Is Middle East Peace Possible? Trump Unveils Long-Awaited Plan

Update: 4 p.m. EST

After the U.S. Middle East peace plan was unveiled, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would ask the Cabinet to approve on Sunday a proposal for annexing the Jordan Valley, northern Dead Sea and West Bank settlements.

Original story

If Palestinians renounce violence, they would gain limited autonomy and a path toward statehood under a Middle East peace plan unveiled by President Trump Tuesday.

The 50-page plan, developed by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, also incorporates large Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem into Israel proper and continues some security measures in the territory won by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The plan’s release comes amid consideration in the Israeli Knesset of parliamentary immunity for corruption for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and continuing proceedings in the U.S. Senate over whether to remove Trump from office.

Trump said the plan presents a realistic solution to two-state statehood.

“The Palestinian people have grown distrustful after years of unfulfilled promises,” Trump said in unveiling the plan, flanked by Netanyahu. “No Palestinians or Israelis will be uprooted from their homes.”

He said Israel will work closely with Jordan’s King Abdullah to “preserve the status quo of the Temple Mount.”

The plan calls for $50 billion in investment in the new Palestinian state. Trump said virtually every Arab state in the area supports the plan and “wants this to happen.”

“In 10 years, 1 million great new Palestinian jobs will be created, and the poverty rate will be cut in half,” Trump said, adding he expects the gross domestic product with double or triple.

He called on Palestinians to renounce violence against Israel and said he has written to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, pledging to be there to help the Palestinians “every step of the way” to achieve statehood.

“If they do this, it will work,” Trump said.

Trump discussed the plan with Netanyahu and Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz separately at the White House Monday, and predicted the Palestinians ultimately will support it since several Arab states have expressed privately.

“They like it. They think it’s great. They think it’s a big start,” Trump said. “I think it’s a big start, too. I think it’s a fantastic thing if we can pull it off. They say it’s probably the most difficult deal anywhere and of any kind to make.”

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh Monday rejected the plan out-of-hand, saying it would be the death of the Palestinian cause. An emergency meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee was scheduled for Tuesday. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat tweeted the plan is an attempt to destroy the two-state solution and warned any annexation of Palestinian territory would mean an end to the Oslo accords. He predicted the world would unite behind the Palestinians.

Nimrod Goren, founder and head of Mitvim-the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, wrote in the Jerusalem Post the international community should reject the Trump plan, saying it “runs counter to previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements and understandings on core issues of the conflict: borders, settlements, Jerusalem and even refugees. It serves a right-wing political ideology and electoral goals, while distancing peace.”

He said the plan endangers Israel’s future, in part because the United States lost touch with the Palestinian side, making it impossible for the U.S. to act as an honest broker.

Pro-Israel group J Street leader Jeremy Ben-Ami called the plan a “blatant political stunt” meant to distract from legal problems plaguing both Trump and Netanyahu.

“This is not the day, if you are a serious policymaker, to resolve the world’s most difficult conflict,” he told the Washington Post. “The fact that they chose this day tells you everything you need to know.”