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Trump peace plan delights Israelis but enrages Palestinians

The US president called his plan a ‘win-win’ for both Israel and the Palestinians.

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US president Donald Trump has unveiled his long-awaited Middle East plan, winning immediate praise from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu but a swift rejection from the Palestinians, who called it “nonsense”.

Mr Trump’s plan calls for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, but it falls far short of minimal Palestinian demands and would leave sizable chunks of the occupied West Bank in Israeli hands.

Mr Trump called his plan a “win-win” for both Israel and the Palestinians, and Mr Netanyahu called it a “great plan for Israel”.

“We say 1,000 noes to the deal of the century,” Mr Abbas said, using a nickname for Mr Trump’s proposal.

“We will not kneel and we will not surrender,” he said, adding that the Palestinians would resist the plan through “peaceful, popular means”.

With Mr Netanyahu standing beside him, Mr Trump presented the plan at a White House ceremony filled with other Israeli officials and allies.

The ceremony came amid Mr Trump’s impeachment trial and a US election year, and after Mr Netanyahu was indicted on counts of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in three separate cases.

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Benjamin Netanyahu called it a ‘great plan for Israel’ (Alex Brandon/AP)

The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for an independent state and the removal of more than 700,000 Israeli settlers from these areas.

Under the terms of the “peace vision” that Mr Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has been working on for nearly three years, all settlers would remain in place, and Israel would retain sovereignty over all of its settlements as well as the strategic Jordan Valley.

The proposed Palestinian state would also include more than a dozen Israeli “enclaves” with the entity’s borders monitored by Israel.

Mr Trump acknowledged that he has done a lot for Israel, but he said he wanted the deal to be a “great deal for the Palestinians”.

He said his vision gives the Palestinians the time needed for them to meet the challenges of statehood.

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Protesters wave their national flag while burning tyres during a protest against the US peace plan (Adel Hana/AP)

But Mr Netanyahu clarified later that this only applied to areas where there are no settlements and Israel has no immediate plans to annex, and that he considered the plan to impose no limitations on construction.

Thousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza City ahead of the announcement, burning pictures of Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu and raising a banner reading “Palestine is not for sale”.

Mr Trump said he sent a letter to Mr Abbas to tell him that the territory that the plan has set aside for a new Palestinian state will remain open and undeveloped for four years.

“President Abbas, I want you to know, that if you chose the path to peace, America and many other countries … we will be there to help you in so many different ways. And we will be there every step of the way,” Mr Trump said.

The plan envisions a future Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank and Gaza, connected by a combination of roads and tunnels.

It also would give small areas of southern Israel to the Palestinians as compensation for lost West Bank land.

But the many caveats, and ultimate overall Israeli control, made the deal a non-starter for the Palestinians.

Mr Netanyahu and his main political challenger in March elections, Benny Gantz, had signed off on the plan.

“Mr President, because of this historic recognition and because I believe your peace plan strikes the right balance where other plans have failed,” Mr Netanyahu said.

“I’ve agreed to negotiate peace with the Palestinians on the basis of your peace plan. It’s a great plan for Israel. It’s a great plan for peace.”

Egypt, the first Arab country to reach a peace deal with Israel, urged Israelis and Palestinians to carefully study the plan. The European Union also said it needed to study it more closely.

Officials said they expected Gulf Arab states like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others to cautiously welcome the plan.

Arab League chief, Ahmed Abuel-Gheit said the Palestinian reaction would define the Arab response. He spoke after meeting with Palestinian official Jibril Rajoub at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

The reaction of Jordan, which would retain its responsibilities over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque under the plan, is particularly significant, according to officials, who said Mr Kushner and others were reaching out to Arab leaders ahead of the rollout.

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