Europe thinks Trump’s plan doomed to fail, but will not present alternatives for now
French President Emmanuel Macron thinks that no plan can succeed if the parties are not willing to work together.
By GIDEON KOUTS / MAARIVA European Union flag flies outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 19, 2019.(photo credit: REUTERS/YVES HERMAN)
Washington's announcement that the US peace plan is going to be released next week has been met coolly by European leaders.However, European leaders do not want to present an alternative plan at this stage but rather to allow US President Donald Trump's initiative to fail by itself.Emmanuel Bonne, a chief diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron, has been in contact with Trump's adviser's Jared Kushner about the plan, but he also does not think it will succeed. The same opinion is shared by Macron himself, who gives it no chance, since "no peace plan will succeed if both parties do not want to build peace together."On Wednesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas explained to Macron why he opposes the deal, highlighting that every solution must be based on two states along the 1967 border with agreed land swaps, something that is not guaranteed by the US plan.Abbas also asked the French president that Paris and the rest of Europe recognize Palestine as a state, but did not receive a positive response.
