It’s unclear how much Senior Advisor on Everything Jared Kushner was involved, considering his other Middle East activities, but Donald Trump is apparently close to rolling out his solution to the problem that has daunted every administration, and the world, for the last seventy years.
The Trump administration is putting the finishing touches on its long-awaited Middle East peace plan, three senior officials said on Sunday, and President Trump is likely to present it soon, despite risking swift rejection by the Palestinians and having already taken on another of the world’s thorniest disputes, with North Korea.
Any previous White House might think that getting one big piece of international policy across the finish line would be better than throwing more balls into the air. But Trump has run everything, not just his daily scandal, as a Gish Gallop, so it’s not surprising that he would toss this staggeringly complex issue onto the heap. And Trump seems extremely anxious to get this plan out. His team has dismissed previous attempts at bringing peace to Israel as limited to “broad strokes.” Instead, they’re built a “detailed blueprint” toward what Trump calls “the ultimate deal.” How detailed is this plan?
… they said it would not have a set of guiding principles ...
And …
… the plan will not call for a two-state solution as one of its goals …
And …
Nor will it call for a “fair and just solution” for Palestinian refugees ...
The detailed plan lacks guiding principles and doesn’t propose a Palestinian state or a right of return for refugees. That may be a plan, but it’s not a plan for peace.
At first glance, the plan seems like a proposal that peace be achieved through complete Palestinian surrender. It also seems that way at second glance.
The aides who wrote the plan — Jared Kushner, Jason D. Greenblatt and David M. Friedman — had no experience in diplomacy when they took up their jobs. Mr. Kushner is Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser; Mr. Greenblatt was the chief legal officer of the Trump Organization; and Mr. Friedman is a bankruptcy lawyer.
Nobody outside the administration has seen the document, officials said, though Mr. Kushner, Mr. Greenblatt and Mr. Friedman met for several hours with Mr. Netanyahu at Blair House, near the White House, last Sunday, the day before he met with Mr. Trump.
It could be argued that Kushner, Greenblatt and Friedman still have no experience in diplomacy. And if it seems like the plan is Israel gets everything, screw the Palestinians at second glance, it also seems that way at third glance.
The Palestinians remain furious over the president’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and they have refused White House entreaties to come back to the table. The administration is considering simply revealing the document, in the hopes that it will pressure the Palestinians to return.
The Trump plan: Israel gets Jerusalem, no two-state solution, no guarantee of fair treatment for refugees, no right of return, released without input from Palestinian representatives.
On Saturday, a senior Palestinian official, Ahmed Majdalani, said the Palestinians had turned down the White House’s invitation to attend the conference because America’s goal was to “liquidate the Palestinian national project.”
Trump officials say that the plan covers a lot of areas, and offers something for both sides.
Mr. Trump’s aides described a multipage document, with annexes, that proposes solutions to all the key disputes: borders, security, refugees and the status of Jerusalem. They predicted that the Israelis and the Palestinians would each find things in the plan to embrace and oppose.
But what could possibly be in the plan to offset what is not in the plan, is hard to understand.