented his longdelayed “deal of the century” for Middle East peace, a welcome distraction for two leaders fighting for their political futures.
Yet the proposal — which makes far more demands of Palestinian than Israeli leaders — generated little enthusiasm, prompting an emergency meeting of the Arab League, scheduled for Saturday, and criticism from some key US allies, including Jordan and Turkey.
Palestinian officials, who refused to take part in talks after Mr Trump alienated them early in his term, denounced it outright.
The plan gives Israel tacit approval to annex a swathe of established settlements immediately while offering Palestinians the possibility of a fragmented nation-like state years in the future: An offer they see as worse than what they’ve received in previous negotiation efforts that broke down.
Yet Palestinian approval may have been a secondary goal at best.
For Messrs Trump and Netanyahu, who both face mounting legal troubles and re-election campaigns this year, the 80-page plan was an opportunity to show their core supporters that they’re bold leaders willing to skirt failed conventional wisdom in the pursuit of peace. The hastily arranged White House event came as Trump’s impeachment trial continued in the US Senate. Mr Netanyahu, at the same time, is looking for any advantage heading into an early March election and is confronting multiple indictments on bribery and corruption charges in Israel.
“Trump gets a distraction from impeachment and another opportunity to boost his support from Christian evangelicals and others who favour whatever the Israeli government wants,” said Paul Pillar, a former US Central Intelligence Agency officer and a non-resident senior fellow at Georgetown University in Washington. “Netanyahu gets another chance to show that it is he, and not Benny Gantz, who can get the US administration to do whatever Israel wants.”
Mr Netanyahu wasted little time moving quickly to capitalise on Mr Trump’s proposal, saying his cabinet would meet in the coming days to authorise the annexation of portions of the West Bank that Palestinians say is illegally occupied.
Mr Trump signalled some ambivalence about the plan earlier in the week, saying “we’ll see whether or not it catches hold. If it does, that would be great. And if it doesn’t, we can live with that, too, but I think we might have a chance”.
The US president has defended his unconventional approach to resolving what he’s called the world’s most difficult negotiation by pointing out that previous efforts have failed.
“Today Israel takes a big step towards peace,” Mr Trump said.
“My vision presents a win-win opportunity for both sides ... we have to get it done.”
But the pomp of the ceremony belied the widespread view outside the White House that the plan was probably dead on arrival.
Speaking after Trump’s presentation, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said “we say ‘no’ and a thousand times ‘no’ to the Trump vision”. In a televised address from his headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas vowed to begin dissolving the Palestinian Authority, leaving a void in the region.
A map Trump tweeted after the presentation showed a patchwork of Palestinian territory, portions of which were linked only by a road or tunnel, featuring vague developments such as a “high tech manufacturing industrial zone” along the border with Egypt that currently don’t exist.