WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump revealed on Jan. 28 the details of his long-awaited Middle East peace plan more than two years after his administration began drafting the blueprint aimed at resolving the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump said the 80-page plan represented his “vision for peace, prosperity, and a brighter future for Israelis and Palestinians,” which he added was “fundamentally different from past proposals.”
“This is an unprecedented and highly significant development,” he said at a White House event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In the past, even the most well-intentioned plans were light on factual details and heavy on conceptual frameworks,” he said. “My vision presents a win-win opportunity for both sides, a realistic two-state solution that resolves the risk of Palestinian statehood to Israel’s security.”
The plan is only the first step for progress toward peace and includes a conceptual map outlining the two states.
According to the plan released by the White House, Israel “has agreed to a four-year land freeze to secure the possibility of a two-state solution.”
“Jerusalem will stay united and remain the capital of Israel, while the capital of the State of Palestine will be Al-Quds and include areas of East Jerusalem,” the plan stated. Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
This is what a future State of Palestine can look like, with a capital in parts of East Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/39vw3pPrAL
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2020
“This map will more than double the Palestinian territory and provide a Palestinian capital in eastern Jerusalem where America will proudly open an embassy,” Trump said.
After the meeting, Trump posted a map on Twitter showing the future of the Palestinian state.
‘Greatest Friend’ of Israel
Speaking at the event, Netanyahu praised Trump calling him “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had.”
“Regardless of the Palestinian decision, Israel will preserve the path of peace in the coming years, for at least four years. Israel will maintain the status quo in areas that your plan does not designate as being part of Israel in the future,” he said.
“At the same time, Israel will apply its laws to the Jordan Valley, to all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and to other areas that your plan designates as part of Israel,” he added.
The Palestinian leadership, which has earlier rejected the plan, was not invited to Washington. Palestinians earlier made clear that they would reject Washington’s role as mediator in the conflict.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Jan 27 asked the international community to boycott the proposal, saying it “doesn’t constitute a basis for resolving the conflict.”
In a statement on Jan. 26, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said, “Trump’s plan is the plot of the century to liquidate the Palestinian cause.”
Palestinians also threatened to withdraw from the 1993 Oslo Accords, which sought to construct peaceful Israeli-Palestinian relations.
They accused Trump of siding with Israel after Washington recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy there. Trump also closed Palestinian diplomatic offices in Washington in September 2018, citing the failure of the Palestinians to enter into negotiations with the Israelis. And the Trump administration slashed funding to Palestinian aid programs in August 2018, with concern over the terror group Hamas ruling Gaza being one of the main reasons for the action.
Kushner-Led Peace Plan
A team led by Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner was in charge of crafting the peace plan. Kushner last year revealed the economic portion of the peace plan promising to invest $50 billion to help Palestinians and neighboring Arab states if a peace deal with Israel was accepted.
David Makovsky, a former State Department advisor on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and senior fellow at The Washington Institute said that the Trump plan would fall considerably short of Palestinian expectations.
“If Trump is reelected, the administration believes the Palestinian Authority would need to swallow its defiance and reconcile itself to this new political reality,” he wrote on Jan. 24 in a report.
Before the event, Trump invited both Netanyahu and Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz to the White House. He held separate meetings on Jan. 27 with both leaders to disclose the details of his plan and discuss major bilateral issues between the United States and Israel.
The separate meetings with Netanyahu and his main rival Gantz reflected Israel’s upcoming tense election. Having failed to form a majority coalition in parliament after two general elections last year, Israel is heading to an unprecedented third election on March 2.
