I don’t know why U.S. presidents waste their time on this nonsense:
US President Donald Trump unveiled his “Deal of the Century” peace plan on Tuesday in the White House, giving Israel full control of the settlements and Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The plan also established a Palestinian state.
The plan, Trump said, has the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main political rival, Blue and White head Benny Gantz.
“If [the Palestinians] are genuinely prepared to make peace with the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said in his remarks at the unveiling ceremony, “Israel will be prepared to negotiate peace right away.” Trump said that the United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty over any land that “my vision provides to be part of the State of Israel” and will require the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the Jewish state and to agree to solve the refugee problem outside of Israel.
The prime minister is expected to vote on Sunday at the Cabinet meeting to immediately apply sovereignty to the territories in Judea and Samaria.
In other words, the Israelis are confirming the long-held beliefs of the Palestinians concerning the settlements, and they doing so with the blessing of the United States. How is this substantially different than the scores of Indian treaties that lasted until the settlers decided that they wanted more Indian land?
And who seriously regards this as a peace plan? Of course the Palestinians won’t accept it.
Israel has a right to exist. Its right of conquest is no less, and no more, illegitimate than any other nation’s right to land it has won through military victory. But it does not have a right to exist in peace; that has to be won separately, through convincing neighboring parties that peace is in their interest. And while I could certainly be wrong, I don’t see how this “Deal of the Century” is likely to be of much interest to any non-Israeli parties.