Whatever happened to Jared Kushner's peace plan? [View all]

[DonViejo]

Opinion by David A. Andelman

Updated 7:31 PM ET, Fri May 14, 2021

(CNN) - Last year, former President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled their peace plan for the Middle East at the White House. Now, 16 months later, the question that begs to be asked is whether that plan has worked at all.

Initially, of course, it seemed like a colossal success. Though Palestinian representatives rejected the entire plan from the outset and refused to be involved in any aspect of its creation, two of Israel's longest-standing foes in the region, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, followed by Morocco and Sudan, reversed generations of hostility, opened diplomatic relations and eventually allowed commercial air flights.

Yet, from the get-go, there were some ominous signs. The plan, in what has become known as Jared Kushner's Vision for Peace -- a tribute to the efforts by the former President's son-in-law -- spelled out in a detailed map for Israel to halt expansion of any new settlement activity on a large swath of the West Bank without American consent, which Kushner affirmed would not be given "for some time." (However, the plan did allow Israel to annex its existing West Bank settlements -- in violation of international law.)

Indeed, a series of "talking points," which Kushner and the State Department cabled to all American embassies, and which Politico obtained and published, claimed that "Israel has agreed to comport its policies to this Vision for at least four years, including freezing all settlement activity in the West Bank in areas that this Vision designates for the future State of Palestine."

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/14/opinions/jared-kushner-peace-plan-israelis-palestinians-andelman/index.html