“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nationsof the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injurethemselves.
(Zechariah 12)
By TOI STAFF
US President Donald Trump will reportedly tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chief Benny Gantz that they have until the Knesset elections to work on the administration’s long-awaited peace plan, potentially throwing the high stakes diplomatic gambit into Israel’s domestic political stew.
According to a report by the Reuters news agency, citing a US official, Trump will not announce details of the plan until after he receives buy-in from both Netanyahu and Gantz so that it does not lose any momentum.
According to the unnamed official, Trump will tell the two, “You have six weeks to get this [plan] going, if you want it.”
It is unclear what either side could accomplish in even jump-starting talks based on the deal with neither having the confidence of the nation until the March 2 election. However, a number of politicians have expressed fears that releasing the plan before the vote will turn it into a political football as electoral campaigns ramp up.
Netanyahu will meet with Trump at 11 a.m. (6 p.m. in Israel) for two meetings, including one without aides, and then Gantz will arrive at the White House at 12:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m.) for a 45-minute discussion.
Netanyahu and Trump are set for a higher-profile meeting Tuesday, which will include a joint statement.
“The rationale…is it depoliticizes this to the point that, no matter what happens on March 2, the two leaders of the two largest parties can potentially be supportive,” the source said.
The Trump administration’s peace plan would curb Israeli settlement growth, initially hand Israelis and Palestinians about one-third of the West Bank each, recognize a Palestinian state in the Palestinian-held areas, and set in place a four-year “preparation period” during which Palestinians would — so Washington hopes — come around to the plan and possibly negotiate control of the remainder of the territory.
At least, that is what several Hebrew-language media outlets were reporting on Sunday, just a day or two before US President Donald Trump is expected to unveil the long-awaited plan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival MK Benny Gantz, who are in Washington this week.
The Israeli outlets offered no source for the information, but the fact that it was handed to several Hebrew-language outlets and no American ones suggested the source may have been Israeli.
The White House was said to be aware that the Palestinians will reject the plan outright, and, indeed, Palestinian leaders declared their opposition in no uncertain terms on Sunday.
Sunday’s reports were the latest in a spate of sometimes contradictory reports in Hebrew media purporting to detail the content of the plan. On Thursday, for instance, Channel 12 TV reported that the plan 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.
And on Friday, Channel 13 said Israel would retain overall security control of the entire West Bank under the plan, even if a Palestinian state is established in parts of it. Channel 13 said the plan ultimately provides for a demilitarized Palestinian state in some 80 percent of the West Bank. That state would not be empowered to maintain an army and sign military treaties, and Israel would control its borders, further reports on Friday said.
Top Palestine Liberation Organization official and chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP Sunday that the PLO reserved the right “to withdraw from the interim agreement,” the 1995 accord that established the Palestinian Authority, if Trump unveils his plan.
The Trump initiative will turn Israel’s “temporary occupation into a permanent occupation.” Erekat said.
Some Israeli settlement leaders were also wary, warning on Sunday that the Trump plan, if implemented, would see a Palestinian state established on some 70 percent of the West Bank, posing a potential security threat to the Jewish state.
Expecting such opposition, the plan reportedly proposes at least two stages of implementation: the immediate steps on both sides — especially Israel’s partial settlement freeze — and the four-year “preparation period” during which Washington reportedly hopes that 84-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will be replaced by a new leader more amenable to the proposal.
In a key sticking point for both sides, the vast majority of Jerusalem would remain under full Israeli sovereignty, but a shared Israeli-Palestinian body would jointly administer the Temple Mount and holy sites, the reports said. Palestinians would gain control of the parts of Jerusalem that lie beyond the security fence, and could establish their capital in one of the Arab neighborhoods that lie east of the barrier.
At the same time, 30% to 40% of the West Bank, all of it from Area C, would be set aside for Israeli annexation, including the strategically vital Jordan Valley and the major settlement blocs. An Israeli annexation of that area would win the approval and recognition of the Trump administration, the reports said — but only if Israel delays the annexation until after the Palestinians formally reject the plan. The timing is seen as a warning to the Palestinians, suggesting they could delay a US-backed Israeli annexation by agreeing to come to the negotiating table.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly refused to take a phone call from US President Donald Trump ahead of the White House’s expected release of a Mideast peace plan rejected by Ramallah as one-sided in favor of Israel.
The report by the state-run Turkish Anadolu Agency on Monday came ahead of separate meetings that Trump is slated to hold with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chief Benny Gantz in Washington, DC to discuss the US administration’s plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“There were attempts by Trump to hold a phone call with Abbas, but the latter refused,” a high-ranking Palestinian official, who was not named, told Anadolu, adding that the attempted calls took place in the past couple of days.
PA Social Affairs Minister Ahmad Majdalani confirmed the Anadolu report to the Gaza-based Dunia al-Watan news site, stating that Abbas recently “refused a phone call from Trump.”
The Palestinians have called for the establishment of a Palestinian state along 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and a “just solution” to the refugee issue.
Abbas has vowed to reject any American peace plan and has said the Palestinians have recently cut off all contacts with the US, other than with American security officials as a part of their commitment “to fight terrorism.”
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