Kushner's Proposal May Help Israel Annex West Bank
Skepticism about the Middle East peace plan drawn up by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law abounds, but even a failed effort may play into the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu.
While Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has revealed little about his long-awaited proposal, it’s widely expected to include increased Israeli control over the West Bank. For the hard-liners in Netanyahu’s coalition, the time is ripe with their ally Trump in the White House to seize more of the disputed territory regardless of whether the broader peace plan -- which the Palestinians have rejected in advance -- succeeds or fails.
Trump has called reaching a peace agreement the “deal of the century,” and announced Kushner’s lead role in it soon after his election in 2016. And while he’s said any peace proposal would require sacrifices from Israel, there’s been little sign of U.S. pressure on the Jewish state and the administration hasn’t deferred to Palestinian concerns in its moves so far.
Netanyahu doubled down on his call to extend sovereignty, saying on Twitter on Tuesday that West Bank lands “are not only a guarantee of Israel’s security -- they’re our patrimony.”
“The U.S. has adopted nearly every position espoused by this very right-wing Israeli government, and is even encouraging it to break international law,” Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, said in an interview in New York.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-22/even-trump-peace-plan-that-fails-may-help-israel-annex-west-bank?srnd=politics-vp
