Trump’s “Deal of the Century”: a stillborn plan for legalized apartheid

Posted by by United World International January 30, 2020 12 Min Read

US President Donald Trump finally unveiled his “deal of the century,” a plan which he claims will help resolve the “eternal conflict” between Israel and Palestine by dividing them into two separate states. As the details of the deal will make apparent, the opinion of the Palestinians was not taken into account in the creation of the agreement.

Trump’s plan (also known as “Kushner’s plan” after the president’s son-in-law who drafted it) is a continuation of his Israeli policy which has been consistent from the very beginning of his time in office. His extremely pro-Israel policies have included the transfer of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as an Israeli city, approval of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights and intensified rhetoric against a number of Arab and Muslim countries. The murder of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps leader Qasem Soleimani was perhaps the apotheosis of Trump’s definitively Zionist position.

The visualization of Trump’s new plan makes all of this abundantly clear:

According to Trump’s plan, Jerusalem will stay “united and remain the capital of Israel, while the capital of the State of Palestine will be Al-Quds and will include areas of East Jerusalem.”

In his proposal, Trump also imposes the following on Palestine:

“President Trump secured agreement from both Prime Minister Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz to come to Washington, where they agreed to use this Vision as a basis for negotiation,” a White House statement reads.

Part of the idea includes raising funds from all over the world: Trump himself has promised that the US will contribute $50 billion.

Palestinian Arabs have four years to accept the offer from the American and Israeli authorities.

The problem is that the Palestinians will not agree to it under any conditions; and it is easy to understand why.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas firmly rejected the Trump administration’s plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Tuesday, calling it the “the slap of the century.”

“We say a thousand times: No, no and no to the ‘deal of the century,’” Abbas said. “If God wills, we will strike them back with slaps,” he added

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat also threatened to withdraw from the Oslo agreement if Trump’s plan is implemented:

The dehumanizing face of imperialism

It is common in both left and right wing political circles to see Trump as an exceptional president, Israeli anti-globalist activist Daniel Elsohn told UWI.

“In fact, that is far from the truth. He had some impressive achievements (while Obama had funded ISIS, Trump got rid of Al-Baghdadi) and horrible decisions (such as the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem), but in his essence he still serves US imperial interests. Since the founding of the state of Israel, the imperialists have used it as the front of their ideas in the Middle East and North Africa region, promoting it as a ‘western safe-haven’ in the ‘barbaric east.’ This is a chauvinist viewpoint that goes hand in hand with their Atlanticist agenda,” Elsohn said.

“Trump is again echoing these ideas by offering to ‘solve’ the conflict by turning Israel into an apartheid state, rather than just a military occupation as it has been until now… this is ment to be a permanent solution,” he added.

According to Elsohn, this shows the “dehumanizing face of Imperialism” and proves once and for all that Donald Trump is not an anti-establishment figure but rather another servant of Atlanticist forces.

“Only an end to Zionism and reactionary forces and a solution that will guarantee the respectful living and national self-determination of Christians, Muslims and Jewish people in the region can bring peace,” the activist said.

“The best thing the US can do is to withdraw its support.”

President Trump’s “plan” for peace in the Middle East is nothing more than a thinly cloaked expression of Israel’s imperialist ambitions in Palestine and the region at large, American journalist Donald Courter told UWI.

“No Palestinian organizations voiced their support for the plan and its drafting was even boycotted by them. Arabs all over the Middle East have voiced their discontent with Washington’s continued intrusion into the regions affairs. The best thing the US can do is to withdraw its support from the Israeli settler state,” he added.

A stillborn plan

UWI analyst Onur Guzaltan also commented on the plan, calling Trump and Netanyahu’s Middle East plan dead on arrival:

“Neither Palestinian resistance organisations nor other states of region will accept this plan,” Guzaltan stressed. “The announcement of this plan by US and Israel is a call for new conflicts in the region.”

According to the Turkish expert, the imperialists have two main goals:

1. To provoke Iran using the Palestine conflict

2. To keep the region destabilized in order to obstruct/block the entrance of Russia and China into the Middle East.

“When we analyse this plan, let’s not forget that Trump and Netanyahu are both faced with a difficult situation domestically. New conflicts/wars will help them to strengthen their position inside of their countries,” Guzaltan said.

An American-Israeli project

Among the countries of the Middle East, Iran has the toughest position on Donald Trump’s plan. Iran has not recognized Israel as a sovereign State since 1979 and considers it a “criminal occupier regime.” Tehran harshly criticizes “Deal of the Century,” and Trump himself.

According to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the American version of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is doomed to failure and is a “crime against humanity.”

Mohammad Javad Zarif called the “Deal of the Century” the fantasy of a bankruptcy-ridden real estate developer.

Mani Mehrabi, a senior international affairs analyst and Faculty member at the Think tank of International Relations (Tehran, Iran), commented on the deal for UWI:

“Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz in the Oval Office before all these events shows that Trump is trying to turn “Deal of the Century” into a national plan for the Israelis and topple the political monopoly of the right in this country.”

According to Mehrabi, the United States wants to make sure that whoever wins the next elections in Israel will support this plan. He recalled that according to Ganz, Trump has obviously succeeded:

Trump’s statements that the Palestinians “must accept” this plan and his hopes for its early implementation in the next few weeks have raised fears that Netanyahu will implement it without any agreement or coordination with the Palestinians, the expert explained.

Mehrabi emphasized that Trump’s plan is contrary to Security Council resolutions. More importantly, Trump says his plan focuses on Palestinians who do not support “terrorism.” With this loaded word, Trump is actually referring to organizations such as Hamas and the Al-Quds Brigades, which, in fact, provide security for the Palestinians. In other words, Trump has formally asked the Palestinians to abandon the military forces that provide security for them against Israeli aggression. One can only speculate what crimes the Israeli IDF and Mossad will commit if they are not met with any military response.

Mehrabi says that Trump’s Plan is an American-Israeli project that serves only the personal interests of the two politicians at the helm of these countries. In his assessment, Trump, who has not made a significant contribution to international politics or helped the US’ reputation in the world, needs these kind of drastic actions to secure the votes of the Zionist lobby in the 2020 elections and to distract from the ongoing impeachment procedure.

Benjamin Netanyahu is in a similar situation. The Israeli Prime Minister is currently facing domestic legal proceedings accusing him of corruption and abuse of office. Netanyahu’s credibility has been undermined by this case, which is why he needs the deal to gain “political points” ahead of the next elections, the expert explained.

Given the situation, the only correct decision is to adopt Ayatollah Khamenei’s plan, which Mehrabi summarized as holding a general referendum in which the Palestinians will decide their own fate without any third party interference.

Unfortunately, strong globalist elites, both inside Israel and in Arab countries such as Oman, the UAE and Bahrain, also support the plan, which is somewhat expected given that these states are essentially satellites of the US-aligned globalist structures in the Middle East. Representatives from all of these countries attended Trump’s press conference where he announced the Deals of the Century and applauded the American president while expressing their countries support for the US’ plan.

The plan will ignite the flames of hatred toward the United States

The “Deal of the Century” is one-sided and exclusively in Israel’s interest. The Palestinians are being given an ultimatum, and have been given no voice in drafting of the agreement. Trump and Netanyahu’s idea is nothing short of legalized apartheid.

Not only will it not resolve the conflict in the long run, it will further ignite a flame of hatred towards the United States on the international stage – especially in Arab and Muslim communities. In addition, the reaction of a number of countries that supported the Trump’s Plan (such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc.) shows that even some Arab states are ready to betray their people and convictions under pressure from the Americans.

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