US President Donald Trump says he’ll “probably” release his administration’s peace plan for the Middle East sometime after the Israeli national elections scheduled for September 17.
However, the US is likely to “release small parts of it beforehand,” the president told reporters on Sunday.
The plan was created by a team comprised of White House senior advisers headed by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and included Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. It was to have been unveiled by this summer but that plan was set aside once new elections were called by Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a new coalition government following the April 9 elections.
Nevertheless, the US went ahead in June with its plan to roll out the economic element of the plan through an “economic workshop” held in the Bahraini capital of Manama, “Prosperity to Peace” that was officially aimed at jumpstarting the economy of the Palestinian Authority, even though the Ramallah government loudly and visibly snubbed the event and its organizers.
Since that time, despite initially supporting the plan, a number of regional Arab governments have appeared to back away from even showing neutrality in the matter; instead, most have reverted to prior expressions of support for “our Palestinian brothers” and the “two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestine with its borders along the 1967 lines.”
Israel is unwilling to support that position, which is one that would invite Iran into Israel’s backyard and spell suicide for the Jewish State. Moreover, the US is also no longer likely to endorse that stance, realizing that massive American ordnance and weaponry would be required to provide the necessary defense to ensure Israel’s survival, in addition to securing American interests in the region as well.
