Report: US official says Trump peace proposal won’t be the ‘Bibi plan’
American source tells Israeli TV the plan will be ‘fair, balanced, realistic and fitting,’ include components both Israelis, Palestinians will dislike
The US peace proposal won’t unfairly favor Israel over the Palestinians, Channel 10 reported on Wednesday, citing American officials familiar with the Trump administration’s efforts.
“Our peace plan won’t be the Bibi plan. It will be fair, balanced, realistic and fitting,” the report quoted a US official as saying, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The sources told the network there will be parts of the plan — which has yet to be unveiled — that both Israel and the Palestinians won’t like.
The report came after the White House earlier on Wednesday confirmed the US peace team will travel to Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia next week to promote their peace plan.
White House special adviser Jared Kushner and US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt will hold talks with regional leaders on when to present a Trump administration proposal, as well as to seek ideas on resolving the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, according to a Channel 10 report on Tuesday.
The tour comes amid a nadir in relations between the United States and the Palestinians, with the Palestinian Authority refusing to speak to Washington over the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the subsequent relocation of the US embassy to the city last month.
Adding to the tensions, Greenblatt is mired in a spat with top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who earlier this week accused the US envoy of parroting right-wing Israeli views.
No meetings with Palestinian officials have been scheduled so far during the tour. But a US official, who was not named in the Channel 10 TV report, said that if the Palestinians show willingness to meet the pair of US envoys, the American team would be open to a meeting.
Kushner — who is US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law — and Greenblatt are also looking for ideas on solving some of the remaining issues in the peace plan, the official said.
Trump wants to lock down the right timing to present the plan and is interested in feedback from neighboring countries, the official said.
The official also said that US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman’s return to Washington early in the week was not to prepare for presenting the peace plan but rather was a routine visit for general talks and to update Kushner and Greenblatt ahead of their trip to the region.
Regarding Gaza, the American official told the television channel that Washington has no clear plan for resolving the humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave and was therefore seeking Israeli and regional ideas.
Gaza faces shortages of electricity and drinkable water. Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on the Strip which they say is designed to prevent the Hamas terror group from importing weapons and other goods that could be used to build military equipment or cross-border tunnels.
The deteriorating living conditions have been cited by security officials as a major factor fueling violent clashes on Israel’s border with the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.
Israel has said the humanitarian situation will not improve until Hamas returns the bodies of two IDF soldiers and the two civilian captives it holds. It blames Hamas for the dire reality, charging the terror group with diverting millions in aid to purchase weapons, dig tunnels, manufacture rockets and train its military wing, instead of using it for the welfare of the people.
Gaza’s woes have been exacerbated by an ongoing dispute between Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which has cut the salaries it pays to workers in Gaza and imposed various sanctions, including cutting of payments for electricity supplies to the enclave.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ground to a halt in April 2014 and have been moribund ever since.
