TV report: Palestinian state only if PA accepts Israel as Jewish state and Hamas is disarmed; no big refugee influx; if Abbas rejects plan, Israel can start annexing
By TOI STAFF Today, 9:21 pmUpdated at 9:39 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and US President Donald Trump, right, speak at Ben Gurion International Airport prior to the latter’s departure from Israel on May 23, 2017. (Koby Gideon/GPO)
The Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan — to be presented next week at the White House to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz — provides for full Israeli sovereignty throughout Jerusalem, for Israel to annex all West Bank settlements, and for no significant “return” to Israel of Palestinian refugees, Israeli TV reported Thursday night.
The plan constitutes “the most generous proposal” ever presented to Israel, the report said. US President Donald Trump subsequently dismissed as “purely speculative” reports on the details of the plan and the timing of its release.
It ultimately provides for a Palestinian state but under conditions that no Palestinian leader could conceivably accept, the TV report said. Channel 12 reported that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas does not know the details of the plan, and that it is regarded in Ramallah as “dead on arrival.” The PA has had no substantive dealings with the US administration since Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.
Hinting at the imminent unveiling of the plan, US Vice President Mike Pence, who is in Israel for the World Holocaust Forum, said Thursday evening that Trump would host Netanyahu and Gantz next week to discuss the prospect of “peace in the Holy Land.”
US Vice President Mike Pence hosts PM Netanyahu at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, January 23, 2020. The meeting was also attended by Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, left, and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, right (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
Pence made the comments while sitting with Netanyahu, Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman at the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Jared Kushner, the president’s Middle East peace envoy, had also been expected in Israel this week, but canceled his visit, citing weather in Davos.
Netanyahu said “the president is seeking to give Israel the peace and security it deserves.” He added, “I suggested that Benny Gantz be invited as well” to the White House.
Setting out the reported specifics of the plan, the TV report said, without specifying a source, that it provides for:
* Israeli sovereignty in all 100-plus West Bank settlements, all but 15 of which would be territoriality contiguous. (An estimated 400,000 Jews live in some 120 official settlements.)
* Israeli sovereignty throughout Jerusalem, including the Old City, with only “symbolic Palestinian representation” in Jerusalem.
* Were Israel to accept the deal, and the Palestinians to reject it, Israel would have US support to begin annexing settlements unilaterally.
* Palestinian will be granted statehood, but only if Gaza is demilitarized, Hamas gives up its weapons, and the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state with Jerusalem as its capital.
US President Donald Trump, left, welcomes visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in Washington, March 25, 2019. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
The TV report quoted unnamed Israeli sources specifying further provisions, including:
* No Palestinian role in any border controls.
* Full Israeli security control in the Jordan Valley.
* Israeli sovereignty in all “open territory” in West Bank’s Area C. The TV report said this amounted to some 30 percent of the West Bank.
* The acceptance of all Israeli security demands.
* Some limited land swaps in which expanded Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank would be exchanged for minor territorial compensation in the Negev.
* Possible minor absorption of Palestinian refugees in Israel; no compensation for refugees.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas listens while US President Donald Trump makes a statement for the press before a meeting at the Palace Hotel during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 2017, in New York. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)
The TV report quoted the Israeli sources as saying the plan represented an unprecedented offer for Israel. It said Netanyahu has ordered his ministers not to publicly discuss its provisions.
Trump had wanted to unveil the plan for some time, but held off because of Israel’s protracted electoral deadlock, the report said. But he had now decided to wait no longer.
A Channel 13 TV report set out slightly different conditions, but said these were from a year-old version of the plan, which had “since moved to the right.” That earlier plan, it said, provided for Israel to annex some 15% of the West Bank, for the Palestinians to have sovereignty in some East Jerusalem neighborhoods, and for 60 settlement outposts that Israel considers illegal to be evacuated.
It quoted a White House source describing the current plan as “the most pro-Israel plan ever produced or presented.”
Trump himself, tweeting shortly after the Israeli reports, said, “Reports about details and timing of our closely-held peace plan are purely speculative.”
Ayelet Shaked: We won’t agree to form a Palestinian state
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF JANUARY 26, 2020 15:54
Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the Yamina party said on Sunday that the US ‘Deal of the Century’ presents a historical chance, and “we need to make sure that (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu will take this opportunity.”
“ We (Yamina) have an ideological stance against a Palestinian state (being formed) and won’t recognize one,” Shaked said.
@ Michael S:
This subject disrespected comment is 100% legitimate and can be supported.
There is nothing either ignorant nor arrogant in this post.
Someone is probablyobably “projecting”…as usual.
@ Michael S:
Yes the sleep of the ignorant and arrogant and you have made my point as to the dangers in this relationship
If I were to guess what is in Trump’s Peace Plan it would be very similar to Bib’s Bar Illan speech. Israel Security first and foremost. Pals get a state minus, autonomy to run their affairs at a municipal level with trappings of a state.
I’m tired of all this speculation. Good night.
This is the bottom line
Israelis presenting itself as in league with Trump. That is a major prob;em to start with.
i do not think Trump is involved with “nation” which I support as a concept. he is partly so, but far more is the concept of America not minding its own business but through trade becoming the dominant nation in the world. That is not my idea of nation. That is Imperialism.
trump is totally against science and is against peer reviewed science. I am a strong advocate of peer review science as a mark of civilisation. And Israeli leadership allies with that.
Trump has turned against the science of global warming and Israeli leadership is allied with that.
Trump has not made the reality of the Palestinian state known and understood. Netanyahu ONCE used the power of the Israeli state to point out the Nazi roots of this urge for a Palestine state.
What is in it for Trump? the election! Mostly! He has an emotional attachment to the Jews but that is not the main issue. Power politics is.
What then can be a solution. End this dicey and essentially evil relationship with this American leader.
Go it alone. be independent and enter into a correct relationship with America.
As it stands Israel is allied with the very worst, with the denial of peer reviewed research in all fields, and with Trump as a representative of this, which is barbarity. An end to civilisation.
The person above who says “who is talking about a Palestinian state” is just too slick for me.
For good or ill that has become the battering ram of antisemitism in our world. It has to be dealt with.
I would suggest it is an historical issue and it has to be answered by peer reviewed history but how can Israel do this when they have outlawed peer review in climate science.
Martin Sherman talked about one per cent of GDP devoted to telling the true story but now with rejection of peer review process there is an even bigger obstacle that Sherman does not even talk about.
[continued]
Oslo was not supposed to happen. With all due respect to PM Rabin, he really did not conform to his political platform. It cost him his life, so I have no desire to perform any polemic autopsy.
The electorate chose Rabin over Peres and after Peres was soundly defeated, Rabin transformed himself into a ‘drunken unyielding Peres devotee’. No matter how many Israelis died as a result of Arafat’s treachery, Rabin doubled down in seeming denial. Rabin went burnt out soft.
Compare and contrast Rabin golden years with Netanyahu and it is obvious who was truly transformative.
Who is advocating for a “P” State. Trump negotiated with The Saudis and the other Gulf States, as to what they can support.
Israel should keep an “open mind”, not reject it and make no commitment, while Abbas outright rejects it. Israel will be free to annex after X months elapse, which is precisely what it should do.
This is small compared to the other issue of Nuclear Proliferation in the region. Obviously this must be dealt with very very soon.
Originally at the Camp David Accords, PM Begin was inclined to consider “autonomy” for the Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District. That morphed under Oslo to be described as “state”.
Solution is stop saying Palestinian state…say instead Haj Amin El Husseini state…end of.
Trump has been the best POTUS ever towards Israel.
We do NOT know what is in his plan.
A Pal-Arab State west of the Jordan River is a Non-Starter is this is a danger to the State of Israel.
@ Wooly Mammoth:
I simply don’t agree and history is showing I am right. If Trump cannot expunge the Palestinian State idea then it is another mirage.
@ Felix Quigley:
No. That is not a very nice thing to write about a US President who has had the courage to devote a huge percentage of his time in office to make crucial corrections to US Policy towards Israel and her neighbors.
If the plan is rejected by Abbas & his Merry Men, as expected, Israel can fully unilaterally annex 30% of Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem, The Jordan Valley and Golan. So, not to worry.
To achieve statehood in what remains the Arab residents, whatever name they wish to be addressed by, can not wage war or violence upon Israel, by definition. So, they will never accept it resulting in the expected unilateral annexation.
Compare and contrast this plan with any other plan presented.
Mark my words, there will probably never be, as long as we live and breathe a more visionary peace plan which guarantees Israel’s long term survival and continued success.
The offer of “statehood”, in this case, is conditional upon behavior which can not happen for at least 50 to 100 years. In the meantime, Israel can build in it’s newly defined soverign borders.
No surprise! Trump is essentially a conartist!
Introducing AGAIN the Palestinian State!