US President Donald Trump has unveiled a sweeping Middle East peace plan
that his administration claims will end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict by
offering concessions to both sides. But even the optics of the announcement - with
Trump standing beside Israel's caretaker prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and
no Palestinian anywhere to be seen - revealed just how disingenuous that claim is.
Effective peace negotiations require a perfectly calibrated interchange between
process and content. In the case of Trump's peace plan, the process was clearly a sham.
Under the Trump administration's plan, Jerusalem would remain Israel's undivided capital,
with the Palestinian capital located in the suburbs east of the city. Far from the "deal
of the century" that Trump has repeatedly promised, this is - in Abbas's words - the
"slap of the century". It ignores decades of negotiations, as well as concerted efforts
by Arab neighbors such as Jordan and Egypt, to encourage moderation. The unveiling
of the new peace deal was surely intended to consolidate Trump's right-wing Christian
Zionist base, giving him a political boost as his impeachment trial unfolds in the
Senate. According to Daoud.K, a Palestinian journalist, what the Trump administration has
put forward is not a courageous plan for permanent peace but a shameless ploy to violate
international law, Palestinian human rights, and basic principles of fairness. Yes, this
may deliver a short-term political boost to Trump and Netanyahu. But Palestinians will
never accept it.