21/05/2023

But the president also says that “life goes on” if the plan doesn’t succeed.

Trump is meeting Monday at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his election opponent Benny Gantz ahead of a summit on the rollout with both leaders Tuesday.
The White House unveiled
the first part of its plan last summer, outlining an economic vision for Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries ahead of a diplomatic conference in Bahrain. But the initial plank was panned by Palestinians, even without getting into the thornier political issues expected to be included in the upcoming plan.
The second portion of the peace proposal has repeatedly been delayed because of domestic issues both in the U.S. and Israel, which is in the throes of its third election in less than a year with Netanyahu and Gantz vying to form a government. Both Trump and Netanyahu are facing threats to their political careers with an impeachment trial ongoing in the Senate and Netanyahu facing criminal corruption charges at home.
And whats being released Tuesday is widely expected to be more favorable to Israel, though Trump sought to push back on those expectations.
Though he offered no details about the plan, which has been spearheaded by his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Trump said that it is very good for the Palestinians.
In fact, it’s overly good to them, he argued, conceding that his plan would need buy-in from both sides and telling reporters that without them we don’t do the deal, and that’s OK.
But Trumps Israel-friendly moves as president undermine his description of the plan as one that will be fair to both sides. Netanyahu noted as much at the White House Monday, touting pro-Israel steps taken by Trump that have simultaneously angered the Palestinians.
The list of your support for Israel, the things you’ve done for Israel since you’ve become president, is very long, Netanyahu told reporters in the Rose Garden. But the bottom line is short. You have made our lives stronger than ever.
Last week, Trump said hed spoken to the Palestinians briefly about his plan, though he also said we will speak to them in a period of time.
And at the White House on Monday, he reiterated his belief that a cooling of tensions in the region is something [Palestinians]should want. They probably won’t want to initially, but I think in the end they will. In the end they will want it.
They are not living well. As you know, we cut off aid to the Palestinians, something I don’t like to do, but we did that. And we think there is a very good chance theyre going to want this, Trump added later, calling the Palestinians great negotiators. I have no idea what they’re going to say would be, Oh, we don’t want anything. But in the meantime theyll be negotiating.
But while Trump struck an optimistic tone about the peace plan, he also appeared eager to manage expectations about it.
People have been working on this for many, many years. I think we are relatively close, but we have to get other people to agree with it all, Trump said, adding that many other Arab nations have agreed to the plan. Still, he said those same countries praised it as a big start.
It’s a fantastic thing if we can pull it off. They say it’s probably the most difficult deal anywhere and of any kind to make, the president said. In the business world when I was back in the business world, when a deal with stuff people would jokingly refer to it as, This is tougher than Israel and the Palestinians getting together. That’s what I’ve heard all my life. So we’ll see what happens.
He later told reporters that if the plan does succeed, it’ll be a tremendous tribute to everybody. If we don’t, life goes on.