Ex-IDF intel. chief: Trump peace plan not even basis for talks
Plan is ‘so much less’ than Palestinians have already been offered; Ex-US envoy, general ‘hyperventilated’ upon hearing the plan – will go nowhere.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBAmos Yadlin(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Former IDF intelligence chief and INSS executive director Amos Yadlin said of US President Donald Trump's peace plan that, “it is not a peace plan, and I am not sure that it is even a basis for a peace plan.”Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies conference, Yadlin said that the parameters of the deal were fantastic for Israel, but that “the concessions for the Palestinians” were not enough to get them to agree to the deal.The former IDF intelligence chief said that the Palestinians “have rejected, condemned and refused to even join the dialogue to have talks,” because the deal is so much less than what they have been offered in the past.At the same time, Yadlin said that the deal might be a basis for future talks and was historic in recognizing Jewish rights in Jerusalem and the West Bank.Likewise, former US Middle East peace envoy and Afghanistan commander Gen. John Allen told the INSS conference that he was “hyperventilating” when he heard the terms of Trump's peace plan, because it would go nowhere.Allen ran most of former US Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process between 2013 and 2014.Allen said that the Trump plan, “will go over very badly in the US,” because it does not give “a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, [and] it makes the Jordan Valley not just a long-term presence, but is now annexed.”The former envoy said late Wednesday night that, “if the settlement issue is not resolved and ultimately becomes a permanent part of Israeli territory,” it will not be accepted.
