Settler leaders accuse Trump of ‘scamming’ Israel with peace plan

Settler leaders lash out at the Trump administration for seeking to “scam” Israel with its peace plan.

“Representatives of the US government are [trying to] sell Plan A under the guise of Plan B. There is no greater scam than this,” Yesha settlement umbrella council chairman David Elhayahi tells the Ynet news site, claiming that Washington is trying to use its support for annexation to force Israel to agree to the formation of a Palestinian state.

It is unclear why Elhayani speaks of two separate plans when both US support for Israeli annexation and the establishment of a non-contiguous Palestinian state if it meets a host of requirements are part of the single Trump peace plan.

US Ambassador David Friedman even said yesterday that the US was prepared to recognize Israeli annexation within weeks.

But Elhayani is not impressed. “Not for nothing is Ambassador Friedman not talking about [Israel accepting] a Palestinian state, but instead the ‘Trump plan.’ He knows that specifying this fact will cause public opposition,” Elhayani tells Ynet.

“We will not agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of the process of [enacting Israeli] sovereignty [in the West Bank]. Sovereignty is important to Israel’s security, but it is not worth damaging even a centimeter of the State of Israel and establishing a terror state in the heartland of the country,” adds Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan.

Ultimately, settler leaders will have to reconcile with the recently inked unity deal between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Gantz, which allows the Likud leader to begin advancing legislation on annexation — but within the context of the Trump plan and its envisioning of the establishment of a semi-autonomous Palestinian state — starting on July 1.