Trump leaps into Middle East fray with plan that favours Israel and angers Palestinians

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed creating a Palestinian state as part of a Middle East peace solution, drawing Palestinian condemnation for imposing strict conditions and for agreeing to let Israel maintain control of long-contested West Bank settlements.

Trump announced his plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace at a White House event with embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing at his side. It includes what Trump called a four-year freeze by Israel on new settlement activity.

Although Trump's stated aim was to end decades of conflict, the plan he advanced favored Israel, underscored by the absence of Palestinians from Trump's announcement. It seemed unlikely to advance Israeli-Palestinian talks that broke down in 2014.

Trump set in motion a four-year timeline for Palestinians to agree to a security arrangement with Israel, halt attacks by the Islamist militant group Hamas and set up governing institutions in order to establish a Palestinian state with its capital in Abu Dis, a part of east Jerusalem.

This too poses a potential problem for Palestinians.

Abu Dis lies a mile east of Jerusalem's walled Old City, home to Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites. Palestinians living in Abu Dis are cut off by a high concrete Israeli security wall and checkpoints.

The site is unlikely to satisfy Palestinian leaders who want a more central location. Trump's plan says this barrier should serve as a border between the capitals of the two states, adding that Jerusalem should remain Israel's undivided, sovereign capital.

"My vision presents a win-win opportunity for both sides, a realistic two-state solution that resolves the risk of Palestinian statehood to Israel's security," Trump said.

A Palestinian man places a shoe on a television screen broadcasting the announcement of Mideast peace plan by US President Donald Trump, in a coffee shop in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 28, 2020. Reuters

'SLAP OF THE CENTURY'

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking to reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, mocked what Trump has called the "deal of the century" as the "slap of the century."

"Jerusalem is not for sale, our rights are not for sale and are not for bargain and your deal, the conspiracy will not pass,” Abbas said.

Critics say both Trump and Netanyahu have been intent on diverting attention away from domestic troubles. Trump faces an impeachment trial while Netanyahu was formally indicted in court on corruption charges on Tuesday. Both men deny any wrongdoing.

Netanyahu also faces a difficult election in March - his third in less than a year. He is locked in a battle with Blue and White Party chief Benny Gantz, who also expressed support for the Trump plan.

Netanyahu said that the Trump plan offers Palestinians a pathway to a future state but that it may take them "a very long time to get to the beginning of that path."

"If they agree to abide by all the conditions you have put forward in your plan, Israel will be there. Israel will be prepared to negotiate peace right away," he said.

Trump said he had sent a letter to Abbas asking him to study the deal.

"I explained to him that the territory allocated for his new state will remain open and undeveloped for a period of four years. During this time, Palestinians can use all appropriate deliberation to study the deal, negotiate with Israel, achieve the criteria for statehood and become a truly independent and wonderful state," he said.

Palestinians protest as smoke rises from burning tires ahead of the announcement by US President Donald Trump of his long-delayed Mideast peace plan, in Gaza City January 28, 2020. Reuters

Under Trump's proposed Middle East peace plan, the United States will recognise Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank.

The White House document said Israel agreed to a four-year "land freeze" to secure the possibility of a two-state solution. But a senior Israeli official later played down the notion of a settlement freeze in the West Bank.

Palestinians have refused to deal with the Trump administration in protest at such pro-Israel policies as its moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the eastern part of which is sought by the Palestinians.

US senior administration officials said they expected initial Palestinian scepticism over the plan but hoped that over time they will agree to negotiate. It places high hurdles for the Palestinians to overcome to reach their long-sought goal of a state.

"Strip away the domestic and Israeli political considerations that determined the timing of the plan’s release, and the message to the Palestinians, boiled down to its essence, is: You’ve lost, get over it," said Robert Malley, president of International Crisis Group and a former US National Security Council official.

Members of a Palestinian family sit around a fire to warm themselves at the site of their destroyed house, on a rainy day in the southern Gaza Strip January 10, 2020. Reuters

TWO-STATE MAP

The US plan represented the most dramatic and detailed attempt to break the historic deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians in several years, the result of a three-year effort by Trump senior advisers including his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Trump has endorsed a proposed map outlining the two states, US officials said. The Palestinian state would be double the size of land that Palestinians currently control and would be connected by roads, bridges and tunnels, they said.

Israel will also take steps to ensure Muslim access to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and respect Jordan's role regarding holy sites, the officials said.

Trump's plan calls for Palestinian refugees to settle in a future Palestinian state and creates a "generous compensation fund" for them, one of the officials said.

About Israel retaining the settlements, a US official said: "The plan is based on a principle that people should not have to move to accomplish peace ... But it does stop future settlement expansion which we consider to be the most realistic approach.

Before the Trump announcement, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in Gaza City and Israeli troops reinforced positions near a flashpoint site between the Palestinian city of Ramallah and the Jewish settlement of Beit El in the West Bank.