During the week, President Trump released his plans for the Middle East; a plan which many had been waiting for since his promise of it in his first year as president. The New York Times quotes from 2017: “…he would negotiate a “bigger and better deal” to broker peace than anyone could imagine.”
Well, it seems the time has come for the deal that no one could imagine. You can watch his words on the plan in a video that the White House officially released along with the plan laid out publicly and titled “Peace to Prosperity.” While the Israelian Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was on board and working with President Trump through the planning, the leaders of Palestine rejected the plan outright.
It begs the question then, when in a time of war why would the leaders of Palestine reject the prospect of peace? When looking into the details of his plan it becomes apparent that it has a strong favoring for Israel’s priorities within the war and has almost pushed Palestine aside in benefits of peace.
Courtesy: White House
Despite years of the United States attempting to delegate peace, it seems President Trump wanted to diverge from the path that has been beginning to build up. Aspects of his “peace” include dividing up Palestinian land and as the Guardian reports: “[Palestine would be] a truncated and dismembered archipelago of Bantustans connected by bridges and tunnels and subservient to the Israeli state, which will retain security control over the entirety of the land. The Israelis will keep all of Jerusalem. No Palestinian refugees will be able to return to their homes.”
Note: The left is the current situation Palestine (yellow) and Israel (tan) while the right is the proposed division of Palestine.
Courtesy: White House
The White House’s proposed two-state solution is quoted by them as a method that “will protect Israel’s security, fulfill the aspirations of self-determination for the Palestinian people, and ensure universal and respectful access to the holy sites of Jerusalem.”
Even their descriptions of the plan seem to be quite Pro-Israel without regard for Palestinian protection and a complete disregard of their connections to Jerusalem for themselves. The plan also coincides with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s earlier re-election promises the annex the Jordan Valley.
Courtesy: White House
One of the biggest issues of this proposed deal is the fact that it allowed Israel to complete sovereignty over Jerusalem which both states wish to occupy as a Holy Site. President of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke out on the matter as reported by the BBC: “I would like to say to Trump and Netanyahu, Jerusalem is not for sale. And our rights are not for sale and not for bargaining. Your conspiracy deal won’t pass.”
He also states that there is no possibility of a Palestine state without Jerusalem.
The Palestinian public took great offense to the implications of this proposed peace and took to the streets in protest and President Abbas denied the plan within the day it was proposed.
So far the future of the plan for Palestine and Israel is still quite in the dark, but many nations are urging Palestine to reconsider and work on adjusting negotiations. Palestine believes that the plan itself was so insulting that it is not worth spending any more time on for its obvious favoritism towards the United States alliance with Israel.
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