The recently established US Embassy in Jerusalem (moved from Tel Aviv last year as part of Trump's plan) has confirmed that the world will soon see the most controversial element of Trump's peace plan put into effect: Israeli annexation over broad swathes of the West Bank, particularly the Jordan Valley.
“As we have made consistently clear, we are prepared to recognize Israeli actions to extend Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to areas of the West Bank that the [Trump peace plan] foresees as being part of the State of Israel,” a top US Embassy official told the Times of Israel on Friday.
The statement made clear that "Israeli actions" will be validated with or without recognition of a Palestinian state, something which on paper at least Trump's 'deal of the century' offered.
Though the deal offers statehood, the Palestinians have rejected the US-Israeli brokered Trump peace plan from the start, given they simply had no involvement or were not fundamentally consulted.
Ultimately such a brazen annexation, which as we noted before PM Netanyahu said will take place as early as within two months, or likely early summer, will essentially end the path to statehood.
But maybe this was the whole point to begin with: design and orchestrate a 'peace plan' which ultimately preempts any real path to statehood all while charging the Palestinian side with not being on board, or as has been heard many times before: the Israelis can claim "we don't have a partner for peace".
Should Israeli annexation indeed move forward by this summer, as Netanyahu envisions, it could potentially unleash protests and violence on the level of a third Intifiada. Palestinian Authority leaders as well as Hamas have vowed that such an extensive new Israeli land grab will be resisted by call costs.
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