President Trump told reporters on Wednesday evening his administration would likely reveal its plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace before an upcoming visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz to the White House this Tuesday.
“Sometime prior to [Tuesday]. Probably we’ll release it a little bit prior to that,” Trump said on Air Force One while flying back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “It’s a great plan. It’s a plan that really would work.”
While Israel’s Channel 12 carried reports of the plan’s details, Trump wrote on Twitter that “Reports about details and timing of our closely-held peace plan are purely speculative.”
According to Channel 12, the deal would grant Israel sovereignty throughout all of Jerusalem and in its settlements in the West Bank, while the Palestinians would be granted a state only if Hamas agrees to demilitarize and the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, with Jerusalem as its capital.
Nabil Abu Rudeinah, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, warned that if the reports were true, the plan would be completely unacceptable to the Palestinians.
“If this deal is announced according these rejected formulas, our leadership will announce a series of measures in which we safeguard our legitimate rights,” Abu Rudeinah said.
“Palestinians will hinder the implementation of the deal, whatever the price. It will trigger a new Intifada,” an official affiliated with Hamas wrote on Twitter.
Vice President Pence was in Jerusalem on Thursday for the World Holocaust Forum, Israel’s largest diplomatic gathering to date. During a meeting with the Vice President, Netanyahu commented that President Trump “seeking to give Israel the peace and security it deserves.”
The release of the Trump administration’s peace plan has been repeatedly delayed, after Israel held two inconclusive national elections within a year. Israel will head to a third round of elections in March.