Times of Israel
Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President and point man on Trump’s ‘peace plan’ says that it is aimed at helping Palestinians achieve what’s been ‘elusive to them for a long time’ without explicitly mentioning a Palestinian state nor even a vague endorsement of a two-state solution. Furthermore, what exactly he meant by ‘establishing borders’ remains as obscure as ever.
Israeli pundits have been split on whether Kushner’s interview was good news or bad news for Netanyahu. Some argued that the Trump administration ostensibly demanding Israeli concessions works in Netanyahu’s favor, because it affords him the perfect opportunity to portray himself as the only statesman with enough gravitas to withstand pressure from the White House.
Others disagreed, positing that the prime minister does not want the peace process to become a central issue of the election campaign, since he only has vague positions and little hope to offer in that area. Thus Kushner speaking at all, even vaguely and in what was evidently an effort to court Middle East support for the plan, was unhelpful to Netanyahu, in their opinion.
Kushner’s team says that it won’t release the peace plan before the April 9 election, but as of Monday it has become a major issue in the campaign, whether Netanyahu likes it or not.
Netanyahu’s position? No ‘Peace Deal’
In fact, the upcoming publication of Trump’s “deal of the century” (his aides loathe this term, knowing it would add to the disappointment if it fails) has prompted Netanyahu, at least for now, to end his longstanding ambiguity regarding his views on the two-state solution. Bottom line: He opposes it.
In a speech at Bar-Ilan University in 2009, Netanyahu, previously a steadfast opponent of Palestinian statehood, had for the first time declared his acceptance, in principle, of a demilitarized Palestinian state under certain conditions.
A few days before the March 2015 Knesset election however, he changed his tune, saying that no Palestinian state would come into being under his watch. Shortly after the polls closed, with victory secured, he backtracked and recommitted himself in principle to the idea of two states for two peoples.
After Trump was elected president in late 2017, however, he painstakingly avoided explicitly endorsing a two-state solution. When asked, he either replied that he wants the Palestinians to be able to govern themselves without having the power to threaten Israel; or that it depends on what kind of state we’re talking about: Yemen or Costa Rica?
But last Thursday, in a speech denouncing the freshly formed Lapid-Gantz alliance, Netanyahu explicitly condemned efforts to create a Palestinian state as a “terrible solution.” A government headed by Gantz and Lapid would soon promote a Palestinian state “on the outskirts of Tel Aviv,” he warned. “A Palestinian state will endanger our existence.”
Will he have the political capital to make the same sort of pronouncement once the Trump peace place comes out, assuming it endorses such a formula (and assuming he wins the elections)?
On Monday Kushner said that compromises will be required of both sides. “You have the Israeli position, you have the Palestinian position and the outcome has to be somewhere in the middle,” Kushner said.
But the administration saying anything at all, however vague, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is evidently enough to cause shock waves in pre-election Israel.
“On Monday Kusner said that compromises will be required of both sides. “You have the Israeli position, you have the Palestinian position and the outcome has to be somewhere in the middle,” Kushner said.”—Kushner
How is over 90% of the Palestinian people’s homeland and private properties being handed over to these European zionist Jew colonists considered any thing remotely as “somewhere in the middle”?
He means….
“Sweet little darling angel israel…. there is only a few acres left. Please please please for daddy. Be a good girl and perfect daughter you are and let the Palestinians have that back. We all know you don’t have to if you don’t want to but please as a special favor to daddy. Won’t you just let them keep a few little acres?”