Ilan Goldenberg's comments about Jared's plan, you'll have to click the link to look at the plan. He knows a little bit about the Middle East.
1. I'm starting to look at this document. it might have sounded nice but it’s all about the details and many of the ideas are absolute non-starters. As I find key things I will post them.
https://whitehouse.gov/wp-content/up...erity-0120.pdf
2. Jerusalem: non-starter. Israel will have an undivided capital in “Jerusalem” but Palestinians will also have a capital in “Eastern Jerusalem.” There are a lot of parts that Israel calls “Jerusalem” that Palestinians don’t consider “Jerusalem.”
3. What this plan is doing is basically saying use the barrier built by Israel as it currently exists, which includes some Palestinian neighborhoods that Israel has renamed Jerusalem. But no old city. And many of the key Arab neighborhoods won’t be in it.
4. Here is the map they are proposing that supposedly allows for “contiguity.” Biggest problem is that by taking the entire Jordan River Valley the new Palestinian “State” is entirely surrounded by Israel.
5. Second, this map simplifies Israeli settlements and ignores all the outposts. It will be more invasive then laid out here.
6. Also, the swap areas they are giving the Palestinians is a bunch of desert entirely disconnected from the rest of their state while taking prime real estate in the middle of the West Bank.
7. Refugees. Not even a symbolic number return to Israel. Some compensation fund wrapped in very condescending langauge and an argument that most of the compensation should come through the Trump economic plan.
8. The refugee issue is deeply symbolic so to say In The first sentence “no right of return or absorption of any Palestinian refugee into the state of Israel” is quite a statement. Anathema to Palestinians. could have found more artful language if they talked to Palestinians...
9. Security: Israel gets to decide when the occupation will end (I.e. never). There are security criteria set by Israel. If Palestinian security forces meet those criteria than Israel will pull back from an area in Palestine. Israel alone decides if the criteria have been met.
10. That is a recipe for a permanent occupation. In a report we wrote in 2016 based on John Allen’s work we put out a proposal for how to do this in a way where the US can mediate between the parties on conditions for withdrawal.
11. If you put it in Israel’s hands it will never happen. And if you don’t include a clear notional timeline it’s a recipe for permanent occupation.
12. the plan calls for Israel to hold the Jordan River Valley permanently for security. But as our report lays out, there are straightforward security solutions that do not require that and it comes at a huge economic cost to Palestinians.
13. If there is a deal between Israel and the PLO Israel doesn’t have to implement ANY of it until Gaza is not controlled by Hamas. I understand not implementing any Gaza terms but this is a massive loophole.
14. A couple final points. The plan is just deeply deeply condescending to Palestinians and uses insensitive language all over the place. It reads as it was written by a bunch of Americans who never talked to a Palestinian about its content, which is exactly what happened.
15. And the rollout was gross. Lots of Israelis, American Jews, evangelicals, financial supporters. But no Palestinians. Just a truly embarrassing situation.