The US peace plan for the Middle East

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has this week again turned down the US peace plan for the Middle East.

Corina Cristea, 14.02.2020, 14:00

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has this week again turned down the US peace plan for the Middle East, this time before the UN Security Council. Proposed by President Donald Trump, the US peace plan for the Middle East is ‘a gift for Israel and unacceptable to Palestinians. Under the new plan, ‘East Jerusalem is no longer under the sovereignty of the state of Palestine – that alone is enough for us to reject this plan, Abbas said in a statement. According to him, the state carved out for Palestinians looks like a fragmented Swiss cheese. ‘This is the state that they will give us. It’s like a Swiss cheese, really. Who among you will accept a similar state and similar conditions? Mahmoud Abbas asked the representatives of the 15 members of the UN Security Council, adding that the deal “carries within it dictates, reinforcement of the occupation, annexation by military force and anchoring of an apartheid system.

Presented as the deal of the century, President Trump’s plan, the product of three years’ efforts by senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, would recognize Israel’s authority over the settlements in the West Bank and would require the Palestinians to meet a series of conditions to have a state, with its capital in a West Bank village, east of Jerusalem.

Here is Dragos Ciocarlan, Radio Romanias correspondent in Israel with more on the issue: “Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said before the UN Security Council that the US peace plan allowing for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank violates the Palestinians rights to self-determination and statehood. In his opinion, ‘this is an Israeli-American pre-emptive plan in order to put an end to the question of Palestine. He deplored the fact that under this plan, Jerusalem is not under the authority of the Palestinian state, though such a state never existed. Abbas has congratulated all the Palestinians who took to the streets of the West Bank and Gaza to protest the US peace plan adding that the Israelis and Palestinians ‘should be allowed to reach peace on their own, rather than it be imposed. Israels ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon says that ‘Israel is willing to enter into direct talks with the Palestinians. ‘Abbas should come to Jerusalem, not New York. And instead of being committed to peace, Abbas is committed to incitement against Israel, Danon added referring to former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who spoke in the Knesset before signing a peace treaty with Israel.

Peace is still possible between the Israelis and Palestinians but not through the ‘unfair plan drafted by the Trump administration, which is trying to legitimize ‘what is illegal, concluded the president of the Palestinian Authority. On the other side, the American plan is supported by the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and by Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White centrist Alliance. ‘If they are really ready to make peace with the Jewish state, Israel will be ready to negotiate immediately said Netanyahu, while underlining the need to disarm Hamas and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.

Leaving statements aside, news agencies have written for the first time that, in this conflict, an agreement was reached with Israel for a map that delineates the borders between two neighboring states. A guest in Radio Romanias studios, political analyst Iulian Chifu believes that, despite differences, this peace plan may include enough elements that could attract especially the new generations of Palestinians who were not caught in this internal struggle and who do not necessarily regard Israel as their historic enemy:

Iulian Chifu: “I believe that this plan should be neither minimized nor destroyed, because it has elements that could be used in a direct negation, even if its not necessarily the form in which it was publicly delivered and supported that benefits both sides. The very announcement of relocating the embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel by the US was not hailed by the Palestinian Authority or the Arab States. Maybe things should be thought out more carefully, but the plan does have many interesting elements. The plan deserves careful consideration. It could be a new attempt at assessing and solving one the most complicated conflicts of the world. Because it is a very old conflict, there have been many generations going through this conflict.

According to analyst Iulian Chifu one can no longer speak of reconciliation when the conflict has been ongoing between generations for 70 years already, and maybe its high time they put an end to this conflict. (translation by D. Bilt and L. Simion)