Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ Was Written in a Way So the Palestinians Would Reject It. Maybe That Was the Plan
- Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ Was Written in a Way So the Palestinians Would Reject It. Maybe That Was the Plan
by Amir Tibon and Noa Landau, https://www.haaretz.com/
Israeli sources who have been briefed on Jared Kushner’s peace plan, set to be published early this week, say it will basically maintain the current situation, and is consistent with right-wing and religious positions.
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On January 19, 2017, a night before his inauguration as the 45th U.S. president, Donald Trump stood on a stage in Washington and praised Jared Kushner. “If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can,” he told his son-in-law at the VIP reception. Trump added that the deal he was going to ask Kushner to present – peace between Israel and the Palestinians – was the “toughest deal” to get.
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Three years later, the Trump administration is about to present Kushner’s document, widely known as “the deal of the century,” and it’s clear that Israeli-Palestinian peace is the last thing that will come out of it.
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Kushner’s plan is written in a way that guarantees it will be rejected by the Palestinian Authority, and will be released after two years with no communications between the United States and the Palestinians.
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At the start of the Trump administration, the Palestinian leadership was more optimistic. A senior PA official, who is very close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told a group of journalists and researchers in Washington that Trump’s background as a businessman and his erratic behavior could lead to big surprises on the peace front.
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This hope was further strengthened by the Palestinian leadership’s first meeting with Jason Greenblatt, who was appointed as Trump’s envoy to the Middle East. Greenblatt, a lawyer for Trump and an Orthodox Jew, had no previous background in diplomacy or in the Middle East. His first trips to the region left a positive impression – of a person who was mostly coming to listen, and who asked many questions, including ones that showed a lack of basic knowledge.
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