Israel Will Vote Sunday To Annex West Bank Lands Delineated In Trump's 'Peace Plan'
Immediately following Trump's unveiling details of his 'deal of the century' Mideast peace plan alongside Israeli PM Netanyahu at the White House, Netanyahu announced that Israel will move forward to vote Sunday to annex some 30% of all West Bank territory.
Netanyahu said that "Israel will apply its laws to the Jordan Valley and to the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria." This means a million or so Palestinian residents could come under Israeli rule, which sparked a fierce backlash both internationally and among some members of US Congress.
"This is not a peace plan. It is theft. It is erasure," Left-wing congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweeted following Trump and Netanyahu's midday remarks.
It was immediately seen by many pundits as setting up Israeli hardliners for a big land grab which concedes all to Israel without even consulting the Palestinian side on the 'deal', per The Washington Post:
The package is expected to propose a redrawn border between Israel and the West Bank that would formalize Israeli control over large Jewish settlements. It would give U.S. blessing to some forms of Israeli security control over the territory Israel seized in 1967 and has occupied since, according to two people familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the plan’s release.
Another Democrat, Michigan representative Andy Levin, slammed the plan for not in reality being a "two-state solution" - instead he noted it's "in name only".
"Don't be fooled," Rep. Levin wrote on Twitter. The proposed plan not is not promising "a lasting peace that will protect Israel's future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people or fulfill Palestinians’ aspirations for self-determination," he said.
Aside from Hamas and the Palestinian Authority under Abbas immediately rejecting the plan to which they were not privy, nor had any negotiating role (after already declaring it would be dead on arrival), Turkey was among the first internationally to condemn it.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry called it "still-born" and further described it as "an annexation plan aiming to destroy the two-state solution and seize Palestinian territories."
"The people and land of Palestine cannot be bought off," the foreign ministry statement added.
It also appears there won't be much support at the UN for the new plan: "U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the United Nations remains committed to supporting Palestinians and Israelis in resolving their conflict on the basis of U.N. resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements," the AP reports.
Referencing the the pre-1967 borders, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, “The position of the United Nations on the two-State solution has been defined, throughout the years, by relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions by which the Secretariat is bound.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-will-vote-sunday-annex-west-bank-lands-delineated-trumps-peace-plan