President Donald Trump released his long delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan Tuesday.
Trump said his plan could succeed where decades of previous US attempts to intervene had failed.
“Together we can bring about a… new dawn in the Middle East,” Trump said to an enthusiastic audience of Israeli and Jewish American guests, but apparently no Palestinian representatives.
Trump praised Israel for taking “a giant step toward peace” with the plan, which lays out a vision for future Palestinian statehood if a series of strict conditions are met.
These include requiring the future Palestinian state to be “demilitarized,” while formalizing Israeli sovereignty over settlements built in occupied territory.
Criticizing previous US diplomatic efforts as overly vague, Trump noted that his version was 80 pages long and contained a map depicting the proposed future neighboring states.
However, the Palestinians angrily rejected the entire plan.
“This conspiracy deal will not pass. Our people will take it to the dustbin of history,” Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said.
Trump promised a “contiguous” future Palestinian state, addressing the current situation where Israel controls broad territory separating the two main population centers of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
But the map showed the West Bank remaining riddled with Jewish settlements linked to Israel and only a long road tunnel connecting the area with the seaside Gaza Strip.
The plan makes clear that Israel is free to annex its settlements on Palestinian lands right away.
On the flash-point issue of Jerusalem, Trump said Israel should retain control over the city as its “undivided capital,” Trump said.
At the same time, the Palestinians would be allowed to declare a capital within occupied East Jerusalem, he said.
The Hamas Islamist movement, which runs the Gaza Strip, said it could never accept compromise on Jerusalem being capital of a future state.
The announcement came as both Trump and Netanyahu fight for their political futures.
Netanyahu called the proposal “the deal of the century” and said to Trump “you have been the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”
Trump said he had written Tuesday to Abbas to enlist his support.
“I explained to (Abbas) that the territory allocated for his new state will remain open and undeveloped for a period of four years,” Trump said.
“This could be the last opportunity they will ever have.”
Trump’s plan triggered immediate condemnation on the streets of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with demonstrations expected to continue through the week.
Thirteen people were wounded in the West Bank in clashes with the Israeli army, the Red Crescent said.
There was also anger from Israeli hardliners.
Transport Minister Bezalel Smotrich, from the far-right Yemina union, said his party “won’t under any conditions agree to recognition, whether explicit or implicit, of a Palestinian state.”
International reaction was at best cautiously positive.
Saudi Arabia called for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks.
Russia, a growing force in Mideast politics, sounded skeptical.
Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell said the bloc would “study and assess” the US proposals.
While Germany’s foreign minister said “only a negotiated two-state solution, acceptable to both sides” would work.
Britain, which is leaving the EU on Friday and has long had a special relationship with Washington, gave the warmest reaction.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called it a “serious proposal, reflecting extensive time and effort.”
Among the strongest foreign condemnations were from Turkey, which branded the plan “stillborn” and Iran, which called it “doomed to fail.”
By contrast, Egypt urged “a careful and thorough examination of the US vision.”
