On Sunday, ahead of the big Tuesday reveal in the White House, US President Donald J. Trump delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the so-called “Deal of the Century” also known as the “Middle East Peace Plan”. The proposal however is absent of any semblance of a realistic deal or a feasible plan to solve Israeli-Palestinian issues as it benefits one side at the expense of the other. Quite frankly, it’s not even worth the ink or paper it was printed on and was rejected by Palestinian leaders before Tuesdays unveiling.
The United Nations rejected the proposal and reiterated that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be solved based on UN resolutions and international law and bilateral agreements based on pre-1967 lines. Trump has ignored the two-state solution adopted by the UN and international community and is proposing his own plan which is heavily influenced and supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) a strong lobby group that advocates pro-Israel policies to Congress and the Executive Branch on domestic and international issues.
For the past three year’s President Trump’s Senior Advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner has been busy working on the eighty-page document and the accompanying map which graphically demonstrates how Israel will be using this farce of a deal to continue it’s illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian land.
Kushner’s Middle East expertise is limited to his real estate investment projects in Israel which fostered strong family relations with Netanyahu and the twenty-five books he read while preparing for his “peace agreement”.
Trump, Kushner, and Netanyahu never actually intended to create an agreement or deal that could be entered into by the Israeli’s and Palestinians for their mutual benefit instead their supposed “vision for peace, prosperity, and a brighter future for Israeli’s and Palestinians” has an underlining agenda to bolster Israel’s subjugation of Palestinians, theft, murder, annexation and occupation. Netanyahu said that his cabinet would vote on the measure to apply Israeli sovereignty to West Bank settlements and the strategic Jordan valley on Sunday, which could account for 30 percent of the West Bank, occupied territory which Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 war which Palestinians were planning on using for their future state. However, Netanyahu might encounter some legal complications because the current cabinet is an interim cabinet till the upcoming election.
As happy and proud as Trump and Kushner were on Tuesday while unveiling the “Scam of the Century”, in the White House, there was one man in the room who was beaming with unrestrained glee, Netanyahu referred to Trump’s “Deal of the Century” as the “Opportunity of the Century” and said that Israel will not miss this opportunity. In a room full of Zionists, Evangelicals, and White House Officials, not a single Palestinian political leader, advisor, or otherwise was present, which again speaks to the illegitimacy of this supposed “peace plan”.
Ambassadors from Bahrain, Oman, and the UAE attended and will be paying for the economic portion of the deal, but they represent less 1% of the Arab population and have aligned themselves with Israel and western nations because they share a common enemy, Iran.
Trump said that this was a win-win opportunity for both sides, but clearly this and everything else he has done in the past three years entirely favors Israel while subjugating Palestinians such as but not limited to moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, claiming that the Golan heights belong to Israel, and unilaterally withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) aka Iran Nuclear deal.
Trump’s “Slap of the Century” as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas referred to it, states that Palestinians would have four years to work towards becoming a state, President Trump went on to say that he is asking Palestinians to meet the challenges of peaceful co-existence. This would include disarming Hamas, broadly accepting the Jewish character of the Israeli state and in exchange they would be granted limited autonomy within a Palestinian homeland that consists of multiple non-contiguous enclaves scattered throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Israel would retain “security” aka control over not only Palestinian enclaves but Palestinian borders, airspace, aquifers, maritime waters, and electromagnetic spectrum. In addition, Israel would be allowed to annex the Jordan valley and Jewish communities in the West Bank. Palestinians would be allowed to select their political leaders but would not have any political rights in Israel. This fraudulent Mideast “peace plan” is a thinly veiled plan for apartheid and increases tensions between the two contentious parties.
The timing of this big reveal is important to note, as it serves as a distraction from the political woes that both Trump and Netanyahu are currently facing. President Trump is currently the subject of an on-going impeachment trial in the Senate and Israel’s Attorney General filed a criminal indictment against Netanyahu on a series of corruption charges.
Not only was this sham of a “peace plan” made without the participation of Palestinians but it defies international law and international precedent on the issue and ignores Palestinian interests. Without question by declaring Jerusalem Israel’s “undivided” capital, Trump has angered and pushed Palestinians away from coming to any sort of possible resolution to decades of violent conflict. Now Israel has more of a reason to annex major illegal Israeli colonies in occupied West Bank due to this proposal. Not only is the United States promoting the theft, plundering, and illegal annexation of Palestinian land but the Syrian Golan Heights as well.
Disturbing historical parallels have been drawn between Palestinians and the Bantu people of South Africa. Ten territories were designated as quasi-autonomous states for the black African population during the mid to late 20th century and kept under control of the white supremacist state. The “Steal of the Century” is intended to bring about a similar fate for Palestinians.
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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Sarah Abed is an independent journalist and analyst.
Featured image is from Another Day in the Empire
