January 27, 2020
We Know Peace Plans—This Isn’t One of Them
As two former members of the U.S. negotiating team on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we are deeply skeptical about the peace plan that U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly plans to present to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week. Coming at a time when Trump needs a distraction from the impeachment proceedings and Netanyahu is himself struggling with corruption charges, the timing of the road map is highly dubious.
Also rendering the plan a farce is that one of the parties to the conflict—the Palestinians—have not been engaged on the substance of the proposal and have, in fact, refused to meet with the Trump administration for over two years. It is nonsensical to expect them to go along with a deal written by someone who tried to give away their capital, closed the 175-year-old U.S. diplomatic mission to their people, closed down the Palestinians’ own mission in Washington, and severed all financial ties. This is not a way to set the grounds for a serious diplomatic process.
Read the full article in Foreign Policy.
More from CNAS
-
Biden Can Keep the Two-State Solution Alive
Commentary
Small details matter a great deal—and they have the potential to become big international headaches....
By Ilan Goldenberg
-
Can Gaza be rehabilitated without aiding Hamas?
Video
The bombs may have stopped falling on Gaza and the rocket fire from there has ceased for now, but Gazans face a huge task of rebuilding. Ilan Goldenberg, director of the Middl...
By Ilan Goldenberg
-
Sharper: Israeli-Palestinian Diplomacy
Commentary
In recent days, Israel and Palestine have been overcome by the worst violence since the 2014 Gaza war. This flare-up poses the first real test to the Biden administration’s fo...
By Anna Pederson, Dania Torres & Kaleigh Thomas
-
Israeli-Palestinian conflict tests Biden team
Podcast
Pressure is building for President Joe Biden to do more to try to halt Israel’s assault on Gaza. Ilan Goldenberg, former chief of staff to the US special envoy for Israeli-Pal...
By Ilan Goldenberg
