The White House must now figure out how to present the plan so that it is not immediately rejected by the Palestinians, The New York Times reported Sunday.
By JTAUpdated: MARCH 12, 2018 21:48Jason Greenblatt Meets PM Netanyahu(photo credit: MATTY STERN, US EMBASSY TEL AVIV)
The Trump administration is finishing up its Middle East peace plan and intends to make it public soon, The New York Times reported Sunday.The White House must now figure out how to present the plan so that it is not immediately rejected by the Palestinians, the newspaper reported, citing three unnamed senior administration officials.An unnamed senior aide to President Donald Trump compared the plan to Waze, the Israeli-developed traffic navigation software.According to the report, the officials said the plan does not have a set of guiding principles. It gives the outlines of a peace plan and leaves the Israelis and the Palestinians to fill in the details. Also, they said, the plan also does not specifically call for a two-state solution as a goal nor for a “fair and just solution” for Palestinian refugees, though it will offer suggestions on both points.The aides told The Times that the document proposes solutions to all the key disputes: borders, security, refugees and the status of Jerusalem.The Palestinians have said they will not consider a US-proposed peace plan due to their anger over Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his intent to move the US. Embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. Netanyahu is less likely to be willing to make compromises, as he faces early elections due to coalition disputes and fears fallout from possible corruption charges. The plan also comes as Trump has begun the process of dealing with North Korea.The report points out that no one outside of the Trump administration has seen the plan document, and that the people who wrote it — Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and David Friedman – had no previous experience in diplomacy. But the three men reportedly met last week with Netanyahu for several hours while he was in Washington, D.C., to address the annual AIPAC policy conference and meet with Trump.