Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV published details on Monday from a reportedly leaked draft of the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, or deal of the century, marking a second time this year unconfirmed documents have revealed plans to establish a demilitarized state of “New Palestine” alongside Israel.
The draft allegedly contains a series of clauses describing a trilateral agreement between Israel, the PLO and Hamas, which would constitute a departure from the U.S.’s longstanding position of refusing to negotiate directly with Hamas, the Islamic group governing the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, the state of New Palestine will exist in the West Bank and Gaza, connected via a raised highway constructed 30 meters off the ground. All Israeli settlement blocs would be annexed to Israel, signaling consistency with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement last month that “The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.”
The document notes, “The Jordan Valley,” which constitutes 30 percent of the West Bank, “will remain in Israeli hands, as it is today.” Israeli settlements and closed military zones account for 85 percent of the Jordan Valley.
Egypt will sell the state of New Palestine a swath its territory for the purpose of creating an industrial zone “without permitting the Palestinians to live there.” The draft said, “the size and price of land will be agreed upon between the parties by the supporting state, which will be defined later.”
Jerusalem would remain united, “it will be shared between Israel and New Palestine.” The Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, some 350,000 mostly residing in East Jerusalem, would become citizens of New Palestine. Israelis and Palestinians would no longer be able to purchase homes from one another, and “additional areas will not be annexed to Jerusalem, and the holy sites will remain as they are today.” A later clause in the draft would transfer stewardship of the Al Aqsa Mosque from Jordan to Saudi Arabia.
Israel would provide all services in Jerusalem to both Palestinians and Israelis with the exception of education for Palestinians. The government of New Palestine would pay Israel for these services along with additional fees for security. The Palestinian state would be prevented from forming an army or holding weapons, other than “police weapons.”
Palestinians would be allowed to use Israel’s airport for a period of five years, after which a Palestinian airport and seaport will be established at unspecified locations.
The draft deal calls for elections for the newly created Palestinian state, following all Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli detention facilities over a three-year term.
Hamas would seemingly be allowed to continue to exist as a political party locally, however, all weapons must be turned over to Egypt. According to Al Mayadeen’s reporting “Hamas men” would “receive monthly salaries from Arab countries,” although no contributing countries were named.
Earlier this year in May the Israeli outlet Yisrael Hayom published a similar document shared among officials in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that tracks closely to Al Mayadeen’s reported leak. Both copies show bullet points of the peace plan and further identify punitive measures for Israel and the Palestinians should either reject the deal, a line item that has not been included in any previous administration’s attempt to broker Middle East peace. This latest reporting of the plan again threatens to cut off U.S. aid to both Israel and the Palestinians, and warns countries providing aid to Palestinians, if the Trump plan is rejected.
Both documents state in the event the Palestinians do not accept the deal and there is another military confrontation between Palestinian factions and Israel, the U.S. will support Israel in “personally harming the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad” in a future escalation in Gaza.
“America will not accept that dozens only control the fate of millions of people,” both documents said.
Mondoweiss was not able to independently confirm the authenticity of the leaked draft of the deal from either Al Mayadeen or Yisrael Hayom.
Today the White House denied the veracity of Al Mayadeen’s reported leak. A senior official in the administration told the Times of Israel, “Rumors about the content of the Trump Administration peace plan are false,” adding, “We are confident that the so-called source has not seen the plan.”
Even so, the White House has attempted to secure funding for its peacemaking efforts this week by requesting $175 million from Congress—which was rejected by bipartisan lawmakers in the House. The budget was initially announced last March, three months before senior White House Advisor and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner released the economic component of the peace plan in Bahrain.
The administration and Palestinian negotiators severed communication in late 2017 after three rounds of high ranking talks between Trump and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Speaking to his cabinet yesterday in Ramallah, Abbas said, “From day one we said no to the deal of the century, and we know the price of this no.”
The official release of the Trump administration plan has been delayed multiple times following Israel’s snap elections last fall. The plan is expected to be released after Israel conducts another election in early 2020.
There you go, the “honest broker” once again showing his true colors. First he got his crooked father in law to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, going against US policies, and we did get to look like fools when the world voted against us, condemning our actions, now he comes up with this rather unworkable plan, which of course benefits the land thief, and occupier, far more, than the victims. It will be interesting to see who will go along. Looks like they are also going to give Hamas some “legitimacy”. Strange.
“UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Mideast envoy said Wednesday that Israel advanced or approved plans for over 22,000 housing units in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem in the three years since the Security Council adopted a resolution condemning settlements in lands the Palestinians want for their future state.”
https://apnews.com/83a0f1b11f8ec780f580c8b6ebcad81a
Not a lot of room for New Palestine…..
“According to the report, the state of New Palestine will exist in the West Bank and Gaza, connected via a raised highway constructed 30 meters off the ground”.
This is lunacy, a seventy mile highway 100 feet in the air connecting the West Bank to Gaza, why not a tunnel then the Israelis will not be offended by the sight of “terror” cars passing overhead?
Since area ‘C’ comprises 61% of the West Bank and is slated to be annexed by Israel how much of the West Bank [sorry the Bantustans] would the Palestinians “administer”?
Those fragments of the West Bank and Gaza strip would be called ‘New Palestine’ would this new “state” be recognized at the United Nations by Israel/US? Obviously not since Israel claims the whole of the West Bank as part of its historic territory [the Land of Israel], another clue is that Egypt is required to sell part of its territory i.e. sovereignty for an industrial park for residents of Gaza [work camps for the prisoners] the clue on sovereignty is why Egypt has to sell their land and not Israel selling theirs alongside the Gaza strip? Another clue is the “New Palestine” will have no means to defend itself, only an internal police force [to control the Prisoners]. Further… “America will not accept that dozens only control the fate of millions of people,” they will of course recognize MBS [Saudi Arabia] and General Al-Sisi [Egypt] as individuals who can control the fate of over 100 million people.
This is complete madness only a fool like Kushner in consultation with Netanyahu could put forward such a madcap scheme, finished off with a typical Trump threat “the U.S. will support Israel in “personally harming the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in a future escalation in Gaza”. This is Trumps ‘offer they cannot refuse’, or horses head in the beds of all Palestinian leaders.
The steal of the century.
For the record:
https://www.aaiusa.org/overlooked_congressional_rebuke_of_trump_s_position_on_israeli_settlements?utm_campaign=ww_12_17_2019&utm_medium=email&utm_source=aai
“Overlooked Congressional Rebuke of Trump’s Position on Israeli Settlements.”
Arab American Institute, Dec. 14/19, by Dr. James J. Zogby.
“The most stunning rebuke to the Trump Administration’s unilateral effort to legitimize Israeli settlements didn’t come from Arab and European leaders. Over the years, their statements of condemnation have become so predictable that both Israel and the US routinely shrug them off.
“Instead, the most significant response came in the form of a letter sent by Members of Congress to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Drafted by freshman Congressman Andy Levin of Michigan, the letter was co-signed by 106 other Representatives. While it’s true that the Levin letter isn’t a law and, therefore, will have no real impact on policy, there are several reasons why it is worthy of note.
“Most important is fact that the letter strongly endorses the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. The third and final paragraph of the letter to Secretary Pompeo reads:
“‘This State Department decision blatantly disregards Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which affirms that any occupying power shall not ‘deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies’…If the US unilaterally abandons international and human rights law, we can expect a more chaotic and brutal twenty-first century for America and our allies…’
“This is the first time that a substantial number of Members of Congress have embraced the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. In fact, in 1999 and 2009 Congress passed resolutions denouncing international efforts to hold Israel accountable for its violations of the Conventions.
“The principle reason for this Congressional refusal to embrace the Conventions has been in deference to Israel’s insistence that its seizure of Palestinian lands in 1967 was not an occupation. Instead they refer to the territories as ‘disputed areas.; That being the case, Israel has long refused to accept that the Conventions apply to Palestinian lands, since if they were to apply, then Israel would be guilty of: ‘annexing’ occupied lands, demolishing Palestinian properties and homes, building settlements for their own citizens on this land, stealing resources from this land, the expulsion of and denial of repatriation of Palestinians who inhabited this land, and whole range of human rights abuses committed against the captive Palestinian population including torture, collective punishment, and illegal detention.
“Israel has also used pressure from their Washington lobbyists to insure that not only would Congress refrain from taking any measure against Israel, they would also avoid using the term ‘occupied’ in reference to Palestinian lands. [In 2016, I served as one of Bernie Sanders’ representatives on the Democratic Party’s platform drafting committee. Our efforts to insert the words ‘occupation’ and ‘settlements’ were met with stiff resistance. We ultimately failed in our efforts.]
“In recent years we have witnessed some evolution in the policy debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Three of the leading Democratic candidates for the presidency have criticized Israeli settlements, denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared intention to annex parts of the West Bank. These Democrats also link future US aid to Israel to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. And last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill, that among other things, did support Palestinian statehood and strongly opposed Israeli annexation of any part of the West Bank.
“But none of these efforts have gone as far as the Levin letter which in an unprecedented manner holds Israel accountable to international law.
“While Democrats have been emboldened on Israeli-Palestinian issues as a result of their disgust with the Trump/Netanyahu marriage, what is impressive about the Levin letter is that it isn’t tied to or focused on Democrats revulsion with both men. Rather, the letter focuses on the importance of the US upholding international human rights law and demands that Israel adhere to its requirements – whoever is in office in Israel or the United States.
“A final point about the importance of Levin letter was the fact that it was signed by 107 Members of Congress. There have been strong principled letters on Israeli-Palestinian issues in the past, but never one that drew the support of so many. While they were all Democrats, the diversity they represented was impressive. There were senior leaders in the party, as well as freshman and there were African American, Latino, Arab Americans and American Jews.
“What was troubling was the fact that the Levin letter was largely ignored by the US media. Because it was a letter and not a law, some may have failed to grasp the important shift it represents in the political landscape. These changes have been percolating under surface for years. Now they are breaking out into the open. This story is still being written.”