Trump: Plan for Mideast peace coming today
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he would release his longawaited Mideast peace plan today as he welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the White House for two days of meetings.
“Tomorrow at 12 o’clock, we’ll be announcing a plan,” Trump said, confirming reports that he would unveil a proposal, nearly three years in the making, that aims to resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
Speaking alongside Netanyahu, Trump said that “it’s the closest we’ve ever come” to an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, an opinion almost unanimously rejected by analysts and foreign diplomats who see it as heavily weighted in favor of Israel.
While Trump predicted “we will ultimately have the support of the Palestinians,” that seems a distant prospect.
Many analysts say the Trump peace plan, developed under the oversight of the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is relevant mainly for its potential impact on Israel’s March 2 election, which will decide the fate of the embattled Netanyahu, and as a distraction from the Senate’s ongoing impeachment trial of Trump.
Netanyahu’s opponent in that election, Benny Gantz, is also in Washington and met with Trump on Monday. He plans to return to Israel before Trump and Netanyahu deliver public remarks together at the White House today after describing the plan.
Gantz’s allies have complained that the joint appearance inappropriately elevates Netanyahu, who has been a close Trump ally, over Gantz.
Perhaps underscoring the point, Trump did not invite reporters into the meeting he held with Gantz shortly after Netanyahu’s visit. Official Israeli photographs posted online showed the president and Gantz shaking hands and smiling.
Asked by reporters about hosting the two rivals in highly unusual back-to-back sessions, Trump professed neutrality but said he was impatient with Israel’s tangled politics, which have resulted in three national elections in the past year.
“They’re two good competitors. They’re fighting it out,” Trump said with Netanyahu at his side. “I’ve been waiting now — this is my third election. We keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting. So, let’s go. What kind of a system is that?”
The unveiling of the peace plan will occur on the same day Netanyahu’s bid for parliamentary immunity from prosecution on corruption charges gets underway in Israel, just five weeks before he faces Gantz in the election.
The two are battling in Israel’s third election in a year after ballots in April and September ended inconclusively, with neither Netanyahu nor Gantz able to muster a majority government.
“One can’t ignore the obvious domestic political context to everything that is going to happen in the next couple of days, both here in the United States and in Israel,” said Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “In my view, that drives what is about to happen as much as Middle East peace may drive it.”
Speaking in the Oval Office alongside the president Monday, Netanyahu showered his host with flattery.
“You’ve been the greatest man Israel had in the White House,” Netanyahu said. “I think tomorrow you can continue making history.”
The details of the peace plan are not known, but the proposal will most likely place both Netanyahu and his opponent in a quandary.
It could force Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political future and his freedom — he is facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust — out of his risk-averse comfort zone and put his credibility with his supporters, and his legacy, on the line.