Officials from the Trump Administration already warned that neither Israelis nor Palestinian Arabs were going to be fully supportive of the American president's "deal of the century" peace plan.
They might have been understating local opposition to the scheme.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, hinted at certain aspects of the as-yet-unpublished peace plan while touring the Middle East. That was enough to elicit harsh criticism for the plan from both Israelis and Palestinians.
Israel Education Minister Naftali Bennett insisted that Kushner's remarks had revealed that Trump's plan will, like those before it, pressure Israel to make dangerous land concessions, possibly even dividing Jerusalem, to facilitate the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.
What's more, Bennett warned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's close personal relationship with Trump will make it almost impossible to withstand this pressure should Netanyahu prevail in Israel's upcoming national election.
Running for Knesset for the first time as a member of Bennett's newly-established New Right party, columnist Caroline Glick said that she felt compelled to finally enter politics to help protect Israel during the perilous days ahead.
In an interview on The Land of Israel Network, Glick explained that as soon as Israel forms its next government, Trump will publish his peace plan, and Israel will immediately come under intense diplomatic pressure. There will have to be a sufficiently-strong opposition to Trump's plan in the Knesset to ensure that whoever is the next prime minister isn't strong-armed by the Americans into accepting the kind of concessions that most Israelis reject.
Israeli Arab Member of Knesset Ahmed Tibi told the Ynet news portal that Trump's plan, of which he, like everyone else, knows scant details, is "a terrible proposal."
Tibi, like many of his Arab colleagues in Knesset, echo the Palestinian Authority in accusing the Trump Administration of being not only blatantly pro-Israel, but also anti-Palestinian.
The Palestinian Authority, of course, has refused to work with Trump since his surprise electoral victory in 2016. As such, it's little surprise that news of Trump's forthcoming "deal of the century" elicits little but scorn from Ramallah.
In fact, much like accusations of supporting Israel, acceptance of Trump's plan is now being bandied about as an insult between rival Palestinian factions. This week, Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat cursed Hamas in a Voice of Palestine Radio interview by claiming that the terror group is in league with the American's agenda
No comments:
Post a Comment